|
|
|
another bitter European with a weakness for music and good food.
more
|
Activity Summary
|
|
Reviews Written: 134
|
|
Member Visits: 3,310
|
|
Total Visits: 14,187
|
|
|
About jlaurson
|
a few points on e-pinions & style
e-pinions and reviews: what for?
epinions is, to the gros of its users, useful for the amount of comments they can receive on a given product - in order to amend their choosing-process.
this works mostly via the quantity, not quality of reviews. a well-crafted essay of 10.000 words is decidedly unhelpful in most cases. it takes too long - and it doesn't get to the point. as a user of e-pinons, i don't want to assess anyone’s essay writing skills - i want opinion. and i want it QUICK!
let me dole out an example: i want to buy product "A".
now i actually want reviews of this sort:
"i bought product "A". i took it home, it fell apart. It sucks."
5 reviews of that sort and i pretty much know where i am going to go. namely: elsewhere with my purchase. if, on the other hand, i have 10 reviews say:
"i bought product "A", it's the best thing since sliced bread - none were better, even my marriage is exciting again",
then i might just be swayed, also.
if i have 2 of the former and 3 of the latter, i might be held off in my purchase and do some real research. the sort of thing that e-pinions is not meant do provide.
ratings and common sense
writing reviews on e-pinions can be an obsession rather quickly. most of the people bothering to read these words probably know all there is to know about that.
then, reviews become important for their own sake. or rather: a part that aims at attaining a perfect "Very Helpful" rating. We write for ratings, rather than for writing reviews we think are helpful... or are the kind of review we just happen to care for. we aim to please. but not customers; rather: fellow raters... "obsessive e-pinonaters" as i would (endearingly) call them.
we read other peoples criteria on how they rate... and may adapt our style accordingly. a case in point would be my review of "Lohengrin". after 'helpful' ratings, i got suckered in to write 'detailed' and make good use of paragraphs (which actually is helpful and a courtesy to readers) and bold fonts. and again: detail, detail, detail. or something that looks like it.
it seems, indeed, that serious raters/review-reviewers rate "VH" anything that has 5 or more paragraphs, uses some bold type, goes on and on in inane detail (e.g. the track-listings on a CD... WHO CARES!!! )... and has a reasonably pleasant syntax.
chances are, you lost your average reader after two paragraphs. 200 words may be just about what one can take. after all, we should not forget that the average attention span these days does not exceed the time it takes to read the text that would fit on the back of a cereal-box.
how it relates to me, me, me...
it might be pathetic or telling (or both - or telling of my patheticness?) that i go through all this meta-communication, rather than just 'live' my ideas... but i just can't help myself.
i appreciate comments and hints, tips on how to write better reviews. i will inevitably learn from them. but: i shall (hopefully) continue to write as i wish, not as i want others to see/rate me. this is particularly pertaining to length and 'detail'. sometimes, i cannot or want not spend half an hour writing about a CD i think is great or not. I may, if it is _very_ dear to my heart... but not all are.
if this is considered somewhat helpful, then my mission is partly fulfilled. if it is helpful or very helpful, even better. it can't be my aim, however, to use e-pinions in order to write as though i was working for Gramophone Magazine. that's what people buy Gramophone Magazine for, rather than go here. similarly, for details, people will and/or ought go to the manufacturers web-site. for in-depth analysis, they'll go to the appropriate literature.
most of all, i hope for myself and others to stay above the fray. everything can be taken a bit too seriously - e-pinions may just be one of those things. given how late it is and how much good friday-night time i just spent writing this, i'm the first to admit to be guilty as charged.
best regards,
j.f.l.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.