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Note: This account is no longer active.
Please donate to victims of vicious attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. Thanks in advance.
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Activity Summary
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Reviews Written: 160
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Member Visits: 8,721
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Total Visits: 35,903
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About tomgray
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Lifelong reader of science fiction, manager of Web sites and Internet mailing lists devoted to environmental sustainability, big fan of Northern Exposure and X-Files, baritone, communications professional. Lived in Washington, D.C., for a while and worked on Capitol Hill, now telecommute from Vermont, which I like much better.
My reviewing tastes are steadfastly middlebrow, for the most part. St. Exupery said once that true perfection is achieved not when nothing more can be added, but when nothing more can be taken away. I prefer straightforward fiction that raises and addresses major questions of social conscience and existence directly to more highly intellectualized and stylish writing, and am especially annoyed by writing that is so stylized that it is constantly calling attention to itself rather than the story.
How I Rate Reviews
- I give points for good writing. I deduct points for bad writing, poor spelling, poor punctuation, etc. If a reviewer is careless about these matters, he/she is probably careless about reviewing as well.
- I'm waging a gentle struggle against the tendency to rate reviews based solely or mostly on their length. I probably won't give a VH to a short one-paragraph review, but if it's well written, I may give it an H. Conversely, I probably won't give a VH to a review just because it is long, especially if it simply recites a book or movie's plot.
- I rate reviews primarily on the basis of whether they give me enough information about a product to be comfortable making a purchase decision.
- That being the case:
VH means that I read your review and feel that I know enough about the product as a result to decide whether I want to buy it.
H means that I know how you feel about the product and why, but the review is not helpful enough for me to know whether I would like it. (That's why it is hard for a very short review to qualify for a VH.)
SH means that I can tell whether you liked the product, but not why, other than in the most general terms ("I liked this book. It was really great. I couldn't put it down. XXX is a great writer."). Reviews that are riddled with spelling and grammar errors are also likely to draw an SH from me.
NH is basically reserved for reviews that say nothing about the product ("I haven't read this book, but here's my opinion on what it's about") or that are abusive of Epinions.
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