Ratings for Reviews - A Cure for Abuse?

Sean Trane wrote:

I take great pride to review under my name, which is not a majority of members who "hide" (not meant to be cowardly but rather prudent , because of abusers)  under a nickname . Writing under your real name (how to make sure it is your real name is a different matter altoghether) is proof that you do so with a real honesty (who knows , one day Latimer will one day tell me:" oh you are this guy who wrote that not-so-good review about Snow Goose, care to tell me more?"  and then he knives up in the belly if I ever get to meet him and have a chance to tell me my name.) and I even spend money to rent the albums, so I can write reviews. I love to give you an idea what Interference Sardine sounds like. look'em up if you do not believe me

That's exactly my case Sean, if you remember I started making reviews under my real and complete name (Iván Melgar Morey), recently my nick has been added because of the site's rules but I asked not do delete my name, because I love what I do.

I also made reviews for GEPR and Rick Wakeman's Communication center plus other places like Magenta Web site, and my real email address can be found in some of those places.

Thanks to this reviews (before Prog Archives) I got connected with Magenta and a group of Israel bands that had the kindness to send me exclusive material for clinics to my real home address.

Until today I mostly recieved positive mails (A lot of Spam) and one or two Phil Collins fans insulting me (One called me stinking negro latin who dared to talk against a white icon of Brithish Rock , something not too exact because my Mom is Scottish/Italian ands my dad is Spanish/English/Native Peruvian but I'm proud of my Latin inheritance, probably 12.5% of native Peruvian Indian from my father's father who was the most intelligent man I ever knew, MD, who learned 5 languages including ancient Greek and Latin by his own) 

So if I recieve negarive messages or ratings, I give a damn, most of my reviews are very large (Over 800 words except the first 5 or 6 first ones) because I take the job seriously, so if anybody wants to send me negative ratings, I honestly don't care and won't stop writting. 

But there are reviewers that could be discouraged, and we can't afford to loose good and hard working  members because a couple of trolls and flamers believe we manipulate the top 100 (As if none of us had a life!!!!) just because they don't see their beloved band oin the list.

I believe the system I explained could make even harder to manipulate ratings, because a good number of content administrators will be ready to delete reviews made with a lot of words but no sense, plus our members who keep sending flawed reviews to be deleted in the abuse section.

Iván

Edited by ivan_2068

i have just deiscovered this thread and found it very
interesting, occisionally funny, and at times narrow
sighted.
But that it just my opinion, and how I see it. Which is
surely what a review should be?
If I write a review, (I havn't written many) it will be
about something I feel passionate about, (personally
I tend to keep my negative passions away from a
public arena, so I don't waste either my or your time
telling you when I think an album sucks!) So In my
passion, I will tell you what I think of an album, how I
feel about it, and why I think it deserves your
attention.
Surely, if that is the basis a review is written on, then
all reviews are valid? Surely it's just the obvious
spam-monsters that need attention? Opinion is
SUCH a subjective thing, for example if I were to love
an album, it would be for me a personal thing, and if
the rest of you thought it sucked big time, that does
not make a bad review, (flawed opinion maybe!?) my
thoughts would still be valid?
This is where prog-snobbery comes in. Being
popular (and maybe therefore commercially a
success) does NOT make something bad, as a
group of fans of a particular genre we should
celebrate success surely? If we weedle out the
successfull on this basis we will be left with
talenless drivel, and we will all be left admiring the
Emperors new clothes!

My other point here, is how amusing I find it, when
some one who may have spent anywhere from 10
mins to a handful of hours writing a review, and then
feeling bad if someone says they disagree or that it
is "rubbish"............ imagine that feeling, then imagine
having spent, oooh lets say TWO YEARS of your life
writing and recording an album, you know in your
heart that it says what you want it to say, how you
want it said, it is full of passion and truth. Then you
log on to the good ol' WWW to discover someone
has written it off with an hours worth of typed
words..... yes I should imagine it hurts.
It does not mean this album IS rubbish. It is opinion.
thats all.

So I think we should all try to take reviews with a
pinch of salt.
They can be informative, they can be funny, that can
be ridiculous, but unless they are offensive or
illegible in language then they should stay.
If for no other reason, than for entertainment!
I enjoy the reviews here, the good (star rating) and
the bad.
We all have what other folk would consider flawed
taste on things we are passionate about. Thats what
makes us so interesting and so much fun!

Prog-Chick x

Hi Joolz,

Of course you're not being presumptuous! You're views are considered, valid, and very welcome!

Welcome to the site.