I have not been an active user, but I have bumped into MS links when I was looking for buying some products and wanted to know user feed back on the same.
So, my primary purpose of visiting this site is find out about a given product/service quality.In that context, the ratings given for a product by Mouthshut is not fully reflexitive of the reality because the reviews and ratings are consolidated for the entire timeline. Due to this, a product or service which had good ratings in the initial years/months but is doing pathetically in the recent times is still shown with a positive ratings.
The trend of ratings month on month (year on year) will be useful for the consumers. For example, I will be making my buying decision on how a product/service is performing in the recent past rather than how best it performed a year back or two years back.
For eg, Inspite of no. of postings highlighting the pathetic and hopeless nature of HSBC bank service and products (HSBC Card), the overall product rating was three stars because of the no. of positive ratings a year or two back.
Hope the mouthshut team would look into this problem and correct this anomaly.
Thanks,
-Sriram