Rating Query

Right, so...

do you believe that a review should be rated NU simply because someone disagrees with your taste ?

MODERATED BY ADMIN.

This really annoys me when a rating is based on someone not agreeing with what is written.

If it is a factual error that is beyond dispute then that is fine to adjsut the rating accordingly however when it is a subjective view that is different.

The only time I could see myself rating someone down for their opinion is if I felt it was racist or some other "ist" that I had a strong view about.

yeah, true

in this case though it's simply down to the fact i've basically said a certain album is, for want of a better word..... crap, and this person doesn't agree - which in my opinion isn't a reason to NH me when i've still included all the information you'd need.

They will not be aware of it but that is basically an abuse issue. I would drop a message in their GB telling them to look at the terms and conditions and explain that disagreeing with an opinion is not the reason to give a NH. If it bothers you and they will not reconsider then report to abuse.

shall drop a message in their gb then and await a reply....

ta people.

Think here it might be helpful to be polite, show them the guidelines on rating and tell them that ratings should be based on review content, rather than likes or dislikes.

I had this recently with a new member. he rated about half a dozen of my reviews as NH, when I asked why he said because he had tried the product/had the product and didn't like it.

I reminded him it was the review you rate not the product, but he kept doing it. I mentioned it again and he just kept saying he had forgot that was how it was done......

Stupid thing is, he added me to his COT but has not rated any more of my reviews since.....

Some people are strange!

But if you look at comments on a review you've read you can see that this happens quite often.

People give a low rating because they don't like the company (and leave a 'soapbox comment'), disagree with its policies or sometimes don't like the product and go on to say in their comment that they know a better one and then name it! It isn't just new Ciaoers who do it either.

Mum52 wrote:

But if you look at comments on a review you've read you can see that this happens quite often.

People give a low rating because they don't like the company (and leave a 'soapbox comment'), disagree with its policies or sometimes don't like the product and go on to say in their comment that they know a better one and then name it! It isn't just new Ciaoers who do it either.

I disagree. They could rate down in that situation if they think you have missed a bit of info that would put the compnay into a different light for them. Its about how useful it is to each different person.

This is where Dooyoo are better. On Dooyoo, you can assign a product rating (star rating) to any product, whether or not you have written a review on it. Non-members can also assign a product rating (star rating) to any product. If A N Other member rates a review as NU because they don't like the product, it's easy just to explain to them that there are two things they can rate - 1) the product by giving it a number of stars and 2) the review and the bit where they get to use their rating to say they don't like the product is the star one, not the review one.

All my time on Doyoo and I never realised this, I will have to go and find it.

Me neither, but I have only popped into Dooyoo a couple of times.


How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision?


This is the question that is posed at the end of every persons review, and I think is what we need to bear in mind when rating...

It is now how we ourselves rate the product, or how it influenced us to buy but how useful it would be to someone if thinking of buying.

I always rate the review and not the product. If I do not argee with there opinion then I'll leave a comment on the review or in their guestbook.

This is something I've noticed and I find really infuriating. A few weeks ago I read a review which most people had rated H or VH. One person rated it as NH and had a rant about how it was disgusting and shouldn't be given to children (it was a food product). Whilst I agree with their sentiment about this particular item, I don't think the review should have been down rated just because they didn't like the product.

It happens the other way though doesn't it? Who hasn't received a VH from stating "I love this product" - you get the impression that you've received a good rating because you have the same taste as the rater, not because of your (fabulous) review?

We discussed this the other day, and it's something that bugs me too because it's not a matter of agreeing with others in what they say, it is a question of how accurate their review was about their experience of the product. If there are inaccuracies and you feel that the public is being mislead, then the comment section comes in extremely handy, although personally, as a consumer, I have read reviews and never comments, so would not have known they exist. In circumstances where the review is inaccurate, we have no alternative but to rate down, based on content and inaccuracies, which have nothing to do with us not liking a product, but in order to get the more accurate reviews to the top for the consumer.

But at the opposite end of the spectrum, if a person disagrees about the product - e.g. received food poisoning, upset stomach, caused problems elsewhere, damaged carpets etc etc then they are perfectly within their right to mark NH.

They are marking NH because they personally don't believe that the review would be helpful to the person making the purchasing decision because they are aware of alternate problems that may not have been experienced by the review writer.

A subject like this is cause for uproar as most raters think we should be rating the quality of the review writing, and perhaps information given, but as a rater we should be rating either on how WE found the product to be, and whether this review supports the decision to/not to purchase, or as a prospective purchaser.

Why do people have so many hangups about NH - yes it is used as a revenge rate, and when people use it just to say "NH - didn't like the product" then no this isn't a helpful comment or rate - but if someone marked it as "NH - I actually found a review misleading and informative, because in my personal experience this product gave my entire family food poisoning, and therefore I can't support the decision to use the review as a positive purchasing decision" and should be deemed acceptable.

Remember we are writing for the prospective consumer, not our friends.

EDITED TO BE LESS SPECIFIC.

Quote :

A subject like this is cause for uproar as most raters think we should be rating the quality of the review writing, and perhaps information given, but as a rater we should be rating either on how WE found the product to be, and whether this review supports the decision to/not to purchase, or as a prospective purchaser

Yes I agree. If you find inaccuracies in a review, then it's your duty to the buying public to rate the review low and perhaps even explain why so that the public should be informed if they find the review by accident.

Then take a look at reviews for example Sweetcollect. If someone had a positive experience with them and received their sweets, then they have a valid experience. It would be unfair to mark them down, even though your experience of them is really bad, because each consumers use of a site like this is individual to them.

Well no I don't agree that we are not allowed to rate low. Our rate is there to help a prospective buyer with a purchasing decision nothing else.

In an ideal work there should be two sets of rates.

1. Marking the reviewer for their efforts on a scale e.g.

1pt Basic information provided
2pt Adequate information to assist decision to purchase
3pt Sufficient information to provided to allow almost a stand alone decision
4pt Excellent level of information allowing the purchasing to use the review as a basis to purchase

2. The second set of ratings should be used to rate the product, like DooYoo, allowing the purchaser to see at a glance a variety of rates, and to assist them in making an informed decision.


If you take this as an example:

Joe Bloggs stumbles across Ciao looking for a review on a fridge. Every review he reads is rated VH - so he automatically assumes the product is excellent and he won't have any problems. Remember Joe Bloggs doesn't have the time to sit and read every review because he's a working man.

He buys the fridge, and two weeks later it breaks, leaking and staining his brand new carpet. Joe Bloggs curses Ciao because he used the reviewers rates received to help with his decision. Now it isn't all Ciao's fault because the site is designed to reward the reviewer and not aid the purchaser....but if you were in Joe's position wouldn't you have been better informed if you had been able to review a scale of rates which people had left about the PRODUCT itself, and not how Ciao Reviewer manages to write and decent tale.

I think I said you have a duty TO RATE LOW in circumstances where the product is described inaccurately.

But what if the reviewer HAS reviewed the product accurately based on their experience.

That's where problems arise.

That's why we need to sets of rates - one for the author, one for the product

Okay then the reviewer has reviewed according to their experience and their review is accurate. On ciao, it would be inappropriate to rate the review down if it is based on accurate information. Yes, two buttons would be enormously helpful in this case, one to rate the product - one to rate the review, but ciao would argue that that is where comments come in and is what the comments are intended for instead of "welcome to ciao, good op"

God yeah I completely agree about the comment situation.

Fine - say welcome to Ciao - BUT then mention something constructive about the review - kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

But why is it inappropriate to rate down when the review is merely there to assist a purchaser with a prospective purchase? It isn't there to say "Ooh well done, you got lots of E's"....it's there to say "look Joes Bloggs this is the information you may need to assist you with you purchase", and if AN Other disagrees they have the right to say as long as they CONSTRUCTIVELY do so, and without venom or revenge rates

The problem with Ciao is its more member based and people take it personal if they receive a low rate from another member...Another thing is the people that get the chance to rate are all basically part of an online community and tend to rate higher if they are in a doubt which to go for, I know as I do so myself.....I really have no hangups about how people rate me, I do however have other hangups......Wouldnt it be interesting if Ciao set up a facility for non members to be able to rate the reviews as well, that would be damn interesting......Good points Kelly........

Quote :

But why is it inappropriate to rate down when the review is merely there to assist a purchaser with a prospective purchase? It isn't there to say "Ooh well done, you got lots of E's"....it's there to say "look Joes Bloggs this is the information you may need to assist you with you purchase", and if AN Other disagrees they have the right to say as long as they CONSTRUCTIVELY do so, and without venom or revenge rates

I lost faith in ciao's rating structure a long time ago, working to try and achieve an exceptional review. I did that. It got nothing from premium fund, nothing at all and made me hate that damned E button even more than I did before. Before it was inroduced, ratings were more realistic. Introducing it has inflated egos and sent the site haywire.

I agree - the E rating should never have been introduced. It has caused controvosy, arguments, loss of faith and many more.

The only time I have ever welcomed the E button is when a member who is a notoriously hard rater (basically because they rate correctly and not fluffy) gave me an E for a review which he obviously thought I deserved.

That's why the E button shouldn't be used more than a month.

You could reserve reviews over a 30 day period and allocated one of those reviews an E...if u so wanted to.

As much as I love writing - and it is a great passion of mine - the continuous debates over why people don't accept my rates seriously frustrates me.