Review Ratings

I agree completely. I assume a review is going to be "useful" before I read it, then determine if it's "extremely" "somewhat" or "not useful at all" based on the information (or lack thereof) provided in the review. I'm not saying you have to be super detailed giving every chemical in the material makeup with the scientific equation of elements or anything, but general precautions (like glycerin or paraben) in lubricants, or latex allergy info is important, and so if that is missing, I might be concerned. Also, if there's not a lot of detail about their experience other than "I liked/hated this", it's not useful to me, because what one person may like, another person might not.

I don't think it may be a "low-vote retaliation" situation, but maybe confusion on the voting. Maybe putting "somewhat useful" because they don't think the product would work for them, not based on if the review is informative.

THAT is what I mean by being confused on whether a product is useful or if a review is useful. Voting on reviews should be based on the information provided, not whether you'd like a toy.

I really wouldn't worry bout it, especially if they vote consistently for everyone. People also sometimes cast the wrong vote by accident. I'm pretty sure I've done that before.

Yes, I've cast a vote wrong before, but I'm pretty sure I have put in the comments that the vote was cast incorrectly.

If you are noticing an ongoing pattern of down voting by a particular person on reviews in general or directed toward one or two other people you can report it to EF staff and they will look into it.

I have noticed this too!

I notice a few people doing it, but I have no proof. I do not think its that they are down voting, I think it has something to do with points. I even notice a member doing somewhat useful and commenting ".....", that member was dealt with (don't know if his/her vote stayed up though). I go through the persons profile and see what they been up to (if possible), I found one member who I thought might have been just random voting and not reading so I looked in his/her profile and found the follow and unfollow trick.

Its tricky for the staff, I mean, the person could really have found it somewhat useful and they do not want to punish someone for that. I know that can be hard to understand when so many found it extremely useful and you put so much effort and time into it.

So for me, I have a small list in my mind of those users I feel might be doing it for the Eden point system and if they vote negative on my reviews (which they have) I disregard them. I understand it may hurt rank and your reviews overall rating, but hopefully I get enough ex. useful reviews to counter it.

One thing I do not understand is, If you are going to do this just for the points... why do they have to be so negative in the voting? why not be positive? you get the same amount of points for all ratings. I understand that voting positive for points is just as wrong as voting negative for the points but I just do not under stand the negativity sometimes.

I've had someone accidentally cast the wrong vote, they apologized and let me know how they really felt, I ended up feeling bad because they felt bad for making the mistake

I haven't seen anyone vote and leave a comment like that. I have been thinking about the points program, though, and the thought of following/unfollowing someone did cross my mind. I am not considering it, though I was curious if they had set blocks against it.

It's sad that wherever an incentive is offered, someone's there to take advantage of it

That is a good point, thanks for bringing that up

If it is a pattern, then yes, sometimes. I believe I have noticed the same person as you. I am not sure if they have been reported or not. You could message Kristi about your concerns.

I've noticed this person too. I think if several people have noticed this pattern, someone should email Kristi. I don't think I've personally been subjected to this person on my own reviews, so I don't think it's fair for me to say if this is an intentional behavior.

I think they're negative in voting because maybe they think it seems as though they've read the review.

Just to clarify, repeatedly following and then unfollowing is against the EoC and therefore is not allowed.

I sometimes suspect that people vote lower on a review just because they don't agree with your assessment of a toy.

Yeah, I've gotten that and really thought it was weird.

This especially burns me when they do not leave a comment explaining why they downvoted! How would you have suggested the reviewer improve? Please be constructive, if you have a good suggestion on how one of the reviews could improve, please let the reviewer know!

As was pointed out in another thread a few weeks back, sometimes people meant to vote higher, or even thought they did, but some technical error gets in the way. That might not explain the majority, but twice now I've had people message me apologies for this happening on my reviews, so clearly it does happen.

A lot of times the reviewers that vote low do so and the comments as to why are already there, so they don't say anything at all. Some people find it rude to voice the same concerns repeatedly.

Some people said they message the reviewer as to why they voted that way, but again, some people won't answer because they feel they don't need to defend their votes. Here's a thread on that.

I agree that repetative comments serve no purpose, but I do think that the point of voting is not only to tell others if the review is helpful, but also to help the reviewer. It's not about defending your vote, it's trying to be helpful

Just because a product has been reviewed by people before shouldn't affect how another review for the same product is rated.

It doesn't. However, if you offer nothing new and/or do not have have your own voice I will not vote extremely useful. That is my view on things. And I'm talking about HIGHLY reviewed products like the hitachi, not on something that has 5 or 10 reviews.