Rating lower than the average for the wrong reasons

Mauri wrote:

sugarnspice wrote:

If an asthmatic wrote a brilliant review on Neurofen and gave it the thumbs up i'd probably end up marking the review down. Why? Because Ashmatics aren't supposed to take neurofen. The review might well be brilliant in every way but I would be well within my rights to downrate.

Asthmatics aren't advised to take neurofen (ibuprofen) but many do without any bad effects. Surely if the person stated in the review that it was not advisable for an asthmatic to take it but went on to write a good review then why mark down solely on this point?

I was using one of my earliest reviews as an example here. I wrote a review on neurofen and I suffer from Asthma. In the review I mentioned i'd got asthma so couldn't take certain medicines but not once did I mention that Asthmatics aren't advised to take Neurofen. I simply stated something along the lines of "as an asthma sufferer I can't take certain painkillers but Neurofen works brilliantly for me"

Dave (known as dididave at that time) picked up on my contradiction and lack of warning for other Asthma sufferers but he didn't rate it down. I'm sure his shortsharpshock alter ego wouldn't have let me get away with it these days though.

I think in a case like that it may have been wise to put that although you are asthmatic, each case is individual and to seek the advice of your GP.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

I think in a case like that it may have been wise to put that although you are asthmatic, each case is individual and to seek the advice of your GP.

Yes exactly! But I only added that info after the error was pointed out to me. If i'd not edited the review and added that info I could've hardly complained about getting lower ratings due to someone other than Dave noticing the error.

Actually I think in a case such as that, it would be irresponsible not to edit, because there may actually be asthmatics that read it and think "It's ok for her, so it's ok for me".

Thingywhatsit wrote:

Actually I think in a case such as that, it would be irresponsible not to edit, because there may actually be asthmatics that read it and think "It's ok for her, so it's ok for me".

If it hadn't been pointed out to me I wouldn't have thought to edit it. Was only cos in the old days Dave was such a community loving creep that he ever so nicely pointed it out to me.

Anyway medicines are a bad example here.

Yeh but think about it Erika, when you read a review on a product you may be interested in, do you honestly read the comments ? (As a consumer not as a curious member). I don't and I am sure there must be millions out there that rely upon the review to tell it like it is, especially people that are new to the internet. Researching things when I first got on here, I would only read a review and not even think that comments existed.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

Yeh but think about it Erika, when you read a review on a product you may be interested in, do you honestly read the comments ? (As a consumer not as a curious member). I don't and I am sure there must be millions out there that rely upon the review to tell it like it is, especially people that are new to the internet. Researching things when I first got on here, I would only read a review and not even think that comments existed.

I'm not talking about the comments, you nincompoop

Medicine is a bad example like I said but the one point I was trying to make was I wrote a review which gave the impression that Neurofen is great for Asthmatics when in actual fact it's NOT recommended for asthmatics. This was a pretty major error I made which could have led to asthmatic consumers taking something which could have had a bad effect on them.

I gave my opinion, yes. Casual consumers got the right info, NO.

Think of another example for me to have a go at Rachel cos medicines are always going to be a controversial review/rating subject anyway.

Okay I wrote a review which was stupid. My rabbit loves a guinea pig treat. He really is enthused about it and loves it. I wrote a review from the stance that my rabbit eats it and was rated how I deserved, because I had not thought about the poor bunnies out there that might actually be made ill by the stuff.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

Okay I wrote a review which was stupid. My rabbit loves a guinea pig treat. He really is enthused about it and loves it. I wrote a review from the stance that my rabbit eats it and was rated how I deserved, because I had not thought about the poor bunnies out there that might actually be made ill by the stuff.

So your review could well be worth VH/E in 99% of peoples eyes because as far as they're concerned you've told them everything they could possibly want to know about the guinea pig treat. As a direct result of your review some of the readers may even treat their own bunny to the guinea pig treats which your bunny loves.

But what if i'd previously tried this guinea pig treat on my rabbit and the rabbit had become very ill resulting in a trip to the vets? Vet gives me a ticking off for feeding him the guinea pig treats and tells me bunnies should stick to bunny treats because their diet is different. With my prior experience and knowledge it goes without saying i'd rate it much lower than VH/E.



Going back to the first post on this thread. Lisa2062 said

"people rate down for the following reasons, they don't agree with your opinion, don't like the product"

You'll always get the occasional divvy who aint got a clue how to rate properly but sometimes, just sometimes, it is OK to rate down because you don't agree with an opinion/don't like the product. This is where the comment section comes in handy (not many people on Ciao/Dooyoo know how to comment properly though which is what causes half the problems)

Quote :

it is OK to rate down because you don't agree with an opinion/don't like the product.

Yes it is alright, IF you think that the review involved contains inaccuracies about the product, but NOT just because you don't like it, in the case of a review being totally accurate in its' description.

I think that you should rate what you feel is right for the review, I still have pride in what I write , so what mine is rated is also important to me, as it means that hey I got it right people have enjoyed what I have submitted. Saying this if I have a stray one that is sh, nh, h etc then I am not going to worry too much if the majority say something else as everyone is entitled to their opinion. It would be nice if some do low rate your review to tell you why though, just out of courtesy. lyn x

sugarnspice wrote:

Thingywhatsit wrote:

Actually I think in a case such as that, it would be irresponsible not to edit, because there may actually be asthmatics that read it and think "It's ok for her, so it's ok for me".

If it hadn't been pointed out to me I wouldn't have thought to edit it. Was only cos in the old days Dave was such a community loving creep that he ever so nicely pointed it out to me.

Anyway medicines are a bad example here.

So were you so na Anyway merely strengthens my argument that medications of any form should not be on ciao. If you have no medical expertise you cannot write a truly safe and helpful review without doing some serious research and even then your opinion of the product could be potentially, if entirely unintentionally harmful (as in the example above).

I agree, medical reviews have the potential of being very harmful without meaning to be.
As some of you have stated, I agree that a review should be rated down, if you have a good knowledge of that product and feel something vital has been left out. In these cases I do feel it would be nice for that rater to let you know. I would feel bad if I recommended a printer and didn't realize that it wouldn't connect to certain computers, and someone went out and bought one and found this.
In these cases I'd hope someone would pick me up on this so I could re-edit my review accordingly. Lisa x

So were you so na Anyway merely strengthens my argument that medications of any form should not be on ciao. If you have no medical expertise you cannot write a truly safe and helpful review without doing some serious research and even then your opinion of the product could be potentially, if entirely unintentionally harmful (as in the example above).[/quote]


Got to agree with that - Ciao shouldn't allow them to be on the site. As lisa said, if I wrote a review that was wrong or inaccurate, I'd hope that someone would mark me 'Not helpful' and tell me why. With medicines, it's a little more serious than that. Potentially, someone could take the wrong medication or too much etc. based on someone else's experiences.

No, no, no!

medicine reviews are fine.

hopefully some of the gullible people on Ciao/Dooyoo will believe them, take the medicine and it will be a few less stoopid people to shake your head at when you read their reviews.