My interests include books, music, sports, and video games, and I often write about those topics here on Epinions.com. From late 2002 to early 2004, I was an Advisor and Top Reviewer in Music under the name shadesofblue. I took most of 2004 and 2005 off because of college obligations (my user name and reviews went away as well). I came back under my current moniker, thewisefool, in 2005. I mostly just rated reviews in 2005 before returning with actual reviews of my own in the summer of 2006. College once again took up too much time for me to write in 2007, but I returned with reviews in 2008 after leaving my graduate program. Since then, I have been reading and rating many more reviews, and contributing at least one review each month.

Epinions.com Rating Policies

I do not rubber-stamp under any circumstances. Rating based on length alone is a poor model to follow. At the very least, I skim reviews and look for essential descriptions and personal opinions on the product at hand.

My rating tendencies are fairly lenient, especially regarding length. However, I take grammar and spelling into account when rating reviews. A few minor errors don't bother me, but if a review has numerous mistakes, I will give a rating lower than what I otherwise would have given. After all, this is a writing site, so I think it's reasonable to consider language technicalities in our ratings. A thorough approach is admirable, and creativity in writing is certainly important - but grammar and spelling are objective, quantifiable elements, and I believe incompetence in them shouldn't be overlooked.

If you have any questions about any of my ratings, or if you want me to re-rate something you've written after an update, feel free to send me an e-mail so I can get back to you.