Mouthshut is one of the best sites I have come across however I have a few suggestions to make … which I guess might make mouthshut an even better site.
1) How about introducing a new section - recently edited reviews. Just as there is a recent review section there should be a recently edited reviews section also. This section should make all members update their reviews. For example, I have already submitted my review on mouthshut.com, however I am submitting it again… not editing my previous review. Why submit reviews again and not just edit the previous review?
Let me explain this point with the help of an example. Suppose tomorrow bazee.com comes under a new management and improves. (a distinct possibility, but just for the sake of an example…). Some member who has already submitted a review is impressed with the changes and decides to edit his/her review, describing the changes. How many people would read it?
I submitted my review on Imesh. Two days after submitting my review I downloaded the next version. One of the major drawbacks in the previous program had been rectified in the new version. I edited my review with this new information and submitted it. From the time I submitted the edited review till this day I think only one more member has read the edited review!
Just as there are software updates there should be review updates.
So I think there should be a “Recently Edited Review” section. There could be limits on whether the edited review should be included in this section or not. If just some spelling mistakes are corrected then this review should not be included in this section. An edition of atleast 50 words or so in the previous review should classify the review to be included in this section.
2) I have read more than 160 reviews on this site. I don’t remember all the articles, which I have read. Sometimes I open reviews already read by me (unknowingly) and get frustrated to see the highlighted line “you have highly recommended this review”. How about having a new column after “opinion rating” named “your rating”. This column will indicate whether a particular article has been read or rated by a member. This will avoid members opining reviews already read by them.
3) It should be made mandatory to place a comment if a member is “not recommending” a review. I read many reviews some of them are very well written and majority of the people “highly recommend” it. However there are a few members who don’t give a good rating to such reviews. I really wonder what possibly could be wrong and why they have given a bad rating to it. So comments should be submitted so that other members and even the writer could know the reason for the low rating.
4) If review on some site is written then there should a link on that very page to visit that site. For example, for a review on yahoo there should be a link on the same page to visit yahoo site. Now I don’t quite know the formalities involved in this procedure but I wonder which site would mind getting more visitors!
Well that’s all from my side… Faisal…Aarti, what do you think…is any of my suggestion worth including???