Rating/comparing articles

Maybe I'm only spotting downsides but I don't like to be constrained to a special topic when I compare/rate reviews.

You can't choose what you are rating, neither you can skip the articles that the system chose. And the system repeatedly lets you compare articles from the same topic where sometimes only 4 or 5 articles have been posted and you compare each one of them to each one of the others. I get really bored going through all these permutations....

Someone said you don't know the member of the reviews, but why on the mainpage does it mention members and there reviews? I don't like the idea of being constrained to a specific topic! Lisa x

You are only constrained to a particular topic if it is in an area where you have posted a review. If you post diverse reviews, then your rating gets more diverse as well.

I have posted an article about the NH Krasnapolsky in the "travel" channel. At the moment I get to compare reviews about "Vacation destination: English countryside". Over and over again. Even reloading the page doesn't change the article which are presented. There must be far more topics in the travel channel than "Vacation destination: English countryside". At least there could be some variety within this channel.

And still, what's the idea behind this system that you can only rate in a category where you have written something yourself? It's like going to a restaurant and only being able to choose the dishes from the menu which you can cook yourself. :-D

Many members though on review sites only feel comfortable writing in certaing areas. I for example am hardly likely to review food/drink and financial products.

I didn't write one in the area of women's periods and had countless ones to compare, though I did write in health. They have been discussing on the boards that members should be able to tick some boxes of several areas they don't want to rate. Yeh, rating gets monotonous, but I do find that the more you rate, the more your reviews move and if I have no opinion on the same stuff that keeps coming up, I press same and move on.

Quote :

Many members though on review sites only feel comfortable writing in certaing areas. I for example am hardly likely to review food/drink and financial products

Then if you did not write in them it is unlikely you would have to rate them.

That's a shem though as although I probably won't write in those areas, it doesn't mean I wouldn't want to read/rate others.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

Quote :

Many members though on review sites only feel comfortable writing in certaing areas. I for example am hardly likely to review food/drink and financial products

Then if you did not write in them it is unlikely you would have to rate them.

But even if you don't write here, you certainly have an opinion and can tell if a review in one of these categories is helpful for you or not.

Yes, I would agree, although since posting more and more articles, have found that the choice of articles I get is wider, and not as boring as when I first started.

Am I right with my first comment on this thread?

This is what I like about the site. No, you have no idea whose reviews you are reading. They are just reviews. On the main site, you do see names though this is the area for members of the public to go read reviews, and nothing to be gleaned there for members unless they just want to read on subjects that interest them for the sake of getting information.

The rating topics do seem to come through in batches so you will get the same subject over and over for a while and when all new articles have found their place you will be offered new topics. As has been said above the topics you are given to rate are related to what you have posted so the wider you write the more diversity you get in rating.

Its a pain to begin with but soon becomes more diverse and thus more interesting.

lisa2062 wrote:

Someone said you don't know the member of the reviews, but why on the mainpage does it mention members and there reviews? I don't like the idea of being constrained to a specific topic! Lisa x

articles are posted with the writers name but this is not made public during the rating process thus allowing anonimity and ruling out favouritism.

All of the reviews I've posted so far have been movies or phone reviews, and yet the only things I'm being given to rate are 'Protecting your personal files against viruses', 'The best computer virus scanners available', and 'free stuff online'. It's driving me crazy!! I'm rating the same articles over and over and over, even the same combo's of articles! It would be better if you could at least 'skip' a topic somehow.

Just think. If you are rating the same stuff over and over, someone is rating your stuff over and over, and thats why you continually get paid for it.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

someone is rating your stuff over and over, and thats why you continually get paid for it.

and that's where you lost me. How do you know that? Is it that you get paid by received ratings/readings (like on ciao)? Why can't you see then how much ratings you have received for the sake of understanding your account balance? I find it awkward that you are completely reliant on what they tell you on your account statistic - you have not the slightest chance to track why you received $0.04 ad not $0.10 or $10. Maybe they licensed the CPA from ciao to allocate user earnings

I believe from what I read on the forum that they are working on a way that members can see the reads that they achieve. I believe also that it is on public hits rather than ratings, and that they alternate the front pages of every channel so that different reviews get the hits.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

believe also that it is on public hits rather than ratings

then again, how would frantic mutual user ratings increase public hits

By moving the better reviews to the top for the public to read. Who is going to read reviews which are numbered 685 on the hit list ?

Thingywhatsit wrote:

By moving the better reviews to the top for the public to read. Who is going to read reviews which are numbered 685 on the hit list ?

Granted, but rating a lot of articles does not necessarily mean that your own climb up. Hence it does not neccessarily mean that if you rate a lot you get more public hits. So would you earn the same money with bad articles like with good ones?

No but having the confidence that a lot of writers don't have on the site, my articles shift pretty fast. Many of the writers on the site are new to writing articles, and the percentage of crap stuff is really high, so if you write the best you can, and post it over there, chances are it will stand out, and if it doesn't you can improve it with the leapfrog option.

It's doing my head in having to rate countless on "music", "are great singers born with their talent". I've not even written in the music category! Grrrr very frustrating site!

If you find articles that are crap and of no interest to you press neutral and move on to other articles.

Waste of time, that.

You should be able to black list topics that you don't wish to read and have them listed as part of your profile, should you wish to unblock them at a later date.