I don't actually care about ratings too much, if at all for reviews. If you actually write something of substance explaining why you came to that rating, it's a thumbs up from me. I've been Swatso'd down before lol. Deservedly so too.

Is Swstso even real? The odds of both up and down votes being even multiples of 1000 seems extremely low...

I hope so, his reviews from early on on the site as an early US traveller to the UK were very helpful for me to see what a travelling player was looking for in a course.

I believe this is a feature of being a premium member.

Yes, Premium membership gives you the ability to see who upvotes and downvotes your reviews.

I use it to thank people I haven't noticed before - or to engage in a more detailed conversation about the course if they, too, have reviewed it.

I've used it a few times to ask a downvoter why they didn't find it helpful (in fact, that happened this morning).

I ran into swatso in the Lemon Lake parking lot circa 2010-2011.

That's all I've got. :D

I have written (pmd) Swatso. I think twice. once before 1000/10000 and second time when he hit that number. He responded cordially, and noted he might just end voting on those milestone numbers. He probaly shares several traits among the group with a hundred plus reviews.

Did he down vote you in person?

I thought that I was harsh on thumbs downs but I'm tame compared to swatso. I also don't have very demanding criteria for giving thumbs up. If you put some time/thought into the review, i'll give you a thumbs up even if I don't agree at all. Lately, I'm trying to just not give bad reviews any thumbs at all. Get that ratio closer to 1 :)

I have no "agenda" in thumbing reviews.

Does the review say something meaningful and useful, and provide info that supports the reviewers rating? Y/N?

It's that simple for me. If you can't say anything other than obvious, meaningless tripe, or I know 1st hand a review is misleading BS = :thmbdown:

It's not that they have to agree with me, or the consensus of others . Reasonably supported contrasting perspectives are among the most useful. It's about quality of the content.

Obviously, I can't read them all, but reviews for certain courses, courses I've played, and 4.5+ ratings tend to get my attention...so I can't claim my votes are doled out in a truly random manner. But they are awarded solely on content.