To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. -- Elbert Hubbard
A drama critic is a person who surprises the playwright by informing him what he meant. -- Wilson Mizner
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INTRODUCTION
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Mouthshut is a wonderful phenomenon, for its user friendliness. One thing that makes MS different is the rating criteria; the way the rated reviews are used for various SORTing internally as well as crowd-pleasing.
Rating makes a personal appeal to many of us, whether we like it or not. After all, we are humans and many of the reviewers really love to see how others rate their product (i.e, the review).
Rating is a double-edged sword. A Sword needs to be handled effectively and delicately with care. This is the feature of MS that causes so many frictions, revenge rating, DL & TL lists and it goes on. What do I feel about Rating in MS? Well, Read on.
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MY OBSERVATIONS
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During my association with MS so far, I have noticed the following things happen. This is solely based on my observation and you may agree/disagree with these points.
Vast majority of the members of MS are Honest in their rating. They see the worth of the opinion and see how well the review is written and rate.
There are a particular sect of members who always HR or SR/R many of the reviews, irrespective of their worth. I have seen some senior members doing this, thus making this feature an obsolete one, in their perspective. (This may be a ploy of marketing).
There is this sect of members who HR all the reviews of those who trust them or HR their review and vice versa.
There is this sect of members who read and not rate, even though they think the review deserved a “HR”, “R” in their opinion may be due to.
a. They don’t want to HR the reviewer
b. They don’t want to get in bad books if is a “R” deserving review from a friend/TLed member.
The popular Revenge Raters who make it a point to play this childish game.
The most popular creed of “following the herd” group (They rate based on the current status of the review. Many don’t read the review fully)
Silent readers and don’t-want-to-give-2-point-to-reviewer group. This makes a certain percentage.
Favoritism/Nepotism group. People reading and rating the people they like.(Let us agree/disagree that there is some level of Favoritism/Nepotism existing). I certainly feel that “Alert when this writer writes a review” surmounts to that!
Fake-id NRing Group
Coming to the reviews, I have also noticed that people tend to rate a longer review HR, irrespective of their worth and reviews of shorter, crisper content to a “R”.
Another sect I have seen is that if the writer is a popular writer, then it is a given that the review is a “HR”, irrespective of the fact whether if the review is about the product at hand. If it is a figment of imagination of creative writing, it deserves a HHHHR, especially if it is from your favorites. My take on that is that we are not writing reviews on a creative writing site. This is primarily a product review site that is so personal to many of us.
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MY EXPERIENCES
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My experience has always been a pleasant one, barring a very few incidences where a revenge rater, NR ed few of my reviews dutifully. There were few members who rated “R” when they felt so, which is perfectly fine with me. I still remember Speedy, Diskonnekt, Davieboy and Lyla who rated me HR for my very first review on “Buying a digital camera”. The trend still continues for the most part.
I have always followed my what my heart and brain told me in a synergic manner, whenever I have rated the reviews. To my knowledge, I may have followed the item # 6 in my list few times, due to lack of time. Most of the time, I make it a point to RRC almost every one of the reviews. Lately I am not doing the same, due to lack of time. I have read few of the reviews by the popular ones sometimes, due to the same. Whenever I have time, I always RRC practically every one of the review.
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MY RULES
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These are the rules I follow whilst rating reviews by members.
The correlation to the topic
The detail of the review
Pros and Cons.
Presentation, Information and Humor
Length and Clarity
Personal experience.
Make it a point to write a comment, if it is not a “HR” rating, time permitting.
We are not in a puzzling site to follow the track of a writer’s past history of reviews to really understand the content of a review or to read a dialogued review or a poem or to read the personal musings alone. MS is primarily a product review site and we are here to get an opinion about a product.
While creative writing is welcome, I feel it should be telling you distinctly about the product first. Humor is a large plus but shouldn’t always be considered as the prime factor.
A long review needn’t be a default “HR” review. As many of my reviews were 8K or 8K+ mark, few members asked me to straighten the act, in a positive way. I have found them to be true.
I also feel that one shouldn’t be obligated to “HR” every review of popular writer or whatever creative piece of writing, if it is not reviewing the product effectively.
I always tend to rate the very first review of a member a little better as a welcome gift. May be it is not right in certain aspect, but I sincerely feel it is a welcome gift that enthuses a writer to write more, just like it did to me.
I also feel that there should be some superlative rating to be held by MS team to choose the best reviews, just like review of the day (ROTD) to distinguish simply stupendous reviews.
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EPILOGUE
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Many of us would have gone through most points I have mentioned. I take a straight to the fact philosophy whilst writing. Rating effectively is important. After all, not all reviews are good.
If you give 5 for all, you needn’t read all reviews right? There should be a way to distinguish the role models from the laggards. Hence I strongly feel that rating is for a very good reason. I can feel the plight of many, for it is causing some heartburn and brushing of shoulders in a wrong-way. I have been very honest in my rating and very frank too, I will be one in the future too.
I Hope you liked my review. Please chip in your comments.
KALIL
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Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least. – Horace
The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time. -- George Bernard Shaw
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