First I would like to refer to the epinions guidelines on ratings (click here).

I believe that reviews that are rated “Show”, “Somewhat Helpful”, “Helpful” and “Very Helpful” are all valuable contributions to epinions. If you want to write a review that is just “Somewhat Helpful” or “Helpful”, go ahead and do so, epinions needs it. However, if you also want a “Very Helpful” rating then you need to put in a significant effort into the review.

Personal experience

The way I see it reviews are not just a collection of helpful information about a product. It needs to convey personal opinion based on personal experience. In addition to making statements that are helpful you need to have contributed to the mass of “human experience” of the product. If you have not been there, or you have not used the product, or you have not read the book, and you are still writing a review for the item, then I cannot give you a good rating. Epinions is not wikipedia, it is a review site.

It also matters how much experience you have had of a product. It is OK to write a review for a hotel if you stayed there one full day, it is not OK to write a review for country if you visited for one day. Use common sense in that regard. I would also like to point out that one of the requirements for a “Very Helpful” rating is that it “Offers in-depth experiences”. I am reading that as “in-depth personal experiences”.

Another issue is the distance in time to your personal experience. Currently I am writing and rating a lot in the travel section. I have put a time limit on my self of 4 years for destinations like countries states and cities, and 1-2 years on hotels, museums, amusement parks, cruises and specific attractions. Even though I can’t put the same random time limit on others I might reduce my rate if the experience was so far back in time that the review looses its relevance. Naturally reviews for destinations and attractions that have undergone recent drastic upgrades/changes needs to be more up to date.

If you have a contrary opinion to most reviewers and you explain well why you have a contrary opinion, or you present useful information in the review that no one else has mentioned, then you are adding something truly unique to the site. To me this is a bonus and I will take that into account when rating.

Details

There are some items that may not require that the review contains a lot of detail, for example, playing cards, rubber bands, and vases. However, both software and travel destinations do require a fair amount of detail. Below I am listing one software review and one travel destination review. They took about the same effort to write and contain a fair amount of detail. I am not claiming these are particularly good reviews, however, I put in some effort into them, and I think you need to do as well if you want to give the seriously interested reader the full story (and get a “Very Helpful” from me). You can’t fit this amount of detail in 300 words.

Visual Studio 2008 standard edition; the cheaper alternative

The Black Church, Brown Bears, Ski slopes, Rasnov, and Dracula

To get a “Very Helpful” rating from me on a travel review for a destination it must convey in depth personal experience. To me this means that you should have visited several attractions at the destination and you should have stayed long enough to get a good feel for the destination and what it can offer, and then you should describe what you saw and what you felt about it. I would expect at least half a dozen personal experiences and opinions, and I want you to explain why it was “good” or “bad”. It should also contain a good number of helpful factoids about the destination. To get a “Very Helpful” rating from me on a hotel review you should include a few personal opinions and a few factoids on each of the following; the hotel room, the location, the amenities, the personnel, and preferably also the breakfast, restaurant, the lobby/front desk.

I should say that I do not mind stories and anecdotes that are not directly related to the item. It gives the review a personal touch. However, if the personal anecdotes dominate the review it may be distracting and warrant a lesser rating.

Presentation and other issues

According to the site rules a review should be exceptionally well presented to receive a “Very Helpful”. To me that mean that your review follows a logical flow and that is explicitly or implicitly organized into sub topics. You should use paragraphs, preferably headings, and complete sentences. If I have a hard time reading it or understanding your review then it is not exceptionally presented. The exception is if you are writing on a topic I don’t understand well.

I do not find a few minor grammatical errors and spelling errors distracting. However, if there are too many of them it makes the review look sloppy, and if they make a sentence difficult to understand that is also bad. I am not a native English speaker so I will make these kinds of mistakes myself and I will therefore not rate this aspect too harshly.

Plagiarism, advertisement, lists of facts (no opinion), reviewers knowingly stating falsehoods, attacks on other epinions members, scorn of other ethnic groups, religions, and nationalities, and illegible reviews will earn a “Not Helpful” from me (read the site rules).