How I Judge, I mean Rate opinionsJun 06 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Read opinions carefully and consider the details in the review. Was it helpful or not? That is the question
This is the first time I am writing on a Member Advice category. I decided to do this because I really wanted to voice my opinion on rating opinions. Everyone rates opinions. Many people have different motives to do it. Its basically a fact that the more opinions you rate, the greater your name gets out there. So most people keep checking the Most Recent pages to immediately rate opinions, I do this also. Other people rate opinions just to return favours, if someone rates yours, I’ll go rate his. Then, a small percentage of people go out and rate opinions in revenge. This is probably the dumbest thing any epinioner can do. Anyway, Epinions provides a method of getting the good reviews shown and getting the bad reviews hidden. Basically, anything Helpful and Very Helpful would be shown to Non-Members. Anything Somewhat Helpful or Not helpful doesn’t show up to non members. So, in my opinion, I think our purpose, as members, is to help build the Epinions community for non members, and also for us to make money. Its really a bewildering concept of rating opinions. People, who have absolutely no idea on what your writing about or most of the times, have no intention in purchasing the product, are telling the community how helpful the epinion is. I honestly believe the ideal situation is that people should only rate opinions on products that they are accustomed to. That is, for e.g. all the Computer “ Geeks “ here should be rating all the computer opinions not the Home and Garden opinions. But in reality, this will never happen. Below, I have listed what are my expectations in a review from each category. Arts & Entertainment - Okay, I don’t expect these opinions to be as long as some of the other categories like cars. For the Books and Movies, I expect people to BRIEFLY describe the plot. I hate it when people give out the whole story. People should talk about the characters and if they are well enough detailed, e.t.c. I also like to see some information on the themes in the story and if it has any good morals. I would also like to know what age group should read/watch it and why. For music reviews, I expect to see some information on the artist. Then, I would like to see a list of songs and talk about each song individually, the lyrics, the tempo, the mood, e.t.c. Any opinion with most of these details will earn a Very Helpful by me. Auto and Motorsports - These opinions, out of all the opinions on Epinions should be the longest. When writing about a Car, I can’t understand how people can finish it in one or two paragraphs. There are so many things to talk about, Handling, Interior, Warranty, Dependability, e.t.c. Car reviews should be very thorough, because Cars are big expenses and you need as much detail as possible. Business and Technology - There are many things to be mentioned when reviewing Printers, Hubs, Shredders, Servers. You need to talk about every aspect of the product. When I read a Server review, I would like to know how easy it is to maintain, how often it crashes, how fast does it run, its maximum capacity, capabilities of expanding and how it works with other servers. Computers & Internet - There are many things that can be said about any product in this category. In computer hardware reviews, I want to know its features, how reliable it is, does it perform all its advertised capabilities, customer service, upgradeability, e.t.c. In software reviews, I would like to know all the features and if the features actually work, how often does the program crash, is it as good as its competitors, e.t.c. In game reviews, I expect an opinion on the game from these aspects, Story, Graphics, Gameplay, Sound, Replayability, Crashes (If any). And, for Web services, I want to know about all the features, the competition and how it compares to this service, customer support, any downtime, e.t.c. Electronics - In electronics, I basically want to know how the product works, does it work properly, how does it compare to other products, its durability, ease of installation, e.t.c. For e.g., a portable CD Player review should contain its easy of use, how good it sounds, how well the features work, how good is the manual and warranty, if dropped, did it still work? Home & Garden - When I read a review on any appliance, I want to know how good it works, if it’s a blender, how good does it blend, does the blade ever wear down, does the motor burn out, how long can you run it for, e.t.c. Other things like drills, I want to know how well does it drill, does the head ever wear down, can it break, e.t.c. Hotel and Travel - For any destination, for e.g. a country, I want to know how easy it was to travel, how much the trip costs, how safe is the country, how friendly were the people, what kind of things were there to do, would you visit there again, who should go there. For things like hotels, I want to know how good the hotel was, if it is a 5 star how good does it compare to other 5 star hotels, how was the service, how were the facilities, e.t.c. Kids and Family - Any product in Kids and Family should explain the following points – How easy is it to use, How Safe it was, Was it educational, Was the child entertained, What does it exactly do. Personal and Finance - Any service in this category, like a bank account should explain to me how easy it was to set up an account, what kind of returns (if any) on your money, Easy of depositing or withdrawal, What policies are there on Fraud, How friendly were the customer representatives, is it easy to cancel an account? Restaurants & Goumet - I don’t expect these opinions to be extremely long. For restaurant reviews, I expect to learn how was the food, what kind of food they offered, how was the atmosphere (crowded? Uncrowded? Age or amount of other people there?) how friendly were the waiters, e.t.c. Sport and Outdoors - Reviews in these categories should also be detailed. If I read a review on a soccer shoe, I want to know how comfortable was it, how much did it cost in comparison to the other shoes, how durable was the shoe, how well did the ball kick using this shoe, e.t.c. Wellness & Beauty - Any product reviewed here I would like to know how well did it work, any side effects, how is the price compared to other products similar to this, e.t.c. Okay, that was just a Brief description of what I expect in some parts of the categories. If I really had to explain how I do all my ratings, then I will need to use a whole opinion on each category. Below, I am going to list some of the qualities I consider when reading an opinion. Spelling - I always keep this thought in mind, this is Epinions, not a professional review site, this is a place for regular consumers to voice their opinion on products they have used. With this in mind, I normally do not rate people’s opinions differently for much spelling errors. But there are exceptions. If I see a spelling mistake in your title, that’s just pure laziness. If there is any part to read over in an opinion, it should be your title. If the review has unbearable spelling mistakes, then I’ll probably rate this opinion a bit lower. One thing though, I am NOT a perfectionist, my opinions have spelling errors in it, we at Epinions are not paid enough for a review to ensure that our opinions are absolutely spelling error free. BUT people should take the time to read over their opinions, and eliminate errors they can. Length - Many people scroll through an opinion and rate it due to its length. I was guilty of this when I first joined epinions. But, its only after I realized that some opinions that are well over 1000 words sometimes never explain the product properly. I rate opinions based on Content. But, I know for a fact that someone writing a 100-200 word opinion cannot explain a product in its entirety. Readers are suppose to be able to find out everything about the opinion in ONE review. Although it is good to read a couple of different people’s opinions, every opinion should contain ALL aspects of the products. Other People’s Ratings - Many people rate opinions based on everyone else’s ratings. This should not be done. Some people need more information in deciding whether they should buy a product or not. Just because one person considered the opinion Very Helpful in buying the product doesn’t mean its very helpful to YOU. After reading an opinion, ask yourself whether you think that opinion was helpful in making a purchase. If you think it wasn’t helpful at all, then rate it NOT helpful and vice versa. Comments - I sometimes post comments on opinions. I mainly post for opinions by new users which have some problems and I think I can offer suggestions, if an opinion has some information which I can clearly say is wrong due to my knowledge and if I want to show my appreciation for a great opinion. I don’t comment on every opinion I read. I see some people say that they write comments on opinions that they rate somewhat helpful and they offer their suggestions, but I think many people know problems with their opinions, they can easily figure it out by reading other opinions in the same category and see what they are missing. I don’t believe in writing a comment on every opinion I rate. Conclusion In conclusion, I should say that everything here is just what I think. I don’t believe anyone should rate how I rate, because everybody is different. This is just here for people to see how one epinioner rates, especially since I rate quite a few opinions. If I have rated your opinion, and you think you deserve a better rating, please, email me at epinions@snikla.com.  |
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