I am close to three months old at Mouthshut and the experience so far, I must say, has been exhilarating. Where else can you find many like-minded people expressing their views in a total democratic setup! Mouthshut actually validates our constitutional right of freedom of speech. But this review is not about Mouthshut in general – that sometime in future.
So far I have written 436 comments. I am still a novice at writing a comment or a review here. Still, I am going to venture into expressing my thoughts on commenting. There are 25 other reviews on this topic – where people put emphasis on whether one should comment or not. Very seldom does a reviewer put weight on the substance of the comment.
Purpose:
What exactly is the purpose of having the Comments section? I believe the purpose is to induce a healthy debate on the subject matter of the review. A reviewer reviews a product by sharing his/her thoughts backed by his/her experience. The comments section provides an opportunity to the reader to express his/her opinion on the review and the product.
There can be two instances…
(1) The reader has already experienced the product: In this case, the reader can share his/her experience and/or whether the review in anyway helped him think through his/her current position.
(2) The reader has not experienced the product: In this case, the reader can comment whether review provided him/her with ample information to make an educated decision. If not, the reader should list the aspects that, according to him/her, were missing in the review.
In any healthy debate, a debater puts forward his/her point of view. The other debater offers rebuttal. The first debater has an opportunity to answer the rebuttal. Is the Comments section strictly analogous to a debate! I do not think so. But the ultimate purpose of the debate and comments section is the same – to educate one of different aspects of an issue / product to help him make a decision.
The comment:
While commenting on the review, one should strictly adhere to
(1) The review
(2) The product
I can better explain it by giving hypothetical examples…
Example 1:
A reviewer reviews a food product - say a type of spice. To drive his/her point home, he/she will most probably share his/her personal experience using the spice. The personal experience will have a food item that he/she used the spice in. And rest of the review tells you about the product and its pros and cons. While commenting on the review, a reader should talk about the spice mainly, and whether the review enlightened his/her knowledge or not. If it did what it is and if it did not, what the review was lacking.
Example 2:
A reviewer reviews a paint brand. Now he/she is no technical czar to know A to Z of technical aspect of paint. But he/she still wants to share his/her opinion and judgment. To support his/her opinion he/she shares his/her experience about the color in the different rooms, the quality of the paint and what he/she thought of it on the whole. Go to the comments section, most comments will relate to her experience, her family and something which is completely foreign to the purpose of the review.
Personal talk in the comments section should be limited to personal experience with the reviewed product or its competitors. A slight off-the-subject talk is okay but talking something completely out of sync with the review should be avoided. There are options like M2M for personal talk. I do not thing comments section is a proper forum to do so. If you find M2M too slow and unreliable, exchange the email addresses. The problem with personal talk is that the comments section sometimes goes completely haywire and reviewer’s effort goes into vain.
Comment on the reviews not the reviewer:
More often than not, people end up commenting on the reviewer. The reason is some members here have preconceived notions and grudge against fellow members and sometime it comes out in open. Why do you want to let the whole world know what you think of a particular member! If you want the reviewer to know – use M2M. After all it is the review that matters, why should it matter as to who has written it.
The most irresponsible is to comment about an X reviewer in the review written by Y reviewer. You may think it makes your position as a bold and blunt person – unfortunately it more or less appears idiotic.
Personal attacks in the comments section should be a big no no. Personal attack often results in a vitriolic and abusive comment. Comments section is not a battleground where you settle score with someone. To vent poison in comments section is as bad as writing an abusive review.
To avoid such situation, one must leave his/her ego in refrigerator while reading, rating and commenting a review. It creates a win-win situation. While ego will lose a bit of its heat in the fridge, you will be able to judge and comment a review in a fair and balance manner.
To the best of my knowledge, Mouthshut is a democratic forum, run by a set of TOS. If you believe that a member is violating TOS, report it to the MS team. They are highly qualified individual who know the difference between right and wrong, definitely more than you and me.
Responding to the Readers’ Comments:
I remember this was a hot topic about a month ago. Some members alleged that individual responses were invented just to showcase high number of comments. I personally favour individual responses because it gives me personal satisfaction of honoring a reader’s effort in writing a comment on my review. And when I write a comment, it becomes comparatively easy to find a response among bunch of comments.
In any case, why should the number of comments be a parameter of quality! What is more important? Quality or quantity? And if you are really desperate to receive high number of comments, you need to make an effort to read others’ reviews and leave comments. If you do not have time to comment others’ reviews, well bluntly speaking others might not have time to leave a comment for you.
Conclusion:
Let’s make comments section a worthwhile place to indulge an educated, healthy and intellectual debate (or discussion) that results in some core and worthwhile result.