What determines a thumbs up or down to you?

[great white buffalo]

As I read through the reviews sometimes I often wonder why some people will thumbs down a good review, or thumbs up a bad review. A lot of the time people will be split 50/50 with ups and down. Of the reviews I have written I have seen this trend also. I generally try to write a very informative review written through the eyes of a first time visitor of the course, because I feel that someone who is reading the review has more than likely not been to the course and is looking to see what others thought of the course before they decide if they want to go play or not.
Sometimes I will write a very detailed description of the course and then get a thumbs down and I have to wonder if it is because I did not rate the course as high as someone else thought it deserved, or my opinion of the course was negative. The flip side of the coin is likely also that I rated it higher than someone else thought it deserved, an my opinion was positive. I think that opinions are helpful at times because they will give you more of a feel for what you might or might not think or feel. Sometimes I think that it just has to be haters.
So where do you stand? What makes you click up or down? For me I click up if the person has given me a good enough description of what kind of tee pads, baskets, terrain, trees, and experience I am going to find if I visit there. I also look for descriptions of where to find hard to locate baskets and such. (Like after 15 cross the softball field and go to far side of playground to find tee for 16)
I will thumbs down if the reviewer did not put any effort into explaining the above items. Or rattled on about their game that day, and how bad they were throwing that day. Also for super brief reviews that don't convey a general idea of the course.

 

[prerube]

people will thumbsdown a review if they disagree with one single thing you say, even if the rest of the review is gold.

 

[medicinalfunk]

if i find the review helpful, as the site specifies, i give it a thumbs up. i read several reviews of the course first to determine if the information is more helpful than the others given to get a baseline for the general interpretation of the course to determine what could possibly be "helpful" if i were to visit the course by myself for the first time

 

[mashnut]

People have very different reasons for how they vote on reviews. Unfortunately you're right that too many people thumb down reviews because they don't agree with the rating. I read a few of your reviews, and in general you give good information. The review that got you 3 thumbs down was a little hard to read though, it was one big block of text without any paragraph breaks.

You've got a pretty good ratio of thumbs up to thumbs down, I'd let those negative votes roll off your back unless you get a ton of them, then it's time to evaluate why they're coming in and if there's something you can improve.

 

[prerube]

I only give thumbsdown if the review is one sentence in each line that says nothing. If the review has some substance to it, but I disagree, or the review is just so long I will never read it, I just don't click anything. Thumbs up for most reviews if they are even slightly helpful.

 

[medicinalfunk]

also, laughing at this thread being rated 1 star by someone

 

[HarkeyPuck]

if i find the review helpful, as the site specifies, i give it a thumbs up. i read several reviews of the course first to determine if the information is more helpful than the others given to get a baseline for the general interpretation of the course to determine what could possibly be "helpful" if i were to visit the course by myself for the first time

Ditto.... You wrote this much better than I would have.

 

[prerube]

The review that got you 3 thumbs down was a little hard to read though, it was one big block of text without any paragraph breaks.

Welcome to ENGLISHANDGRAMMARREVIEW.com

It sad that someone's spelling and layout can be more important than what they have to say about the course.

 

[jcf5083]

NEVER say anything negative about the locals. I was 0-8 in my second review ever. But what prerube said, if you say anything that anyone disagrees with, you'll get :thmbdown:

 

[prerube]

NEVER say anything negative about the locals. I was 0-8 in my second review ever. But what prerube said, if you say anything that anyone disagrees with, you'll get :thmbdown:

0-8? you only have 2 thumbsdown total?

 

[mashnut]

Welcome to ENGLISHANDGRAMMARREVIEW.com

It sad that someone's spelling and layout can be more important than what they have to say about the course.

Good information isn't going to help people if they won't read it because it's in a giant block of text, I was giving him advice. I didn't say I thumbed it down because of it. And yes, if the spelling and grammar of a review is so bad that it's hard to read and understand, I will thumb it down, though the content of a review is probably 95% of the reason I vote up or down.

 

[jcf5083]

0-8? you only have 2 thumbsdown total?

I've edited it since then,and I probably over exaggerated, but I had at least 5 thumbs down.

 

[Jay Dub]

I was asked to write a review for a new course in Dayton, OH by one of the course designers after he saw I had marked it as played. I didn't really care to write a review but agreed to do it because this guy asked.

After posting my review he told me he disagreed with the rating, all though I called this course "Dayton's answer to Idlewild" and said in the future it would be a 5 star, etc.
He then sent me a message claiming they had changed some of the things I had wrote about in my "cons" and would I NOW change my review. I messaged back that it was great they made changes and after I play the course again I will then change my review.

Up to this point I was 8 for 8 with thumbs up, I took 2 hours to write my review and to go over it to make sure it was as good as I can make it.
After exchanging these messages with the course designer, who I had done a favor for and wrote the review, I got 2 thumbs down.

Not a problem, I will see this guy out on the course one day since I play Dayton courses pretty often and plan on playing this course many more times. When I see him on the course we will have a discussion about all of this. I also will never write a review again because some one asked me to.

 

[tmahan]

Welcome to ENGLISHANDGRAMMARREVIEW.com

It sad that someone's spelling and layout can be more important than what they have to say about the course.

I think that was more along the line of constructive criticism and possible speculation as to the cause of the nays. I know I don't like to see >25 lines without a paragraph break but I won't thumb one down.

 

[great white buffalo]

I was not really concerned with the thumbs up or down on my reviews, or the one in particular that you are talking about. I just read through a lot of reviews on the head of the home page daily, and sometimes I see a very detailed review get bad marks and wonder why. Or sometimes I see a review get like 15 thumbs down and 4 thumbs up and after reading the review I wonder why the four people gave the terrible review a thumbs up.

If you are concerned with the review that I wrote I will go back and edit it and put more spaces in for you.

 

[prerube]

I have never had a thumb changed after I edited.

As for the review you have 2 thumbsdown on:
1. you make yourself sound like a noob, twice you said "I've never seen that before" for common things.
2. When you comment on the pro tees after saying you did not play them, may get you a thumbsdown from a picky person.
3. No pencils as a con? I think 3% of course I have played have pencils
4. talking about how you hate the baskets because they are not your prefered type may get you thumbsdown from people who love the DB-5.

 

[prerube]

I think that was more along the line of constructive criticism and possible speculation as to the cause of the nays. I know I don't like to see >25 lines without a paragraph break but I won't thumb one down.

I am saying Mashnut is right, people do thumbdown for spelling and punctuation.

 

[mashnut]

I was not really concerned with the thumbs up or down on my reviews, or the one in particular that you are talking about. I just read through a lot of reviews on the head of the home page daily, and sometimes I see a very detailed review get bad marks and wonder why. Or sometimes I see a review get like 15 thumbs down and 4 thumbs up and after reading the review I wonder why the four people gave the terrible review a thumbs up.

If you are concerned with the review that I wrote I will go back and edit it and put more spaces in for you.

Fair enough, just offering some constructive criticism. It is a bit of a mystery why people thumb down sometimes, I understand a lot of mine, but some always seemed strange to me. It's what you get when you have such a wide mix of people using this site, it seems to work out as you write more reviews, those few random thumbs downs get less important.

 

[great white buffalo]

Fair enough, just offering some constructive criticism. It is a bit of a mystery why people thumb down sometimes, I understand a lot of mine, but some always seemed strange to me. It's what you get when you have such a wide mix of people using this site, it seems to work out as you write more reviews, those few random thumbs downs get less important.

There I fify. I added spaces. I was never concerned with the fact that I had three thumbs down on that review. I had felt at the time as I still do that the course was just not that great. They have had some big tourneys there with a few top pros attending, and I am sure that any of the locals who read my review would thumbs down it just for the simple reason that they are local. I have talked with at least ten different people that played there and none of them were awed by it. One of the guys was in the top five in points in VT last year, and he did not like the place. I still think that for fifteen bucks a round it should be a-1 top notch and it was not. How many other places can you tell me that are that high to play?

 

[prerube]

I understand you getting upset about CERTAIN thumbs. I have had three times where I got thumbsdown and was pissed, but you can not get upset by your thumbsdown total. Mashnut is a great reviewer and he has over 100 thumbsdown.
I have 74 thumbsdown. I deserved 33%, 33% are understandable, and 33% are BS, you just take what you get and keep writing reviews.