Read, Re read, then rate. Review on Rating Reviews on MouthShut

It's the season for giving - and what could be better than giving away free advice? Ho Ho Ho.

Rating a review must be the most debated issue on MS. Before I go into how a review should be rated, I would like to point out to the writers that a review should be written to share your opinion and not just to get a High Rating.

That said, a reader or rather a serious rater (I have noticed that many people read a review but not all of them rate the same.) should preferably re-read a review before assigning her ratings. When you first read a review you're actually just soaking in what the writer has said. If after the first reading you rate the review you will be rating the opinion of the writer not the way she has presented the thoughts. In such a scenario you will (even unintentionally) give a high rating if you agree to the thoughts presented and vice versa.

Please remember that the rating is not just for the thoughts and clarity but also for the presentation.

I suggest (OK I confess, this is the ideal way to do the ratings, but even I cannot follow it all the times.) that one should judge the review on four aspects (atleast).

1. The facts presented. Simply put whether you agree with what the person is saying, or not.

Plus whether you feel that the person is only trying to advertise / degrade the said product or service.

Give it a weightage of 25%

1. The clarity - Whether she is able to easily put forth what is in her mind. Or is it a jumble of thoughts without any clear picture being formed in the mind of the reader. This is important and should carry a weight of 30%

   
   




2. Grammar and spellings. Everyone knows what this means. Also according to me this is very important and should carry the highest weightage of 35%. This is because even if someone wants to say something very important but cannot put it forth in clear, precise language without spelling errors then you are not going to recommend that people read that review.

   
   

If you do not agree with me you can always decide what weight you want to give to this aspect.

1. The Comments. Not very important hence only 10%. Also this is definitely not available to the first reader. And also to many readers after that unless the first commentator stops by. To go off topic for just a moment, why don't most readers comment ? Even if its just Well said buddy, I think commenting rather than rating is more important to a review. I guess that commenting on comments should be another review so coming back to this topic I am sure many veterans to this site are Staring open mouthed at their monitors when I say Read the Comments before you rate.

But I say so because when you read comments you come to know what are the good and bad points of the review (whether in what was said in the review or how it was said.) according to other readers. Also suppose you read something that you felt was wrong, possibly someone may have pointed that out and the writer might have already presented the facts to prove that what he had said was infact the truth. I am sure that reading the comments would really help you assign the correct ratings that the review deserves. Hey unless your intention is otherwise.

Also and a point I believe has been oft said on MS in various reviews. If you are giving a rating which is SR or NR please explain why? Leave a comment explaining your reasons. I believe many writers had pleaded with MS to make it mandatory for users rating SR and NR to compulsorily leave a comment. I do not know if the same has been done but if not I think it should be implemented at the earliest.

As was said earlier ratings should be judged on atleast the above four aspect. Actually there are a lot more things that you might want to look at before rating a review. One could be the Length of the review - whether it is too short or too long than required. Second could be the knowledge which you felt the writer actually had about the subject. Similarly I am sure you yourself can add atleast 10 other aspects on which you might want to consider when rating reviews. So decide on all the aspects and only then should you wield the mighty weapon of rating.

GO FORTH THEN, AND RATE WELL. GOD SHALL WATCH OVER YOU.

PS : Please note that the opening words of this review have been ummmm shall we say ''borrowed'' from a news paper article.

Before I end this review I

Wish all the readers and the MS staff

A merry X-Mas and a happy new year.