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Greetings all...


I have finally decided what I want to give up for Lent.

The 'Somewhat Helpful' rate.

So I am going to do just that.


The 'Somewhat Helpful' rate no longer serves a useful purpose in sorting reviews. The recent move to display at product pages first the 'top rated review' and then 'last in' at the top of the pile leaves no real 'sorting' purpose for the SH rate.

I am sure some will argue that an overall 'Somewhat Helpful' review rating will carry some weight with non-members browsing the site. I would counter non-members are likely to skim reviews until they find something they want to read, regardless of the overall rating.


So for the month of March . . .I am eschewing the use of the 'Somewhat Helpful' rate. Either a review will be 'Helpful' ...or it will be 'Not Helpful'.

To be honest, I think many of us look to the 'SH' rate as an easy out for rating troublesome reviews. Not our idea of 'Helpful' ...but maybe not quite 'Not Helpful' either.


To my mind all the 'Somewhat Helpful' rate does is serve up a distasteful first experience for too many users.


So there ya go. 'Somewhat Helpful' is dead to me. Let us see how this works for a month. I will try to rate some minimum number of in-category . . .'challenging' reviews this month to test how this works for me.


I invite any who care to try not using the 'Somewhat Helpful' rate to join me. You can do so publicly here or privately on your own.


Let me know what you think . . .I can take it..!!



...tom...
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Tom,

I will be brave and respond, even though it probably is not what you're hoping to hear.

Although I'm not happy about the decision to sort reviews by date instead of by helpfulness, I do not think it should precipitate a change in rating on our part.

I don't think we are helping the website, or new writers, to change our rating benchmarks in response to the new review sorting policy. I am hoping instead, that corporate will add a sort button for consumers to sort by rating.

The ratings we give will remain, even if Corporate decides to modify the review sorting policies in the future.

Changing our rating practices to be more stringent, could cause a ripple effect that might ultimately do more harm than good. It might frustrate new members and achieve the opposite of welcoming them. The rating guidelines help us to all stay on the same page, even though we don't always agree (as members) on ratings across the board.

Just my humble opinion~ I do hope you'll reconsider and maybe give up chocolate for Lent instead.

Hi, Tom --

I understand where you're coming from; the drift away from ratings as a metric for how reviews are presented is troubling. But that can be changed pretty easily with a software rewrite.

On the other hand, changing how we rate reviews is very difficult to revert back from if the sorting shifts back the way many of us would prefer to see it. The people we alienate will probably never come back, and worse, are likely to discourage others from coming here. Not a good scenario when we're already having trouble maintaining views.

Many of us do make a clear delineation between NH and SH: in my case, violations of rules or complete gibberish earn NH. A review that meets Epinions rules but is sub-par gets a SH. In many ways, it's similar to the difference between an "F" and a "D": the latter at least recognizes that the writer made some degree of effort, and wasn't gaming the system. It's going to be a lot harder to encourage new members to improve their skills, I think, when they have just been rated as if they were doing something improper.

And yes, I liked the title... ;o)

Regards,

Jeff

I truly wish they would not make S.H. reviews eligible for contests. A marginal review as SLEEPER once said/argued somewhere is more than NOT Helpful...and thinking of new member retention could be rated S.H.

OR... a brand new writer has written a decent couple of paragraphs but needs a little more detail.... It's ALMOST a somewhat helpful review..... and since they are new many people give them the S.H. rating.

That's good/nice thing to do... but it might also enter them into a contest for what's a pretty lousy review....
It might mean their FIRST review in that category, is THE review of record for that category....for weeks, months or years. This review for the product is the face of epinions to someone.. the door greeter.... Is it somewhat helpful?

Probably should have rated that one NOT HELPFUL....

I think the basic rating criteria as many use them is good. I think it's NOT HELPFUL to have Somewhat Helpful reviews in contests.

...
Hey there all...

I will address all the posts rather than try to 'quote out' this thought or that thought.


I have evolved over the years to be a 'kinder rater' ...as someone phrased it earlier. I am often a [Helpful] or [Show] rate on the overall [SH] or [Don't Show] review.

My intent is not to dump more reviews into the [Not Helpful] trashcan . . .indeed, its first effect/affect will be to elevate more of my 'SH' rates to 'Helpful' rates.

Concerns that I am going to start clubbing 'baby seal' reviews are unfounded. That said . . .the weaker [SH] review will indeed draw a NH rate from me . . .and I would just about guarantee that someone else in the rating group will agree with me.


It is just a personal experiment; gonna see if it works for me.


Thanks for all the feedback..!!



...tom...
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How about Member Center postings?

Of since you only rate newbies, how about VH ratings?

Can anyone believe that more NH ratings will be more encouraging than some SH ones that qualify reviews for promotions, etc.? (Or that if the choice is between NH and helpful that more reviews will be rated NH?)