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I know what you're talking about. (Reply to this comment)
by trasjman
When I started out on Epinions I wrote some reviews on music, one on books and some on electronics. The electronics got H and VH, but the music and books only SH. I was shocked.
But after reading the comments of the editors and some other reviews I understood what was wrong. I don't read enough to write a deep, thorough book review. But the music still bugs me. I play the clarinet for 11 years now and at a respectable level. So I know something about music.
But I've never written a music review again. My newer reviews about sports have been received well and after reading your article I might even try writing a new music review. I just hope I can match yours, because those are really good!
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Feb 22 '02
3:17 am PST
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Somewhat helpful :( (Reply to this comment)
by tombarnes
Do not feel too discouraged. I received a lot of "Somewhat Helpful's on my early reviews. I enjoy your writing. Tom Barnes
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Jan 06 '02
12:03 am PST
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Of the same mind! (Reply to this comment)
by bwanamdevu
Hi!
You`ve put into words the thoughts that come into my mind very often,especially when I read some peoples opinions!
Paul
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May 14 '01
3:44 am PDT
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Thank you! (Reply to this comment)
by sweetycaroline
I want to thank you so much.I got a somewhat helpful rating by one person while 8 people found the opinion very helpful.Guess what the overall opinion turned out?SOMEWHAT HELPFUL.Because of ONE person!I am new and it seems everyone is getting only very helpful but me.Thank you for showing everyone has flaws.
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Apr 25 '01
2:51 pm PDT
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Honesty is my only excuse... (Reply to this comment)
by dantesguide
and that's all I WANT IN RETURN. Good point on the question, "Why are we writing here in 1st place?" For some, it is to make money. If that's the writers case, there are much more profitable ways to make money out there, this is a very poor way to utilize your time to that endeavor. I am here for the sole reason of improving my writing skills. I crave criticism of my writing. Unfortunately, all the somewhat helpfuls and helpfuls I have received have never left a comment. I have received more helpful criticism from "VH"'s I have received. I can't review all your opinions right now, but from what I've read, I am impressed! Keep up the great writing:)
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Apr 02 '01
5:11 pm PDT
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Right on! (Reply to this comment)
by marilynbraley
I've gotten that on most of my reviews but when most who read a review give it a VH then I go with that, especially when I see that some are consistently low raters. Also at least they read it & some of those keep on reading so they must like your writing overall.
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Apr 01 '01
3:06 pm PDT
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Don't know why you get Helpfuls (Reply to this comment)
by mike.holmes
First of all, Helpful is not the end of the world. It's a whole lot better than the lower ratings but you're writing is far more than merely helpful. But this is a subjective exercise we've joined in so take the pennies and laugh all the way to the piggy bank.
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Mar 29 '01
11:26 am PST
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I liked your take on this (Reply to this comment)
by themariposa
and agree totally. My first two reviews were predominantly helpful (with some SH thrown in to let me know what's what!) I'm still pretty new, and took those ratings as a teaching tool and believe I'm improving my writing because of them. Really nicely outlined and written.
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Mar 26 '01
5:08 pm PST
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Good review (Reply to this comment)
by TazzyFoxy
For me it never fails that I get 99 very helpful's and then 1 helpful on any given review of mine. It never fairs.
It bothered me at first, but not much I can do about it. I just smile and move on.
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Mar 25 '01
9:20 pm PST
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so true... (Reply to this comment)
by servin
In the short time I have been writing opinions I have experienced that feeling of horror - why am I only helpful???? I want to be very helpful!!!
Thanks's for the practical tips on why not to obsess over this.
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Mar 22 '01
4:03 pm PST
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You make some excellent points! (Reply to this comment)
by tejones
Ya know, the most painful reviews any person can receive are PEER reviews. The boss is butthole anyway, and so are a whole bunch of the subs, but those peer negatives can sure cut to the bone, even here in cyberspace!
Well written article. You get a Very Helpful from me this time, but watch out! :-).
Gotta run now to find my tar and feathers and take care of that nerd who ruined my last opinion.
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Mar 22 '01
2:42 pm PST
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Deep breaths, (Reply to this comment)
by ifif1938
are the best therapy!
Enjoyed your review.....
:)
Barbara
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Mar 21 '01
3:39 pm PST
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awesome suggestions (Reply to this comment)
by flamepillar
I especially agree with the one about taking a vacation; for a while I took a mini-hiatus and went over to writtenbyme.com, then one day, I just suddenly got the urge to start hanging out here again. I guess part of that might be because when I reached the number of hits you need to "cash out" at writtenbyme.com I exchanged them almost a month ago and haven't heard anything yet. LOL oh well. Great review, I enjoyed it :) Catch ya later!
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Mar 20 '01
8:12 pm PST
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Know What You Mean. (Reply to this comment)
by Alkaiser
I've been here for a while. It used to be a tactic that people would so their names would show up when they rubber stamped you. Now, you don't find so many people doing it because their names don't show up.
But to me, "Helpful" reviews are for those "eh, that was ok" reviews. Anything below "H" is basically, "Your review sucks." Which is why I think Epinions should go to the 5-rating system, so H's are actually the equivalent of a B, and not like it is now, where it goes from B to C+.
And just as a side note, its "seratonin", not "saratonin". Not that it detracted from the review...just being helpful.
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Mar 20 '01
3:00 pm PST
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Re: Well. . . (Reply to this comment)
by Greatpilgrim
You say to stop stressing. Did you really read my article? That was my premise - not to obsess about poor ratings. I also am pretty sure my content is original; I haven't seen any other articles talking about how to beat the Epinions blues. You might want to read articles more thoroughly to make sure what the author is really saying before judging.
Victoria
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Mar 20 '01
8:55 am PST
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A word from the author... (Reply to this comment)
by Greatpilgrim
...Thanks to everyone who took time to comment. Lemme remind everybody that this article is NOT about poor ratings. It's about how to stop feeling sorry for yourself when you do get poor ratings. As such, I haven't found any other articles about that. If you know of one, please let me know and I will make sure mine is different.
Victoria
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Mar 20 '01
8:52 am PST
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A Helpful.... (Reply to this comment)
by vania
....A Helpful is pretty good. I'm never upset with Helpfuls. I don't like to hand out VHs to just anything. To me, a VH goes to the TOP OF THE LINE, and I'm discriminating about who I give them to. Whether or not I personally agree with what they are saying or not is completely irrelevant. There are TONS of essays on "Deciding How to Rate" that seem to address this issue.....
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Mar 20 '01
8:08 am PST
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Getting an H is like getting a B on your report card... (Reply to this comment)
by infoscott
Sure it won't help you get on the honor roll, but it is better than average.
I'm only a newbie here, but it seems to me that part of a member's duty to rate and review is to act as a proxy for the non-member public. Keep in mind that search engines will expose H and VH reviews, so an H definitely passes muster. The more we allow good reviews (including the H) to be used by the purchasing public and the more we retire bad reviews to obscurity, the better our collective product will be. Sometimes that requires taking the stings of a few SH because the rater either didn't get what your article is about, it didn't help him personally, or he just plain wanted to rate low. If the writing is good and the ratings are plentiful, than it will pass on and be used to make prudent decisions.
-Scott
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Mar 20 '01
7:36 am PST
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The SYSTEM is sometimes flawed (Reply to this comment)
by mattygroves
I often find myself not rating an opinion at all - not because it's awful or uninteresting or anything, but simply because 'helpful' (be it very, or just plain helpful or whatever) isn't relevent. For example, I read some of the articles on how to tell your children about death. Well, I've been there when my father died several years ago - so I found the articles touching, well written and perceptive, but not exactly helpful.
Sometimes I really disagree with what is being said, but it may be said very well - again, I wouldn't say 'not helpful' because I strongly disagree, but it's not really helpful, either, if you see what I mean.
How do other people deal with this issue?
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Mar 20 '01
5:12 am PST
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Re: Have to disagree (Reply to this comment)
by owling
I had to come back and leave a second comment now that I have more than five minutes...
I have to agree that H is not necessarily downrating. Most of the time if I buck a trend of VHs to give an H, it's for a strong reason - usually that I have a lot of experience with the item in question, and thus where to someone else the review might look thorough, to me it doesn't.
You mentioned that such people usually don't leave comments. While I try to leave comments, I know that I (and several other people) have sometimes not left comments because for some reason, comments attract revenge raters more than just plain ratings (even when I'm trying to be polite and encouraging). Besides, there are people who seem to think that comments on the quality of a review are just nasty as a whole no matter how politely worded, so sometimes I'm tempted not to leave them.
To come at this from a different direction - we're all sitting here reviewing and rating lots of products. Do you give out 5 stars for effort? I doubt it. I expect that you, like everyone else here, gives out 5 stars for quality. While I think we should perhaps be a little less stringent in our ratings of reviews than of products, the same principle does apply. Effort doesn't always equate to quality, unfortunately. I wish it did.
(That said, however, I must say that the reviews you've written which I've read have always been good quality, and VHs. So I'm making these comments not on your writing, but in a general sense.)
heather
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Mar 20 '01
4:58 am PST
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I have to admit..... (Reply to this comment)
by 1truluv
I used to 'stress' over the same thing! But, no more! You can make yourself crazy, trying to figure why, you got that 'lone' H, or SH. It's just not worth it! There is no way you can please everyone.....I learned that the hard way!
Louise
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Mar 20 '01
3:48 am PST
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Have to disagree (Reply to this comment)
by Dani257
Your opinion was very well written, and the points on how to deal with ratings was good (which is why I gave it a VH), but I don't see an H rating as downrating. To me, an H is not a bad rating. People should try to get VH's, but an H is still something to be proud of. It means helpful. That's good. Not every review can be exceptional. Some are good and solid and deserve the much too maligned H rating.
BTW, if short reviews with hardly any details are earning VH's or even H's, I'd say they were being uprated
Sorry to let all this out here. I just have a thing about the H rating.
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Mar 19 '01
11:48 pm PST
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Well. . . (Reply to this comment)
by sslabs
You know what? I come across these types of opinions a lot. Way too many folks stress over things they can't control. One thing about the VH and H thing. Just because you spent all weekend or all week means nothing to me. If anything there is such a thing as too much time. You might end up making a good opinion just okay because it is too long.
And I don't want you to stress because I rated you H. So you won't lose sleep I will share my reason. It's not because I hate you, not because I think you suck. It is ONLY because it has been said a thousand other times here at epinions.
So why would I rate VH? I'll throw you a bone here. spend more time worrying about how to do things in a different way, don't write like anyone else. That is the only thing you can do to stand out here. So had you come at this from a different angle. . .
It is writers like those that keep me coming back. It's not just about following the rules or technically writing a good opinion. I wonder why people stress over H ratings. I mean I understand that H, SH and NH will come my way because of revenge rating or what have you. It's no big, STOP STRESSING! :)
-sslabs
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Mar 19 '01
10:58 pm PST
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EXCELLENT (Reply to this comment)
by Lark729_89
I like the part about pretending that the writer is a reader and knows absolutely nothing about the product. That is very clever thinking.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this issue. I do know how frustrating it gets here at times.
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Mar 19 '01
8:32 pm PST
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A "Helpful" from me is not necessarily bad (Reply to this comment)
by tenorqueen
I didn't feel comfortable rating every epinion that I liked as "Very Helpful" so I've become more selective in my VH ratings. Helpful to me, means that you've done the job well.
I have noticed that people rate stuff as VH as a standard, which I don't think is necessarily a good idea. Are they trying to avoid receiving criticism from the writer or simply following the trend of raters before them?
Long reviews don't always deserve a VH because sometimes the point could have been made without all the extraneous stuff. Considering that we all spend so much time reading and rating, reviews that are more precise than waffly are going to make my day.
I think we should all remember in the end that its just one cent. ONE CENT. If you are worried about getting a Helpful and how that will affect your reviews, just try to remember that.
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Mar 19 '01
8:05 pm PST
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Look at all the "Very Helpful"s you got for this essay... :) (Reply to this comment)
by tzohar
Good essay! :) I try to keep myself emotionally detached from Epinions as much as possible. I also find myself obsessing sometime, as if writing reviews is my job. Then I remind myself that I came here have fun, to read and write as I want to. SOMETIMES it calms me down. ;)
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Mar 19 '01
5:11 pm PST
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I guess we all feel under-read... (Reply to this comment)
by rich2003dm
...under-compensated, and under-appreciated.
I agree that it's important to always keep in mind that it's only a website.
The fun is really in the writing, and being able to look back at your work with pride regardless of how the barbarians among us have savaged or ignored it.
Excellent review. You speak for all of us.
Rich
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Mar 19 '01
4:58 pm PST
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Great essay!! (Reply to this comment)
by PHOTOGIRL814
I liked all your ideas. I use to be obsessive about this too, but I realized I have more important things to think about, besides how many of these people are we going to meet and be friends with? I enjoyed this review.
Kathi
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Mar 19 '01
4:14 pm PST
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And always remember... (Reply to this comment)
by owling
...that no matter how much people try to be objective when rating, they're human. Thus, ratings will always be subjective. This means that no two people are always going to agree on how every review should be rated.
Good essay!
heather
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Mar 19 '01
3:38 pm PST
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