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.
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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 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.
Exactly. don't penalize someone just because they disagree with you.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.
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), and I think a lot of people are that way.
G The most helpful reviews are arguably the single reviews which regardless of their quality, are infinitely better than nothing.
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.
QFT. It doesn't take a lot of effort to type out 3 sentences and click on a disc rating.
I think you folks have stumbled upon the downside of the course rating system.
Good job. Now fix it.
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.
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?