I believe those new contributors are rating how useful the "product" is to them, not how useful the review is.

I've noticed the same thing. I think Rossie is right about people rating how useful the product it to them, rather than how useful the review is as a whole. I think some people just do it out of spite

That's one assumption...

The other is that they are giving an honest vote. I know that's hard to swallow, but their rating could very well be how they honestly feel about your review.

Why is it so difficult to believe somebody my have had a difference of opinion and/or didn't like your review?

People sometimes just dont like reviews. Some people prefer shorter concise reviews over long and detailed. Just how it is.

YES i've had that happen on a lot of my reviews and it reallllly irks me. i think a lot of the time it is spite or your opinion of the product didnt agree with theirs (you'll notice they sometimes have recently posted a review for the same product) so they mark you lower because of opinion instead of usefulness. but there really isnt anything you can do about the pettiness of others

Honestly, who cares? U and SU are still GOOD VOTES, geez.

The only time it bothers me is when I have ALL EU votes and all the information is there but then there is one person who put "Not Useful At All" but the U and SU don't bother me too much.

I consider myself to be strict reviewer when reading people reviews. I do give out EUs but you must be very detailed in your description. Also if it is a toy I prefer if there are some pictures of it, though this is not required for me to give EUs. My wife believes that to get an EU you must be grammatically correct, I'm not that skilled at writing so I tend to not judge on that criteria.

This one is hard but yes I see it all the time, I can have 20 EU votes and 1 useful. SO yes I believe that it is the there is one in every crowd.

Here's what I've learned:

Do your best in every review. Show us your best effort. Give potential consumers all the details that they need in order to make a decision about purchasing the product that you're reviewing. Leave no question unanswered. Don't leave information out because it "technically doesn't need to be in there." Don't cut corners.

Once you've done that, and you know that you've written a damn good review, forget about the votes. Let the review speak for itself.

Occasionally I'll accidentally hit NU when trying to vote... so sometimes this may be the case. However, some people have higher standards for what a review should contain. If it's just a rehash of the other reviews already out there (especially when there are already a lot) then it may not be useful to that person, and they didn't find the information that would have made the review EU to that person.
I notice that some reviews are rated EU when they're barely a paragraph or two, and I didn't get any new information out of that particular review. I'm sure most people are just voting with the crowd, and voting high to raise the rank of contributors in the hopes that they'll do the same (even though votes are now anonymous).

Not everyone has the same opinion on a review, looks for the same thing in a review, or votes the way they do to follow the crowd - if that were the case, there'd only ever need to be one vote total on each.

An opinion is just that: an opinion. You may not have that one piece of information a customer is looking for, or it's buried so they can't find it, and they may rate accordingly. Most customers aren't looking to find "everything but the kitchen sink" - it may be something specific that they're looking for information on for that product, and they just don't see it. That gives the review a different sense of usefulness to them, which may or may not agree with what others think and how others are voting.

If you wrote a review you're happy with, then be happy with it.

I think some people just don't have the best toys! If they don't have the best toys then that might equal to lack of orgasms which equal to frustration which equal to constipation and then they give you a bad vote for no reason.

just happens I think

When I read a review that is not even worth it, I just don't vote. That way I don't bring up that contributors review for others to see it and have it waste their time too.

I'm a little like Kindled. If I don't like a review, I often won't vote, but will leave a comment with what I thought could be improved.

As a reviewer, it's always frustrating when someone doesn't like something. I'm such a perfectionist that if I don't have all EU's, then I'm mad at myself. I know everyone has their own opinions and if they don't like my review or the way I do reviews, then that's okay. As long as most people enjoy them I'll be alright. Or at least that's what I tell myself when I'm obsessing over it.

When I start reading a review, I usually have a few basic questions in my mind. If the review didn't answer or address them all, I don't give it an EU rating. I don't think I'm a "strict" voter, I do vote EU on a lot of reviews.

I find the thought that ratings under EU are somehow insulting is odd. EU is the top rating. Not all reviews are going to be perfect, even if they are good. Useful is still a good vote, and somewhat useful is neutral.

Also, about the use of the word "useful" on the rating system: Not everyone votes the same and they may think the poll is asking how useful the review and/or product would be to THEM specifically.

Write the review that makes you happy. Don't pay attention to your ratings. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Not everyone will have the same opinion.

I vote lower than most people usually. Generally I think this is because I'm a perfectionist. If something isn't as good as I think it should be, I get annoyed. OCPD, what can I say? I know I've voted U on things with all EU votes before and wondered why everyone was voting EU.

On the flip side, I know there are reviews that I vote EU on that have, like, 20+ EU votes and one SU. Makes you wonder what that voter didn't like if it was an honest vote.

I no longer look at my votes. Or at least I try not to. I spent a lot of time obsessing over them, again because I'm a perfectionist. Anything less than the best isn't good enough for me. I stressed badly over anything less than U. So I stopped looking at them because it was making me not want to review anymore. I enjoy reviewing. I now review mostly on my blog anyhow, so no voting to bum me out. I know in my mind that I write detailed, good reviews and that's what I try to stay focused on. Not always easy, mind you, but I try.

I agree that anything under a 'Useful' vote makes me feel irritated, and not because someone dared to rate my review lower than I'd hoped, but because when that happens I [italics|never] see a comment added as to what could be improved about my review. I at least want to know what I need to fix if there was something, or if the voter was just having a bad day and it wasn't really about my review. To me, getting a 'Somewhat Useful' vote without a comment is like getting a 'C' on a test without the teacher marking any of my answers wrong.