This is my 25th review so a bit of a milestone for me although many of you have written tons more. So I thought this would be a fitting category to write this review in.
I got some great advice when I first started writing from a member suggesting that I leave comments as often as possible. Why I wondered? I had been reading and rating and I was new so thought that was the main idea.
Sometimes I was not sure what to say in a comment. Then I started reading what others wrote in theirs and seen that it was just a simple comment in most cases of how well you liked the review. I also had many people leave me comments and it made me feel good. It was encouraging to actually see people say they enjoyed what I wrote. It spurred me on to write more and now I understand the reason for leaving comments.
If I am reading several by the same person at once then I usually only leave a comment on one or two of their reviews because of time and the desire to want to read more of what they wrote.
I do feel if you have given someone a low rating that a comment is appropriate as to why. This will help the person to understand more how to write. I personally have never rated under a useful. I have read some that should get a lower rating but I hate to make a person feel bad so what I do is after reading it, I leave a comment as to why it was not rated and that if the person decides to rewrite it or put more detail in that I will then be glad to come back and rate it. So in this case I always leave a comment for the writer.
Sometimes my comments may only be very short and I do not say too much as others have said just about everything there is to say about the review.
It is nice though to at least let the person know you were there by leaving something as often as time allows.
I am having a wonderful experience on Mouthshut and have found most of the people to be a great help in leaving comments or sending me advice with a m2m e-mail. I try to leave more of a comment to new people as others have done for me to encourage them to keep writing.
Never give a very useful if you do not feel that person wrote a review that deserves that. I do not look to see what others have rated I just rate what I feel it is worth and for those as I said that I can not honestly give at least a useful to then I do not rate but leave a longer comment.
I just also would like to thank everyone for being so nice and leaving comments that have been very useful to me.