' Vertical Reading . . .Vertical Rating 'Sep 20 '04 (Updated Jul 22 '08) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line ' Vertical reading and rating ' is lo-carb and good for your bottom line!
.. Update: 'Vertically rating current reviews' ...or... 'Why I rated your review 'only Helpful' I often will read all the reviews of a current film or book. For instance, recently I have been reading through the reviews of the films Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. When you think about it, it makes no sense for a user to rate every review they read of a popular product (except for perhaps the most woeful that they deem worthy of being 'invisible') as 'Very Helpful'. How do you help sort these reviews so that ones you would prefer non-members to see first are indeed first..? You rate them 'Very Helpful'. How do you help sort those reviews that you do not feel are the 'most helpful' below those you prefer non-members to see first..? You rate them 'only Helpful'..!! Yes, that means the harsh 'only Helpful' rate. ( Come on, be honest with yourself. You can sort those ten reviews, or twenty reviews, or whatever number into some you want to see at the top of the pile and some that can take a seat down the hall . . .to mix my metaphors. ) One of the first things a member learns on Epinions is that a single rate of 'Helpful' means nothing. So get over it. Do not worry about it. What do you care if I or someone else finds your review less than the 'bestest'..? The only time you might want to worry about 'Helpful' rates is when four, or five, or ten or (...gawd forbid...half! ) your readers 'only' find your review 'helpful'. Then you might have a problem worth investigating. Epinions would have a much more powerful collection of reviews if every review and every writer were not rated and treated like they hailed from Lake Wobegon, like we all are perfect writers. So dump a 'Helpful' on one of mine. Dump a 'Helpful' on many more that you rate each day and you will become an agent of change here on Epinions. Where 'above average' is really 'above average' and a 'Very Helpful' is really a 'Very Helpful'. End of sermon. You may have the soapbox now. On with the lists of reviews I have 'Vertically rated' . . .. Epinions dot com is a living and breathing website. Like any 'organism' it lives only if it is 'fed'. The fuel for Epinions is the constant stream of reviews submitted by site members, hundreds every day, thousands every week, how many millions over the last five years no one knows. Active and contributing members tend to focus on the 'here and now'. Any member interested in 'reading-n-rating' has found the site-wide 'Just-In' page to be the quickest way to find 'more than a few' new and varied reviews at a moment's notice. Similarly, each Epinions category has its own 'Just-In' page for recently published reviews in that category. A user could stay busy 24/7 by simply reading, rating, and commenting on 'just-in' reviews. But for every new review that is published, there is an old review that is stored in the basement, attic, or dusty closets of Epinions. Hell, many date back to the the time of the Clinton administration. That's old! For every first review of that new hot CD, there are 50 reviews of Can't Take Me Home by Pink. For every review of the film Mr. 3000 there are 389 reviews of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. For every review of the latest Micheal Moore tome there are 173 reviews of The Brethren by John Grisham. All these hundreds of reviews are sorted by the strength of individual rates applied to each and the presence (or absence) of any 'hats' worn by the author. Recent reviews are buoyed to the top of the pile by both the number and collective strength of the applied ratings. Like any living 'organism', Epinions has its own need to be exercised. Its own need to focus on something other than the new reviews being fed to the beast. For every new review that garners 5, 20, 50 or more rates there are old, dusty reviews that have very few or no rates on them. Published on a website that really was a 'different' website, they are often rated to standards apparently quite different from those of today. Today's current member group might apply totally different rates using today's de facto standards. All reviews are sorted by their overall rate and the 'hat factor'. Heavily reviewed products tend to be dominated by recent reviews. Older reviews simply can not match the number or strength of rates applied to 'newer' reviews. ' Vertical reading ' or ' vertical rating ' are phrases rarely used here on Epinions. A google search of the site finds ' vertical rate ' first used by jdhauer in a comment applied to a review rated [Off-Topic] by her. Recently the Grammar Curmudgeon used the phrase ' vertical read ' in an essay documenting the literary and grammatical prowess of reviewers of The Da Vinci Code. ' Vertical reading ' is simply reading all the available reviews of a given product. ' Vertical rating ' is simply leaving your rate on each review read. Either action can be accomplished by reading all the product reviews in a concentrated burst of reading and rating. A 'review alert' can be set so new reviews of the product are called to the user's attention. As with all actions here on Epinions, this practice of ' vertical rating ' can be attacked as being self-serving or somehow . . .'not right'. Indeed, earlier this year, the act of one experienced user here rating an older review of another experienced user caused a minor brouhaha here on the site. (No, I will not link it.) My belief is that an older product review available on the site should be subject to the same actions as current reviews, that is, to be read and rated by any member. ( Of course, there are weekly allegations of rating circles and other cliques or groups trying to bury selected older reviews and promote others over them. That is not ' vertical rating '. That is gaming the system, IMHO. ) Why ' vertical read and rate '...? Because it can be fun! I often do this when I have found a recent review that 'peaked' (just for you, GC!) my interest. I simply want to know more about a particular book or other product. Yes, Epinions can be a diverse and educational experience. When I plan to read the entire batch of reviews, I tend to click the [Review Date] link which re-sorts them by date. Then I jump to the bottom of the page and read 'oldest-to-newest'. I learned quickly that leaving them sorted 'first-to-worst' and reading in that order quickly spoiled me as the overall rates fell as I read. It is like eating dessert first and saving the vegetables for last! Other times I might want to suggest a new user go read other reviews of a product to see how other members have approached reviewing it. Of course, before I do that I would like to know that there actually are some reviews that might be considered good examples of the strength and variety of writing styles that garner higher rates. Often this leads to a ' vertical rate ' session. An Advisor in a category ( or a heavily-trusted user ) can often directly affect the over-all rate on several reviews within a product group. Simply because there are very weakly rated by old users. Yes, it is ego-boo to see the rate shift higher or lower. The Bottom Line ' Vertical reading and rating ' can be an enjoyable experience here. It is a good way to see how the writing style and expectations have changed over the years. It is a good way to 'meet' great writers long gone. (No whining here Sue!) Occasionally you can find an old 'feud' in a comment thread. Often you'll find an old review by a current 'great' writer and wonder how they could have ever written such tripe. If you are reading a current review and it catches your interest, check the number of reviews at the top of the review page. If it has only a few, give ' vertical reading and rating ' a try. I am sure you will find more than a few treasures and trinkets hidden in the bowels of Epinions. So if you see an unexpected rate by me on one of your old reviews, don't be surprised. If you see a bunch of the same product review on my 'ratings page' don't assume I am padding my count. I'm just ' vertical reading ' again. ...tom... Update: January 5, 2006 I have 'moved' the links from my user-page to this essay for all the products that I have made a point of 'reading-n-rating' all available reviews. --- Products that sleeper54 has read and rated all Epinions reviews, ten or more published ---
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