Who said my way of reviewing is better? I certainly didn't. I'm just giving (obnoxiously) full-diclosure that I am rating/reviewing based on my opinion/personal tastes.
I'll try to explain: I am talking about the rating number. Since everybody has their own criteria on how to rate/grade courses (the number of discs/dots they assign), you can consider the numbers as random and the average will tend towards some center point (probably 3 discs) as the number of reviews/ratings increase.
Where you can not consider the numbers random are the courses that are exceptionally good, or bad. Almost everybody will agree and rate them highly and the few that don't will not affect the average significantly. So, "the cream will rise to the top" for the exceptional courses (and visa versa for the exceptionally low-rated courses). Does that make sense?
This is where trusted reviewer status comes into play..... I think people will eventually gravitate toward players that are trusted reviewers. I only say this because I have played a couple courses out of state that I essentially made my decision on which course to play because of a PM/Thread/or course review.
I'm about 50/50 on your reviews Dave only because I would be coming from out of state to most likely play a course you have played and it is difficult to gain maybe a little better feeling for the hole types and elevation and foliage of a course you have reviewed unless there are pictures (to your point) of course.
And quite frankly I want to know if there is a bathroom at the course if I just drove 4+ hours to get there, had 2 cups of coffee and a sausage biscuit for breakfast. I might actually need to use one and would prefer to stop at a gas station if i have to before showing up to play only to find out i now have a pressing issue (pun intended)
I actually loved your review on the course in question..... made me realize there is actually someone who isn't really worried about what all the locals are going to say because you blasted their course, or in this case just wrote an honest evaluation of a course that was so hyped up that it let you down! I commend you for getting outside your ABC rating shell
I think over time our fearless favorite website leader may have to find a way in which to qualify reviews or cycle out certain reviews which are arguably NOT helpful. Not sure how that works without making someone mad
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