Rating Reviews on MouthShut

RATING REVIEWS ON MouthShut

Rating reviews per se is not so difficult.

If my old school English Grammar and Composition teacher were to rate reviews on MouthShut for content, style, grammar and so on, 30 percent of the reviews would end up as ?NOT USEFUL?, 60 percent ?SOMEWHAT USEFUL?, 6 percent as ?USEFUL? and only 4 percent as ?VERY USEFUL?. This is how she would rate reviews and I am talking about reviews written by smart writers not the run of the mill types. Let me tell you my teacher was trained in Britain, was white (many convent schools in 1950?s had white teachers), she was very knowledgeable and knew the English language very well. She was a first class teacher too.

Thank heavens, the readers and members at MS are not like that teacher.

However, as a I went along with time on MS, I realized that rating reviews is not so simple. There are big players out there like Bulls and Bears and Sharks who are very sharp and street smart! Make a wrong move and they will roast you like a pig. I did get roasted many times in my early days due to my impulsive ways.

But I learned. I also learned that rating reviews on MouthShut is intrinsically linked with Writing Reviews on MouthShut!

That means you have to factor many things before you click or touch the keyboard.

A. The Writer: The more established the writer the more difficult it becomes to rate the review. After reading a review written by a STAR, you will see dozens who have rated the review ?VU?. Now the problem is if you differ and do not like the review, genuinely feel it is over rated, will you press the NU button? Fat chance!! Chances are you will just press the VU button and move out fast. The matter becomes complicated if the writer is female and a well-known writer. So, are you the one who moves with the herd or stand out as a Lone Ranger? If you do stand out, then are you willing to justify your ?NU? rating in the comment page with your guns blazing? Okay you may do it once, pull out your Smith n Wesson and put solid comments. Do it oftener and you will also get shot back! Not only by the reviewer but his/her peer group too and others.

Survival skills are best learned on MouthShut. I have been guilty of crimes of improper ratings and comments and reviews too and have got hit hard, mostly for the right reasons, sometimes, rarely for wrong reasons.

Be careful here and justify your ratings should it be SU or NU. Do it smartly in your comments and you might open an interesting debate. My teacher would have done here brilliantly. She always left great comments in red ink pen, at the end of each Essay.

B. The Politics of Ratings: Don?t believe anyone who says there is no politics here. Year 2004, it is much much less. But year 2002 and early 2003, it had reached gutter levels just like our desi politics. I came to know about the politics of Ratings by reading old reviews and comments of many good writers/reviewers. Believe me, even to this day, it is very important to be politically correct when rating reviews.

C. The Power to M2M: This M2M is a very powerful tool used by many members to get solid ratings and comments. Sometimes I get a SU for a review from a member followed by M2M.. He says ? Edit your review and I will re rate it.? Then I reply back saying why I wrote what I wrote. Suddenly the rating changes to VU!! At times I rate a review SU and get an M2M from a very powerful writer. ?Why you did that? See so many have rated VU.? Then I reply ?Sorry, forgive me, have changed rating to VU.? This is also part of the politics. Only there are no formal groups labeled like BJP/Congress, but there are such groups. Which is not bad really.

PINK DADDY BLUE MUMMY

Now here is a case I want to discuss. Say I have seen a movie ? Pink Daddy Blue Mummy? (PDBM). I did not like the movie because I do not like Pink Daddies. On MS, I read a review on PDBM by say Yellow Man who writes a super review and says the movie is very bad. I rate it VU because I agree with him. Now another review on PDBM by Red Woman who writes a brilliant review but says the movie is super duper.

Question: Should I rate it NU? But how can I, when Red Woman has written a super review, only that I did not like the movie and she did.. Conflict! For reasons unknown to me I rate VU and leave a comment to say I do not agree. But inside my head, I want to rate it NU but do not.

BEFORE YOU START TO RATE REVIEWS PLEASE??.

There are many good reviews on Rating reviews, written by very well meaning writers. I recommend to new players, do read those reviews by <SUYOG, I < Diskkonet, Madlaya, Mehlak1, It, Did Just>to name a few, before you start to rate reviews here on Mouthshut.