Rating Reviews

Contributor: CuteDee CuteDee
When rating a toy review, how honest are you? Do you take the time to read through the whole review or do you always rate the same?

I find most of the toy reviews very well written and give mostly everyone an excellent. I work hard on my reviews and try to give alot of information.
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Contributor: K101 K101
I read the entire review and am honest. I'd never be so disrespectful as to just carelessly rate without reading. That's not fair. I'd never give an unfair rating no matter what. If you can't take the time to fully read the person's review and respect them enough to give them an actual honest rating then you shouldn't be rating at all. I don't think I've ever given a negative or poor rating, but I won't just give ratings just for my own benefit. I respect the people who take so much time on their reviews.
06/17/2011
Contributor: ToyGurl ToyGurl
Quote:
Originally posted by CuteDee
When rating a toy review, how honest are you? Do you take the time to read through the whole review or do you always rate the same?

I find most of the toy reviews very well written and give mostly everyone an excellent. I work hard on my ... more
I have noticed a lot of people who just say "Great review" when the review is obviously horrible. Most likely, these people are fishing for points.

I am always very honest. If it's someone who has written 30-something reviews, and there is only a little good info, I let them know and I rate accordingly.

If it's someone's first review, I honestly do try to give them a head start push and always rate "Useful" at LEAST. I will comment them and say "You could add..." or "I liked how you mentioned...".
06/17/2011
Contributor: Ivy Wilde Ivy Wilde
I always read the review all the way through, give the rating that I think it deserves and try to make some sort of relevant comment about it. However, I admit that sometimes, if I can't think of anything interesting to say, I will simply say, "Thanks for the review" or some similar generic statement. But I do really try to come up with something interesting to say. Sometimes, I'm just tired and my brain doesn't co-operate.
06/17/2011
Contributor: aliceinthehole aliceinthehole
Quote:
Originally posted by ToyGurl
I have noticed a lot of people who just say "Great review" when the review is obviously horrible. Most likely, these people are fishing for points.

I am always very honest. If it's someone who has written 30-something reviews, ... more
'If it's someone's first review, I honestly do try to give them a head start push and always rate "Useful" at LEAST. I will comment them and say "You could add..." or "I liked how you mentioned...".'


good tip, thanks!

06/23/2011
Contributor: ToyGurl ToyGurl
Quote:
Originally posted by aliceinthehole
'If it's someone's first review, I honestly do try to give them a head start push and always rate "Useful" at LEAST. I will comment them and say "You could add..." or "I liked how you mentioned...".'


good tip, thanks!

No problem! I just think it's not 100% fair to start people off with bad ratings. They may not know how things work quite yet.
06/24/2011
Contributor: DeliciousSurprise DeliciousSurprise
Quote:
Originally posted by ToyGurl
I have noticed a lot of people who just say "Great review" when the review is obviously horrible. Most likely, these people are fishing for points.

I am always very honest. If it's someone who has written 30-something reviews, ... more
I think that's kind of misleading.

If a review isn't useful? Then I'm going to say so. Letting someone think their bad review isn't bad isn't helping them: it's indicating to them that their shitty review was enough to compete with other (validly) useful reviews.


And I really wish people wouldn't do this. I see it happening a lot, where people vote 'extremely useful' on a review that wasn't even useful.

I'm getting off on a tangent, now, but things like this are why there's the tendency to rate higher than the review is really worth.
06/24/2011
Contributor: BBW Talks Toys BBW Talks Toys
Quote:
Originally posted by DeliciousSurprise
I think that's kind of misleading.

If a review isn't useful? Then I'm going to say so. Letting someone think their bad review isn't bad isn't helping them: it's indicating to them that their shitty review was enough ... more
I agree. While I don't feel it's necessary to bash a reviewer's attempt at offering their opinion on a product, it's not really constructive to tell them they're fantastic when they're not.

I think that offering advice, explaining the mentor program and how it works, or even a PRIVATE message telling them how they can improve on their skills is the better, more constructive way to go. Telling someone they're doing great when they're not is lying and no one really benefits from lying.
06/24/2011
Contributor: Ivy Wilde Ivy Wilde
Quote:
Originally posted by BBW Talks Toys
I agree. While I don't feel it's necessary to bash a reviewer's attempt at offering their opinion on a product, it's not really constructive to tell them they're fantastic when they're not.

I think that offering ... more
If I don't feel that I can honestly rate a review as at least "somewhat useful", I generally just don't give it any rating. Maybe that skews that system, but I just don't feel comfortable being that negative about someone. Especially when you can see that they are a highly ranked member within the community. I'm frankly afraid to give them a negative rating for fear of retaliation.

Maybe if your ratings were anonymous, it would make it easier to give a negative rating.
06/24/2011
Contributor: Wondermom Wondermom
Quote:
Originally posted by Ivy Wilde
If I don't feel that I can honestly rate a review as at least "somewhat useful", I generally just don't give it any rating. Maybe that skews that system, but I just don't feel comfortable being that negative about someone. ... more
Most of the higher ranked members are very open to constructive criticism, if you feel a review is that bad then why not message them and suggest what they could change.

I agree with delicious surprise and BBW talks toys, I rate honestly and I expect the same, if you are wondering why I rated you a certain way my message box is open, and if you think I can improve something just let me know
06/24/2011
Contributor: DeliciousSurprise DeliciousSurprise
Quote:
Originally posted by Ivy Wilde
If I don't feel that I can honestly rate a review as at least "somewhat useful", I generally just don't give it any rating. Maybe that skews that system, but I just don't feel comfortable being that negative about someone. ... more
Once upon a time, there was anonymous voting (which is why if you look at reviews that are 2+ years old, they have no names attached). Apparently people were abusing it, so they made it public.


You should not fear retaliation; if you think someone is backlash voting, you can (and SHOULD) take it to the Eden staff. Rate people the way you think they deserve to be rated, not how everyone else thinks they ought to be rated.
06/24/2011
Contributor: Jul!a Jul!a
Quote:
Originally posted by Ivy Wilde
If I don't feel that I can honestly rate a review as at least "somewhat useful", I generally just don't give it any rating. Maybe that skews that system, but I just don't feel comfortable being that negative about someone. ... more
I'm ok with a vote of somewhat useful or lower on my own reviews with a reason. That reason could be left as a comment on one of my reviews or sent to me as a private message. As long as you have what feels to be a very valid reason to you, I'm more than happy to hear it out and change what I can if I can. Most of the reviewers here are.

And if anybody, even a higher ranked member within the community, ever retaliates against you, let us know. It's against the rules to start downvoting based on a vote you got, and if somebody is deliberately rating your reviews low because you honestly rated one or two of theirs low, email Kristi with links. You shouldn't be afraid to vote honestly.
06/24/2011
Contributor: BBW Talks Toys BBW Talks Toys
If someone doesn't leave me a reason to a lower vote, I've also contacted them, especially if I've gotten EU or U votes from people who I wouldn't think would lie to me, I will message them privately and ask them why. Not because I'm angry, but as a way to improve. I ask them, "Is there something missing that you would have liked to have seen in my review? Did I not include pertinent information?" I've clarified that the information WAS there or added the information later. Or I have deliberately left something out of a text review to highlight it in the video. I've learned to add a note to my reviews saying "If you're curious about how this works, check out my video review because it will be discussed there as it's better to show than tell!" Sometimes, they can even hit the wrong tab and feel terrible.

If they don't respond, I don't harass them for it, but generally, I'm interested in knowing what I can do to improve my reviews.

I even did this on a proofreader's vote for a review for a student where I was rated "poor." I had missed a number of things. I wasn't upset, I was glad to find the errors I'd missed and ask my student to fix them.
06/24/2011
Contributor: Eucaly Eucaly
Quote:
Originally posted by CuteDee
When rating a toy review, how honest are you? Do you take the time to read through the whole review or do you always rate the same?

I find most of the toy reviews very well written and give mostly everyone an excellent. I work hard on my ... more
There is one way in which I'm not completely honest: a review must be very frustrating or questionable for me to vote badly on it. I know how much people are penalized (how much their rating goes down) for bad votes, so I'm very shy about voting badly. I feel like, if I'm going to hurt people, the reason needs to be strongly justified!

If the penalty for the reviewer wasn't so harsh, I would feel more comfortable giving out harsh criticism on reviews that are overall good but have a few nitpicky problems. I suppose this is one disadvantage to the community EdenFantasys has formed here. People afraid to step on other people's toes.

I sometimes do skip over sections in a review, but I don't think that's dishonest. Isn't that basically what the long-form reviews are for? So that if you're already familiar with the properties of silicone you can skip over the materials section and don't have to read several paragraphs about how silicone tastes and smells and what lube you should use with it and how it attracts lint and how you shouldn't let it be stored in contact with other silicone toys?

I know a lot of people complain about "great review" and things like that, but coming up with a detailed, well-written summary of a review is a lot of work to do and rather pointless. Once you're writing a review of a review, isn't that kind of redundant? Yet people benefit from every comment left, so I don't think review replies are an issue unless people leave something very suspicious such as the exact same text on every review they reply to, or habitual smilies and nothing else. And I think those people already get warned by staff, don't they?
06/24/2011
Contributor: BBW Talks Toys BBW Talks Toys
Quote:
Originally posted by Eucaly
There is one way in which I'm not completely honest: a review must be very frustrating or questionable for me to vote badly on it. I know how much people are penalized (how much their rating goes down) for bad votes, so I'm very shy about ... more
Actually, you should check out Tim's lube compatibility workshop you might find that you learn something about materials and lube that you didn't know before!
06/24/2011
Contributor: BBW Talks Toys BBW Talks Toys
Quote:
Originally posted by Eucaly
There is one way in which I'm not completely honest: a review must be very frustrating or questionable for me to vote badly on it. I know how much people are penalized (how much their rating goes down) for bad votes, so I'm very shy about ... more
How hard is it to come up with a well-thought-out comment that's not a review of the review?

I try to pick out a particular point of their review that speaks out to me or reply to one of their jokes. For instance, if a first time reviewer has a great review, I'll point out that it was a really great first review. On Jobthingy's latest review I comment about making a gun out of one of my vibes so we can have a war. Or, "So sad that it didn't work out for you, I wish that they had done a better job and making it flexible for different anatomies." It doesn't have to be a review of the review, just a comment showing that you did, in fact, read the review and aren't just saying "great review" to get the 3 points.

The only time I write lengthy comments on reviews is if I have questions or comments about things that they said that was unclear or wrong.
06/24/2011
Contributor: P'Gell P'Gell
I don't vote unless I've had time to read the entire review. It does seem like there is some pressure to vote higher ranking reviewers EU most of the time. I do try to be honest. Sometimes, if I know someone tried, and it wasn't a great review, (but not horrible) I don't vote. I know, maybe that's silly, but everyone misses sometimes.

If it looks like a rush job, and not done well, I will vote honestly.

I try to give either constructive criticism, if the review was in any way lacking, or ask a question that I have, or make a comment on something in the review. I don't just say, "Good review." My vote will say that, if it was.

I feel I have to read the entire review, or I don't vote. Even the often said things, people sometimes give incorrect information, and IMO, people should be reading other reviews to KNOW that information. (I know I read all the product comments and information about materials before I started to write reviews.) Things like calling a silicone toy "rubber" or really poor cleaning directions, or comments that were not accurate about the toy or its functions it will reflect on their rating.
06/24/2011
Contributor: Envy Envy
I try to vote accordingly and honestly, and yes, i read the whole review. Unless it's just plain BAD, then I really can't be wasting my time sitting there and reading something so bogus.
06/24/2011
Contributor: KnK KnK
Quote:
Originally posted by DeliciousSurprise
I think that's kind of misleading.

If a review isn't useful? Then I'm going to say so. Letting someone think their bad review isn't bad isn't helping them: it's indicating to them that their shitty review was enough ... more
Sometimes I wonder if people are nervous to rate a review based on how they actually feel about it because people can see their names. :/

It's not like I think this is a widespread epidemic, but I can the usefulness of private and public voting. I try not to come off as harsh, and usually if I leave comments, it's only for reviewers that I think are useful. If I don't find a review useful, I don't know what to say. Being a new reviewer is a little scary and I don't want to bite anyone's head off.
06/24/2011
Contributor: dette dette
I Read The Whole Thing.
11/22/2011
Contributor: Willow Wand Willow Wand
I was going to say that I read the whole review, but after reading some of your comments, it made me remember the time that I rated a Pure Wand review. They didn't say anything about the actual toy, just what it did to them. And on top of that they gave it a 5/5 Vrooms, when CLEARLY it would be n/a because a Pure Wand doesn't vibrate. Unless...am I not understanding the vrooms, cause now I see that the wand has an overall rating of 4/5....how?
11/23/2011