I guess it just depends on if it seems like they tried or they just wrote useless ramblings.

Yea I agree, I don't see how doing that is helpful to anyone or productive. I think some people have high expectations that when someone starts reviewing for the first time on EF that their review should be at a certain high standard or something. I have seen one particular individual who has left comments on hundreds of reviews, new ones, old ones, from different members. I would say 1 in 20 of those comments is something nice. The rest are nit-picky questions or comments like "why didn't you include this?" or asking a detailed question that really wouldn't matter in reality or for 99.9% of people using that product.

Personally if I feel a new reviewer is putting in effort and actually trying to do a good job, then they deserve a better vote and even some guidance. At least an offering of the mentor program, or a simple "If you have any questions feel free to ask me".

This is a good question. For first time reviewers, I always give them the benefit of the doubt. The use of a Mentor also shows a commitment to making their reviews better. When a contributor moves to the Advanced level, much is expected.

I know my first review wasn't too great, but I got a ton of helpful hints and tips from others in the comments. I vote based on how the review is generally.

I agree!

While I can see your point, I do not entirely agree. Giving a bad review a good rating just because they're new can be even more harmful than scaring them away. It says, "Your reviews are fantastic! Don't change a thing!" and then they're going to keep pumping out more awful reviews.

I don't throw bad votes around. Trust me. When I do vote someone bad, it's because they deserve it. I don't just vote them bad. I tell them WHY I voted them bad and I say I'm sorry that I had to do so. I ALWAYS recommend the Mentor Program for newbies who look like they need it and if they're only missing a few details, I'll vote them pretty good and tell them what they left out, as well as my suggestion (because even decent/good writers can benefit from the program).

If I feel like they put effort into it, even if it's not a fantastic review, I'll vote at least Useful, usually. However, I simply could not do that with the review that spawned this question. It was one of the worst reviews I'd ever read and they clearly did NO research. They didn't say what batteries it took or where they went. They didn't include any measurements at all. They didn't say what lubes and cleaning/storing situations are compatible. They didn't even say what it was made of! They clearly didn't know themselves, either, because they claimed the toy to be "not porous" when, in fact, it was made of jelly. Jelly! If that's not porous, I don't want to know what porous is. It only takes a few minutes to measure a toy with a tape measure (or online ruler like I started out with) and it CERTAINLY only takes a second to look on the product page and see that a toy is made of the worst material known to toy-kind.

I was being honest and I told them everything that was wrong (though I think I forgot to mention their lack of battery information). I was being helpful because now they know what they did wrong. I even told them how to find the material pages from now on and showed them the page on jelly. The person who commented below me, however, did way more harm than I did. They voted "Extremely Useful" and said they thought it was a good review and maybe they could get a mentor. This person has never written a single review and was, some days ago, asking how they could get free toys. If the writer chooses to ignore my constructive criticism and focus only on the "good", they're going to continue to be a terrible writer.

I am definitely with you. This was my first review: link I definitely expect the same level of quality from beginners as more advanced reviewers and will only be a little lenient on missed details if it looks like they tried.

Obviously when I was new, I did my research and I cared how useful I was being. I wasn't just here for the free toys and the ranking (which can only go down if you do badly, anyway). It does no good to vote bad reviews highly and don't tell them what they did wrong because then they're going to keep being bad. I get so mad when I'm looking for a review for a product I'm interested in and all I get is complete crap from newbies and people who never told them they're bad when they were newbies (or who just don't care).

Like it or not, these horrible writers are going to be Advanced Reviewers. It is far too easy to get voted in and since horrible writers get voted in, horrible writers vote for other horrible writers to get in. So free toys are being taken out from under the feet of good writers so that they can dish out sub-par reviews. I can't stand this and THAT is why I vote honestly.

This!

I'll sometimes read a not so great review and think "Well, they're still learning." but then scroll down and see the reviewer has written like 80 reviews.

depends