Aug 03, 2001 02:52 PM
1692 Views
At heart we are all children. We are all looking for appreciation. As children, we looked for it from our elders but now we want our peers to appreciate us.
It is important to give to others what you expect from others. If you want others to read and rate your reviews, it is only fair that you do the same. However one must be careful to avoid rating a review above what it is worth just because one wants the other guy to give a similar rating as a return favour.
Each one may have a different standard when it comes to rating others reviews. It is important to be consistent no matter what your own criteria are. To be consistent we should be clear about our criteria.
Here are my criteria.
HR: I look for content that is useful, original or entertaining. It doesn't matter whether the opinion matches my own or not. It doesn't matter if the language skill displayed is poor as long as the contents are useful. Also I tend to give better ratings to those who write entertainingly even if the contents are not very useful. Thus I am liberal enough to give a HR if any of the above qualities are exhibited in reasonable abundance in the review.
R: I give this rating when the qualities I look for (as stated above) are present albeit in less measure.
SR: This rating is reserved for those who have very little to say and don't say it well.
NR: Is for those who have nothing of relevance to say. Their only objective is to add numbers to their count of reviews. I also give this rating when the author is being deliberately obnoxious only to get many reads.
Apart from this I am a little more liberal when a new member writes a review. This is also an occasion to pass on a few tips to the new comer in the comments section. I also think it is our duty to write a comment when we rate below recommended. This comment should offer objective reasons for the poor rating.
I think as a writer I would be immensely encouraged if more people wrote comments even while giving high ratings. I do understand that the minimum word limit of 10 words does become an irritant. However there isn't much worthwhile you can say in under 10 words. ''Keep it up'' may be good enough as a comment only for a new member.
If we have to make Mouthshut more vibrant, the comment section is where it should all be happening. This is the most interactive part of MS.
