Overall vote counts are up, sure, but that doesn't mean they are all unique voters. I bet I could guess at least 10 out of those 13 voters on that review if it was a decent review.

I have 896 thumbs ups on my reviews. 267 of those are from Wellsbranch250, dreadlock86, wolfhaley, lee76007, and Shadrach3 - just 5 users. If I add the next 10 biggest givers, then 62% of all of my votes are accounted for.

If you write decent reviews, you will get some love from a small but mighty group of 20-25 users on here that either vote on just about every review, or at least one of your reviews once in a while (all of which is much appreciated, to be clear). If you want unique votes, it takes really traveling around a substantial amount and hitting very well known courses to have a chance at unique votes after you write more than 10-15 reviews. Harmony Bends and Eagles Crossing have netted me 15 additional unique voters. The 25 reviews between those two courses and my Cincinnati reviews? 9. I'm sure other people have similar stats.

So numbers might be up from before, but that doesn't mean they're all unique voters. Anyone that wants Diamond will need to go well above 1,000 votes to get there.

Just look at Shadrach. He's probably the best contributor to this site the past 2 years on a review count stand point. 230 reviews across Colorado, Texas, The Southwest, The Northeast, one in California, and many popular courses like Beaver Ranch, Idlewild, Harmony, Harmon Hills, WR Jackson, and Hornets Nest. dude has 2,600 votes, and still doesn't have 250 unique voters. MrFrosty needed to review basically the East half of the country to get there.

So we have it easier these days to get more votes, but not the unique votes to achieve Diamond. I'd love to see more consistent newer voters on this site and see it grow more. As for thinking current reviewers have it easy, I'm not sure who that opinion or comment is supposed to serve. You sound like an old man on his porch rocking chair ready with a hose to scare any kids that touch your grass.

Probably the wrong thread to post this particular opinion in, but I don't think the recognition for good reviews is as important as the good reviews themselves. Sure, the recognition (in the form of pixels by your username and a mini) is nice, but I think adding to the body of quality reviews should be the ultimate goal.

So, IMO DGCraig's griping about how the kids nowadays don't have to walk uphill both ways in the snow to get thumbs is missing the point. I also feel basically the same way about campaigns to get a particular reviewer additional thumbs/uniques. While I'm sure well intentioned, these pleas for thumbs are IMO also missing the point.

I didn't stop writing reviews because I had no chance of reaching diamond. I stopped because I switched jobs and don't have time to write them on the clock like I used to.:p

I agree.
This is in fact, the main reason I thumb-up a lot of reviews or spotlight reviewers. To me, voting on a good review or spot lighting a reviewer, is my way of saying thank you for their contributions. I believe/hope that this positive feedback will encourage good reviewers to continue to review courses. Thus hopefully adding to the body of quality reviews.

I hope to see a few new Chicago area reviews this summer Countchunkula. :)

Goals Change
 

I think my goals have changed, and recently at that.

A couple of years ago as my reviewing picked up steam and I achieved the bronze TR, it was like a drug. I wanted to get more votes, more uniques, the next level.

As 2021 plowed through, I wasn't sure Gold TR was even going to happen. I was disappointed, but it didn't deter me from continuing to add reviews. In the end, sometime in December, I passed the 90 mark for uniques.

Now, knowing what that took and the status of how reviews are received, I'm not looking for Diamond to happen. My ability to get to courses is limited by distance. There are a LARGE number of courses for me to get to in my home state of Iowa. However, I know uniques are scarce for me as I hit these 4, 5, 6, 9, 12 hole courses that generate little buzz. The "big dog" courses are a fair drive for me, and unless work takes me there, I'm probably not making more than a day trip anywhere. I unfortunately got rained out of hitting Harmony Bends this week (work took me within 20 miles, but the rain gods were not with me:wall:).

Now, my goal is to not only play as many courses as I can get to, but make sure they have as much info, pictures, maps as I can find or generate AND get them (what I hope is) a decent review. If that pans out to a Diamond TR, awesome. If not, I hope that I've helped anyone who wants to throw in the state of Iowa find a course to play that works for them. (Still have work to do in SE, West Central and a little North) I've got reviews in on 162 of the 211 Iowa courses I've played (with a few in the hopper, from the last couple of weeks.)

I feel like I'm spinning around in a revolving door and can't get out, lol. 20-30 of us blowing each other's horns won't get it done so I have decided to thumb up even more reviews, even the Udisc drive-bys as long as they aren't derogatory or violate the rules. We need to get more folks reviewing more so we need to be more accomodating. Trusted reviewers will get there and give it a "proper" review eventually unless it's already been done and everyone's review counts towards the overall score. Most of us probably started out writing short crappy reviews. I myself had friends downvote some of my earlier reviews, and rightfully so. But now I run into random people on courses and they have said that they use my reviews (and wellsbranch250 of course) to decide where to play at in Florida.

Question: I know that we can see who has the most courses played in individual states but what about the most courses reviewed in each state?

Review crappy backwoods courses and you'll get tons of local reviews.


But I do agree that Udisc has stolen a ton of traffic.

In other words, good luck, f'ers.

When Tim started displaying who voted on your reviews as a feature, just out of curiosity (and because it's a fairly small number), I took a look at who was thumbing me down. I found it amusing.

Honestly can't imagine tallying how many helpful votes I've gotten by DGCR member. That sounds exhausting.

Come on. It can't be that many. :D

I started doing it early so it’s easy to keep up with - I’m pretty sure I was procrastinating at work when I thought to start.