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Topic: Question about bad reviews

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Subject: Question about bad reviews
Date Posted: 8/16/2007 10:27 PM ET
Member Since: 3/31/2006
Posts: 28,453
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Can someone clarify this for me?  I see a review that I don't care for, so I mark that it wasn't helpful.  What happens next?  Does the person get notified?  Or is the review quietly removed from the system when it gets x amount of thumb downs?

Thanks!

Date Posted: 8/16/2007 10:53 PM ET
Member Since: 4/20/2006
Posts: 5,636
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From what I understand from what was said in another thread, the review in question has to receive a lot of "thumbs down"s in a certain time period to be removed.  So if months go by before someone else gives it a thumbs down, and then a few more months, and then a few more.....then it may not come off at all. The person in question won't know their review received any marking, good or bad, unless they check their reviews.  Even then, they won't know who it came from or when they received it.

Date Posted: 8/16/2007 11:44 PM ET
Member Since: 8/2/2005
Posts: 405
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And one thing to note, I don't think it should matter if you personally feel that the review is wrong or disagrees with your point of view on the book in question. What should matter when you rate the review is if it is an actual review vs. comments or statements that are descriptive of what edition book it is or what condition it is in. Those are the types of "reviews" that we are trying to weed out of the system.

I wonder how many thumbs down a review has to get before it gets pulled? And would the person who wrote that review get any kind of notification?

Angie -
Date Posted: 8/17/2007 12:46 AM ET
Member Since: 2/24/2007
Posts: 3,299
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Some reviews I've seen ("dropped my book in the bathtub so it's got some water damage"--not literally but just as an example, there are many similiar to that) have had as many as 50 or more thumbs down and are still there. I have seen some that have part condition, part review, mysteriously edited (and not by the reviewer) so the condition was no longer there. It's all a big mystery to me. Apparently it is within a certain time frame thing but I really don't get it. I mean 50 thumbs down for this site is a lot.

Date Posted: 8/17/2007 1:43 PM ET
Member Since: 4/20/2006
Posts: 5,636
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Wow, 50 thumbs down is a lot.  I would think that it would be gone before it hit 50. 

Date Posted: 8/17/2007 5:20 PM ET
Member Since: 3/31/2006
Posts: 28,453
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Kristina, I agree. I'd never mark a review as bad based on opinion. 

Interesting...I didn't realize it went higher than 50.  Maybe this something the system needs to work out since we are still in the beginning stages of rating the reviews?

Date Posted: 8/17/2007 5:26 PM ET
Member Since: 7/7/2007
Posts: 4,815
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If it is of interest, there is an entire thread devoted to "cleaning up" inappropriate reviews: http://www.paperbackswap.com/forum/view_topic.php?t=61587

 

Cheers,

Catt

Date Posted: 8/17/2007 7:48 PM ET
Member Since: 2/5/2007
Posts: 30,793
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I think the question we are asked when we read a review is "Was this review helpful?"     I have seen nothing about bad vs good reviews.          Somehow - over the past few weeks I think we've gotten into a bad review vs good review mode.   That is not even what the site ask of us!!     IF the review was helpful to me - I mark yes          IF not - I mark no            I can't quite figure out the good vs bad thing and who or what started that.      Mel - this is NOT directed to you at all - just to the subject in general.   

Date Posted: 8/17/2007 7:52 PM ET
Member Since: 7/7/2007
Posts: 4,815
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Cozette -- I think you're right to some extent.  Nobody is judging along the lines of "geez, how could they like that lousy book?", but more along the lines of material that is inappropriate for reviews, per PBS guidelines -- condition of someone's individual copy, a summary or review taken from Amazon or elsewhere (that belongs in the main book info using the edit page), etc.

Date Posted: 8/17/2007 10:34 PM ET
Member Since: 3/31/2006
Posts: 28,453
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Cozette, no problem.

 I should have worded my subject differently anyway.  I really want to know what happens once you mark a review "unhelpful"  One reason I haven't marked them (besides not having alot of time to do so) is I don't want to hurt people's feelings.  As long I no that they won't be contacted I would feel alot better.  I'm not really crazy about rating systems myself.

 

Date Posted: 8/17/2007 10:54 PM ET
Member Since: 2/5/2007
Posts: 30,793
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I hear what you and others are saying Elizabeth - I just disagree.  lol  I find nothing on the reviews that says we should mark anything except if the review was helpful to us or not.         I just don't see a button that says "un needed" or  "inappropriate"  or anything except - WAS this helpful!!    That's all I was saying - nothing more and nothing less.        The inappropriate, bad, unhelpful     all those terms came from us the users as far as I can see. 

Date Posted: 8/18/2007 2:30 AM ET
Member Since: 3/31/2006
Posts: 28,453
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I got ya, Cozette!  It says "was this review helpful".  That's pretty straighforward.  And, I suspect with everything else in this world, there will be 500 perspectives on what helpful is LOL

 

 

Date Posted: 8/18/2007 12:13 PM ET
Member Since: 2/16/2006
Posts: 1,956
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 Nobody is judging along the lines of "geez, how could they like that lousy book?", but more along the lines of material that is inappropriate for reviews

Don't say "nobody", because there are some that have given a thumbs down because they don't agree with the review.  I posted a review last week for a book that I didn't like.  There is only one other review posted for the same book and both of our reviews are negative. We both got a thumbs down from someone, and the only reason I can see for it is that the person was upset that we didn't like the book.

Date Posted: 8/18/2007 12:21 PM ET
Member Since: 2/5/2007
Posts: 30,793
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EXACTLY my point Danielle - and I guess that's why it "bugs" me so much to see so many people tell us in the forums what IS and IS NOT a good review.     That is way to subjective!       I guess I'm just not all that fond of this thumbs up and thumbs down thing.   It's made "book review police" out of some folks.         I KNOW what isn't supposed to be in a book review - I just don't know why it's so important to try to get them all removed.      Takes up too much webspace is one reason I've heard - HA    Look at the forums - do you think anyone is concerned at this site about webspace???    

I'm gonna try real hard to not comment on this "review" subject any more.  lol   For some reason it pushes my buttons.   Kinda strange since I'm normally a pretty laid back gal.   I guess I just don't like feeling like I'm being judged.  and YES it is being judged - there is no way around that. 



Last Edited on: 8/18/07 12:26 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
Date Posted: 8/18/2007 1:53 PM ET
Member Since: 7/28/2005
Posts: 462
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My apologies, Melody.



Last Edited on: 8/19/07 10:05 AM ET - Total times edited: 1
Date Posted: 8/18/2007 4:13 PM ET
Member Since: 3/31/2006
Posts: 28,453
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<sigh...>I haven't really gotten an answer to my orginal question which was more about the process.  I think I'll just send feedback to R&R since my question had nothing to do with what makes a good or bad review. Thanks.



Last Edited on: 8/18/07 4:22 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
John O. (buzzby) - ,
Date Posted: 8/18/2007 5:45 PM ET
Member Since: 7/15/2005
Posts: 101
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I suspect there really isn't a "process" as such.  My guess, from my experience working with a large database, is that someone can call up a list of reviews sorted by how many "thumbs down" it received, or something like that, and then that person could remove those reviews.  I assume that would be R&R, and I assume that would be a VERY low priority, given all the things they have to do for the database.  So just because there's 25 thumbs down on Tuesday doesn't mean they will get around to eliminating it by Wednesday, or this week, or this month.  Also, since I have seen nothing that suggests that PBS is anything other than a benign dictatorship (maybe oligarchy?), R&R would have final say as to whether the review should be canned.  I think the thumbs down method was meant to bring certain reviews that could be considered misleading to R&R's attention.

 

Date Posted: 8/18/2007 10:47 PM ET
Member Since: 3/31/2006
Posts: 28,453
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Okay, I got an answer from "feedback" :)

When you mark a review as unhelpful (thumbs down), it moves down the list.  The more thumbs down marked the farther down the list it goes.  The more thumbs up it gets the higher up the list it goes.

 

Date Posted: 8/19/2007 1:05 PM ET
Member Since: 2/16/2006
Posts: 1,956
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Interesting.... Is this supposed to be in effect now, or at some point in the future?  They all seem to be sorted by date (with the most recent at the top) to me.

I think I remember seeing it posted somewhere that R & R are working on getting it set up so that at some point after so many thumbs down, it's automatically removed but right now they're just remvoing them manually as they get time, like John said.

Date Posted: 8/20/2007 9:31 AM ET
Member Since: 5/4/2007
Posts: 17
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I just want to know why people feel the need to copy/paste reviews from Amazon or descriptions from the back of the book over and over again.  I know it's an impossible to answer question, but seriously, when I was browsing this morning, I saw a book that had the same exact "review" (description from the back of the book) SEVEN times.  What is the point of that? 

Date Posted: 8/20/2007 1:31 PM ET
Member Since: 8/18/2005
Posts: 7,977
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Last Edited on: 7/26/09 6:12 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
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