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Crappy responses to reviews

If you haven't played the course then I would ask myself if the review gave me enough info to decide whether I wanted to play the course. If it did then it woould be helpful.
 
My sentiments as well. Only thing I can add is, how do you know if a review was helpful before you play the course? I don't like to vote on the helpful/unhelpful issue until I've played the course.

If I haven't played a course, I might vote based on how much information was provided, and how clearly the review made the case that I should or should not go out of my way to play the course. If I have played the course, I'll vote based on whether or not the review seems accurate to me, though I'm much less likely to vote unhelpful if the reviewer makes a real effort to discuss valid pros and cons. For instance, just because someone plays a course that I like a lot, and they rate it down because they don't like really wooded courses, I won't vote unhelpful if they make it clear in their review why they rated the course the way they did, and make it so that readers can get a sense of whether or not they might have the same type of preference for courses.
 
I can understand the frustration. For one of my home courses I took the time to take all the current pictures as there were none and write a thought out review and all I have for it is an unhelpful. I wish they would have at least let me know why they voted that way.


Amen, brother. No reason given = pure hate.
 
If I haven't played a course, I might vote based on how much information was provided, and how clearly the review made the case that I should or should not go out of my way to play the course. If I have played the course, I'll vote based on whether or not the review seems accurate to me, though I'm much less likely to vote unhelpful if the reviewer makes a real effort to discuss valid pros and cons. For instance, just because someone plays a course that I like a lot, and they rate it down because they don't like really wooded courses, I won't vote unhelpful if they make it clear in their review why they rated the course the way they did, and make it so that readers can get a sense of whether or not they might have the same type of preference for courses.
Exactly. don't penalize someone just because they disagree with you.
 
Just wanted to say: if someone takes the time to review a course, and has something helpful or insightful to share with the community, then you do everyone a disservice when you click the "no" on the "was this review helpful to you?" box.


Just one additional thought to many good opinions made already - I think the keep wording in this entire initial question is: "IF someone takes time to review a course." Key word being if - If someone spends time making the best review possible - they rarely get marked down because of the effort shone. If someone spends two minutes writing three sentences to post a grade, than that person is not taking time to write a good review, and I believe marking them down is justifiable.

I will never mark down someone if I disagree with them if they have at least made an effort to state their opinions and thoughts. I think lack of effort is what gets people the most. It happen to me in my first attempts, but I learned quickly and spent more time and created better reviews (and edited older crappy ones:D), and I think a lot of people are that way.
 
Just one additional thought to many good opinions made already - I think the keep wording in this entire initial question is: "IF someone takes time to review a course." Key word being if - If someone spends time making the best review possible - they rarely get marked down because of the effort shone. If someone spends two minutes writing three sentences to post a grade, than that person is not taking time to write a good review, and I believe marking them down is justifiable.

I will never mark down someone if I disagree with them if they have at least made an effort to state their opinions and thoughts. I think lack of effort is what gets people the most. It happen to me in my first attempts, but I learned quickly and spent more time and created better reviews (and edited older crappy ones:D), and I think a lot of people are that way.

QFT. It doesn't take a lot of effort to type out 3 sentences and click on a disc rating.
 
G The most helpful reviews are arguably the single reviews which regardless of their quality, are infinitely better than nothing.

Thats how most of my courses are around here. I'm the 1st and only reviewer. However the votes dont come in much since not alot of people are looking at the courses way up here:)
 
My sentiments as well. Only thing I can add is, how do you know if a review was helpful before you play the course? I don't like to vote on the helpful/unhelpful issue until I've played the course.

I agree. You shouldn't vote helpful/unhelpful until you have played the course yourself.
 
I guess I can see how the circumstances might exist for me to mark a review helpful to me even if I havent played the course, but it would be rare. For instance if a review put up warned me that a course I was about to drive a few hours to play is a ****ty one and a waste of time, that would be helpful.
 
I think you folks have stumbled upon the downside of the course rating system.

Good job. Now fix it.

I do not rate courses. That is not what I do. I help noobies in real time.
That is what I prefer to do. Some of you prefer to type your insights or opinions about courses.

Cool beans. Good for you.

There is another perspective. Can a fairly new player with a low skill set who rates a course help a pro skill set competitor with Am perspective info? See my point?
 
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I think you folks have stumbled upon the downside of the course rating system.

Good job. Now fix it.

The way you fix it is by making the review process more involved as suggested in many other posts, however that comes with it's own set of negatives, and Tim isn't going to change the process any time soon.
 
If you haven't played the course then I would ask myself if the review gave me enough info to decide whether I wanted to play the course. If it did then it woould be helpful.

Exactly. I read movie reviews to help me decide whether a movie is worth seeing or not. The review tells me the strengths and weaknesses of the movie AND what sort of movie it is - so the reviewer is supposed to let me know first if it's a good movie and if so, why, and second what sort of movie it is. If it's a good slasher flick, well I'll still skip it, because that's not my taste. But it would still be a helpful review.

And I think you rate reviews before you've played a course for the same reasons. If the review told me how good the course was, why it was that good or bad, and what type of course it was, then that's helpful, whether I've played the course or not.
 
Here's my take on reviews/thumbies (copied from another thread):

Do you guys really look at the rating number and include that in your thumbies?

If so, I must be doing something wrong. My understanding is that the thumbies are for "Helpful" and "Not Helpful", not "I agree/disagree with your rating". If the review tells me what I want to know about the course, park, amenities, and/or conditions, then I rate that a "Helpful". If the review doesn't give me information that helps me decide whether the drive to play a course is worth it, then I rate that "Not Helpful". I don't even look at the ratings.

Am I missing something?
 
I vote helpful if it gives me information I need to decide if I want to play the course. A two line review can be helpful if it includes one nugget that helps me make up my mind.
 
Here's my take on reviews/thumbies (copied from another thread):

Do you guys really look at the rating number and include that in your thumbies?

If so, I must be doing something wrong. My understanding is that the thumbies are for "Helpful" and "Not Helpful", not "I agree/disagree with your rating". If the review tells me what I want to know about the course, park, amenities, and/or conditions, then I rate that a "Helpful". If the review doesn't give me information that helps me decide whether the drive to play a course is worth it, then I rate that "Not Helpful". I don't even look at the ratings.

Am I missing something?

well said.
 
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