D20 Review Section Reputation

[JacktheRabbit]

Question for everyone here.

What would everyone think of a review script? 55 or 10 specifc questions that are either short answer or essay answer oriented that must be answered for a review to be considered a review.

 

[Crothian]

Question for everyone here.

What would everyone think of a review script? 55 or 10 specifc questions that are either short answer or essay answer oriented that must be answered for a review to be considered a review.

They'd have to be pretty general questions to cover all the different types of products. I think that would have the feel of being too confining. With the free form review system we do have people that focus on different areas. With the specific questions it means that many reviews will look very similiar.

 

[dreamthief]

Well I trust the reviewers. I'm grateful that there's someone who's rating the deluge of d20 products out there. I'd definitely go through a review before deciding on a purchase anyhow, and the rating isn't that crucial to me.

 

[Tsyr]

Question for everyone here.

What would everyone think of a review script? 55 or 10 specifc questions that are either short answer or essay answer oriented that must be answered for a review to be considered a review.

Thumbs down. A review is what the reviewer makes of it. Don't try to regulate it like that.

 

[Ghostwind]

I don't see the author of the review covering any sections at all. He says he won't go into detail of the module. So my main objection is that his entire review is fluff so that he meets the length requirement to keep his review from being deleted.

So despite the fact that Psion himself has said the review meets the requirements, because it doesn't fit your criteria it should be deleted?

What would everyone think of a review script? 5 or 10 specifc questions that are either short answer or essay answer oriented that must be answered for a review to be considered a review.

Bad idea. It would actually restrain creative thought and turn people off to the thought of writing reviews. Reviews are opinions of a product. You cannot claim otherwise. They can be objective opinions, but they are still opinions. To establish a format where a person may only say something as it pertains to the question(s) will prevent full expression of their thoughts about the product. What if they want to address something that wasn't covered in the format?

As I said before, if you're going to have an open forum for reviews then you have to be willing to put up with reviews that may not be as well written as others. If that absolutely sticks in your craw, then there should not be an open forum and the only reviews posted should be by EN staff only. Close the forum and you no longer have grounds to complain about the reviews. Unless of course, you disagree with what a reviewer said there also... See? Catch-22. You cannot win either way. This is why it's better to leave the system as it is unless a vastly superior way can be developed and implemented. Besides, nearly everyone agrees that they will read more than a single review before deciding to purchase something. One poorly written review will not influence John Doe all that much if he is going to read others...

 

[Marion Poliquin]

(Warning: I haven't read anything beyond the first page.)

0,02 $

As far as I'm concerned, the ratings are absolutely worthless except to serve as a carrot to get people to write reviews. If one really wants to know something about a product, there is nothing one can do but actually read the reviews.

I am convinced that if the rating system were removed there would be fewer reviews posted. Giving a rating seems to fulfill some kind of empowerment need in people so I guess it's their only purpose.