The recent surge of lame reviews.

[Danger]

So has anybody else noticed that most of the newer reviews have been really short and useless? By all means, I don't need them to be ten pages long, but I do want a review that's long enough to give me a feel for the course.

Not only are they short, but they are stupid. Some recent favorites:

"If the review is based on course design, location, and setting, then I would give it a much higher rating."

"Very nice scenery.
you're located in a city park, however the disc golf course is only used for disc golf (no randos walking across course)
Good course if you can throw pretty far
not too busy."

"This course is for a family who has never played disc golf, are having a picnic there, and pick up a Frisbee and try to hit the signs with their 7 year old daughter. Cannot be actually considered a course."

These reviews SAY NOTHING ABOUT THE COURSE! Explain why it sucks! Explain why its good!

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, The site is called DGCourseREVIEW, not DGCourseRATING. If you are not willing to give it a descent review, why bother?



....on a side note there are still some great ones coming in, and props to those of you that paint a picture for the rest of us. But honestly, the short, lame reviews are like a kick in the balls to an otherwise great website.

End rant.

 

[Donovan]

LOL, some of those are not very helpful comments. I really wish the written reviews was more important to more people than the rating. However, since most of us are guys, we are proned to love numbers and statistics, so that will most likely never change unless...

AGAIN, just another great reason to have more ladies on our site.

 

[nojjjj]

Dang, did my first review not too long ago (only course I've played over 10 times)

Makes me not want to review anymore!!!!

IM HURT

 

[Donovan]

Dang, did my first review not too long ago (only course I've played over 10 times)

Makes me not want to review anymore!!!!

IM HURT

I think his point is it would just be helpful to tell about the course as opposed to only mentioning how you played the holes or how you lost a disc in the water or things that is not helpful to a global view of readers. I have made these mistakes numerous times in the past, and had to go back and update many reviews. Sometimes, we just get caught up in the moment and forget the reason we are reviewing the course in the first place.

Three Putt is very cool, because instead of just hammering someone for having bad info or wrong info on a review, he will send you a PM letting you know what is wrong so you can fix it. I know this because of my mistakes in reviews I have written. That is so much cooler than just hitting someone with a thumbs down. I will now be doing that too, because that is just a great way to handle that situation.

Don't give up, just try to get better. You can always go back and improve on your own work if you feel you need to.

Now that you peaked my curiosity, I have to go read your reviews. LOL

 

[nojjjj]

Ha only have one review, and feel its a pretty decent review. Hopefully will be taking some pictures soon for the review (from the phone)

Besides that, most of my post was sarcasm, as I have also seen some of these reviews.

Almost the entire reason I read reviews is to get a feel for the course. IF that isn't accomplished (For whatever reason then I thumbs down.

 

[Donovan]

Ha only have one review, and feel its a pretty decent review. Hopefully will be taking some pictures soon for the review (from the phone)

Besides that, most of my post was sarcasm, as I have also seen some of these reviews.

Almost the entire reason I read reviews is to get a feel for the course. IF that isn't accomplished (For whatever reason then I thumbs down.

LOL, you got me!

 

[Danger]

Yeah I am noticing some good new ones out there as well, there just seems to be a LOT more crap in between them than before.
When a review looks like this (and I'm making this up):

PROS: Long holes, and lots of variety. Watch out for the trees!
CONS: Not DG Exclusive. The tee pads are natural.
OTHER THOUGHTS: A fun course in a public park that is close to my house and the bar. Great for beginners but challenging enough for somebody who has been playing for a while. I would bring my friends here.

What the hell does this tell other people? Nothing! Just a bunch of keyboard vomit that says nothing about a course. This thread is not necessarily here so I can bash crappy reviews (well....kinda), but rather to let people know that others read these things and actually want to feel like they are learning something about a course. I feel the integrity of the good reviews are jeopardized when there is lame crap surrounding them, especially to the non regular's to the site that use it as a reliable resource.

 

[Donovan]

WAIT! You mean it is not all about me?

 

[optidiscic]

2 1.5 ratings recently by 2 noobs destroying whispering falls in PA...it deserves a 4ish rating but gets slammed for being toooo hard and too difficult and too much walking up and down hills in woods?

 

[solomon.trenton]

you will always have people like that and its kind of like HBB. it sucks but you got to learn to deal with it

 

[wolito]

Give those review the thumbs down like they deserve. I think that that s\has helped me somewhat to write a decent review. It takes a little while to get the hang of writing a good review, but you have to at least put some effort into the reviews that you are just starting to write at least. I would like a review to contain detailed info about something that really impressed you or why you would not want to play that course again.

 

[Dthunderchicken]

I don't randomly read reviews but lately I've seen quite a few reviews of courses I play. Some of then have been very puzzling.

I played a course on the same day as one of the reviewers and while reading the review I was thinking that he must have been pretty buzzed when he was playing. What he wrote was way different than the conditions and the layout of the course.

 

[DSCJNKY]

"This course is for a family who has never played disc golf, are having a picnic there, and pick up a Frisbee and try to hit the signs with their 7 year old daughter. Cannot be actually considered a course."

This part sounds pretty good to me... I got the picture.

But I agree with you in general. It should take longer than 5 minutes to write your review.
DSCJNKY

 

[bcr123psu]

Give those review the thumbs down like they deserve.

^^ This and then move on or send a PM to the reviewer with some constructive feedback.

 

[RussMB]

One thing that I do, that helps me, is I write it down first. Sitting there with a notebook helps me to go over my experience at the course. I don't want bash a course, I don't think its fair to the course designers or whomever backs the course. (In most cases) I ran into this, when I first started reviewing. I was kinda hard on my local course. Then I found out that it was put in to show the city the potential that Disc Golf can have on a park. A guy donated some old baskets because there was no budget. So there was a lot of effort just to give people a place to play without a budget. I know that it's not the greatest course in the world, but it is a place to play. I felt like an arse!

People could even check themselves, by asking "Will the owners of the course be able to use this info to make appropriate changes, or will they just be insulted?" If they are insulted, they will be less likely to want to make improvements.

 

[bcr123psu]

Lately I've been keeping a scrap of paper with me while I play (I should just get a notebook. In fact, I'm going to...need to add this to the "What's in your bag" thread) and as I play, I add bullets to three columns "Pros", "Cons", and "Other Thoughts". When I write my review, I copy those bullets to each section of the review and then build out the review with a separate sentence or even paragraph based on each bullet, providing additional detail and examples (if necessary).

 

[theglow]

honestly i usually dont read the course reviews here, the pics are what sell me on a course. Then again they can be misleading, but so can reviews...

 

[Technohic]

You know whats funnny. I was reading one of my reviews from a year ago and about vommited in my mouth at some spelling and punctuation errors and other things I could have done better.

Just waiting for when I have some time to really think about and re-write some of them. I also want to revisit some of the courses before I do it as well.

 

[bikinjack]

You know whats funnny. I was reading one of my reviews from a year ago and about vommited in my mouth at some spelling and punctuation errors and other things I could have done better.

Just waiting for when I have some time to really think about and re-write some of them. I also want to revisit some of the courses before I do it as well.

Did you at least correct the grammar?

 

[Technohic]

Did you at least correct the grammar?

On some of it.