Hi,
I have been a member of this community for the past 26 months. When I started off, I wrote a few reviews and based on the encouraging support from the all the MS members and especially the administators of MS (Aarti), I continued writing reviews after a brief hibernation. In an endeavour to make this site better and general thoughts (not criticism) on the members, I am writing this review. I strictly oppose the idea of singling out members, thus generalising my thoughts on the members as a whole:
Single review: I am not able to write more than one review for a single product. I do understand that I cannot have contradicting reviews about the same product, but still this is a factor of time. For instance: a product/service when launched in very good but over a period time may have detoriated. I am aware that the review can be edited, but there is no way I can write a revised opinion on the same product keeping the original review intact.
Ratings: The ratings to be assigned to reviews are very ambigious. Very few raters understand (not sure about myself) what the ratings are all about. I am very suprised to find from various comments that some raters are of the view that ratings are for: whether they agree with the review and the recommendation whereas some feel that ratings are assigned based on the writing skills of the reviewers and some based on whether the review information is useful or not. I rate based on the information and the message the reviewer is trying to carry, if the information is well received and comprehensive I rate the review as ’’Very Useful’’.
I have very often come across raters who are overly impressed upon the length and/ or language of the review than the content of the review. Short reviews written in lucid language generally do not get an overall rating of ’’Very Useful’’, though the content if well covered. The length of the review also depends on the product reviewed unless the reviewer digress from the reviewed product. For instance if I review ’’Tata Tea’’, I can only a brief history, the taste, aroma, cost, availibility....which will not even be 1000 characters.
Some raters are overall influenced by the existing rating, unless the reviews are on the ’’5 Best reviewers of Mouthshut’’ or like topics. Many raters are very hesitant to rate a review above or below the average rating.
For some raters the reviews are always Good and for some always Bad (Grrrr......). Some raters rate a review as ’’Very Useful’’ irrespective of the product, writing style, comprehensiveness etc..... some are notorious to rate very review ’’Somewhat Useful’’ or below....come what may!!!
Some raters are toooo ’’Banner Stuck-up’’..... I agree with this, if a review is written under a completely different head....but at the same time it is not feasible to request for a new product all the time. For instance I had earlier written a review on the ’’Dabbawalas of Mumbai’’ under the ’’General Mumbai Banner’’ for which one of the rater rated this as ’’Not Useful’’ since the choice of the heading was wrong.....isn’t this ridiculous. Here again raters tend to forget what they are rating?
Star Writer: It is quite dissappointing that some reviewers are sooo good and still do not appear as a Star Writer for a flimsy reason of their photo not uploaded. It is a personal choice and not a means of becoming a Star Choice. Also a reviewer becoming a Star Writer depends on the whims and fancies of the other reviewers (Distrusted Members do not qualify for a Star Writer status).
Interpersonal Clashes: In the past couple of months, there have been interpersonal clashes, where members are all out alleging each other....interpreting and challeging the intelligence of the other reviewer(s). This leads to a personal bias who never manages to achieve a decent overall rating and attracts wrath of reviewers by placing that member in Distrust List.
Free Format Current Events heading: I strongly feel that there has to be a heading for Current Events which does not fit under any of the current headings. There is so much happening on the political front, social front etc......which calls for this heading.
Email Alerts: Oflate there has been a problem with the email alerts.... I think and hope that this problem has been rectified.
The above identified are strictly constructive criticism and not to ’’bad-mouth’’ the site and its members. Nevertheless, personally I am love Mouthshut.com and its wonderful members.
Any comments/Views.
Vijay