Trusted Reviewers

[timg]

Ah.. I didn't know that. I changed them to match the traditional colors. The bronze looked funny with white though so it got a green ribbon

 

[timg]

Maybe you could require something like 50 helpful votes from a minimum of 25 different users before giving someone trusted reviewer status. Silver could be 150 and 50. It sure does seem like some people get almost an automatic 8 to 10 yes votes as soon as their reviews post.

Based on this idea, I reworked the trusted system a bit. Luckily, this change doesn't effect anybody but it will prevent abuse. As you know, I have a set # of votes for each status level (50, 150 and 300 respectively). For each level, the number of voters must be greater than or equal to 20% of the total votes required for that level. So for 50 it would be 10, 150 would be 30 and 300 would be 60. I think it's a pretty fair system with reasonable requirements.

 

[ERicJ]

Ah.. I didn't know that. I changed them to match the traditional colors. The bronze looked funny with white though so it got a green ribbon

I like it!

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/mem_browse.php?trusted=1&country=0&sort=reviews&order=DESC

ERic

 

[ERicJ]

I am thinking about special minis for silver and up trusted reviewers though as a "thank you". They'd be similar to the current minis available in the store but I would have a special gold one with a red stamp for gold level, a silver one with a blue stamp for silver. Maybe I could add "Trusted Reviewer" on their somewhere.

I might also reverse the colors depending on how that looks.. so blue mini with silver stamp and red mini with gold stamp. I kind of like that better actually.

I like the Mini idea. But I gotta admit that I do like my UV mini. It does double duty, in addition to marking my lie, it lets me know when I should have sunscreen on.

I originally had one of the Innova UV minis (a 2004 Ice Bowl one), but I was pretty disappointed in how fast the UV effect wore off that one.

I've since been using a Discraft Photon UV Mini that has held up much better/longer.

ERic

 

[valkyriefb11]

Based on this idea, I reworked the trusted system a bit. Luckily, this change doesn't effect anybody but it will prevent abuse. As you know, I have a set # of votes for each status level (50, 150 and 300 respectively). For each level, the number of voters must be greater than or equal to 20% of the total votes required for that level. So for 50 it would be 10, 150 would be 30 and 300 would be 60. I think it's a pretty fair system with reasonable requirements.

I think is a fair way to keep things kosher ... and 20% is a pretty small number, so that shouldnt be to hard for anyone. Also I really like the mini idea. I know I really look forward to the day I can be a trusted reviewer on DGCR and having the mini would be pretty cool.

 

[ERicJ]

Your reviews can still get thumbs as new members read them. [...] voting does seem to noticeably drop off once a review leaves the homepage so newer reviews do tend to get more props.

You can increase your chances of your review staying on the homepage longer by not submitting it on a Monday when everyone else is submitting reviews from the new courses they played over the weekend.

I don't have hard data to back it up, but Mondays seem to get the most new reviews submitted.

ERic

 

[The Valkyrie Kid]

I see that Michigan's Ben Calhoun (Innovadude & 1000 course player) now has the most reviews at 116 and as he finds time, will eventually blow everyone out of the water for reviews (both positive and negative) and courses played.

 

[ERicJ]

Tim, props for coming up with this system.

After reading a lot of reviews from various people recently it's my opinion that I am really trusting the "Trusted Reviewers" even more now. Many of the newer members are handing out 4, 4.5, and even 5 star ratings like they're Halloween candy... and that's on courses where reviewers that have been around a while (and I trust) have given 2.5, 3, or 3.5 star ratings.

When reading reviews of a new (to me) course and a noob has given a 4.5 star rating I find myself hoping that when I scroll down they'll be a rating/review from the likes of Innovadude, The Valkyrie Kid, Olorin, DGtourist, JR Stengele, timg, Donovan, Texconsinite, or gwillim. Those are the type of reviewers that I know I can... for lack of a better word: trust.

ERic

 

[gottafixit]

For lack of a better place to ask for this and it kinda goes qith the trusted review type icon, but i think it would be cool to have little courses played icons. one for like 50, then 100, 200, 500. I'll be hopefully breaking 100 by the end of the year, i think it would be neat to see something that denotes this feat. Not everyone i'm sure feels compelled to write reviews for every course they play, but give that they have a large number under their belt would hopefully make them more objective and fair in the reviews they do post. Me personally i'm trying to review as i play now but as for course i've played before i found this site i only went for the ones that didn't have reviews or didn't reflect what i felt they should be rated(those reviews were not that great either, went for the more overall rating effect). just some thoughts and ideas.

 

[JR Stengele]

.

When reading reviews of a new (to me) course and a noob has given a 4.5 star rating I find myself hoping that when I scroll down they'll be a rating/review from the likes of Innovadude, The Valkyrie Kid, Olorin, DGtourist, JR Stengele, timg, Donovan, Texconsinite, or gwillim. Those are the type of reviewers that I know I can... for lack of a better word: trust.

ERic

Thanks EricJ, I feel the same way. I always look for the trusted reviewer casue I know I am going to truely get a good idea of what the course is about before I even play it. It is all about the trusted reviewer.

 

[timg]

You can see how many courses a person is played right under their name in the review header. There isn't a snazzy icon but the info is there.

 

[Three Putt]

Probably the loophole with the trusted reviewer icon is that negatives don't count. So you can have 50 positives and 100 negatives and be "trusted." Really all you have to do is write a lot of reviews, and no matter how bad they are and how many negatives you get eventually you will get 50 votes and be "trusted."

I think that the equation should be positives-negatives=more than 50. That way you know the reviewer has that many more positives than negatives. I'm not sure if this would effect anybody who currently has the icon or not, but it seems reasonable to me. There are weaknesses to that idea, as it then gives somebody who doesn't like you a reason to pull up all your reviews and give you a bunch of negatives. I'm not sure how you protect against something like that.

 

[timg]

That's a big reason why I don't have negatives count against you. Regarding the quantity of reviews, if someone writes a ton of reviews and they're all pretty crappy, they aren't going to get the helpful votes regardless.

Also, with the new system, you might have 100 helpful votes but if they aren't from a somewhat diverse group of members, you won't be considered "trusted".

 

[magictenor1]

Tim, props for coming up with this system.

After reading a lot of reviews from various people recently it's my opinion that I am really trusting the "Trusted Reviewers" even more now. Many of the newer members are handing out 4, 4.5, and even 5 star ratings like they're Halloween candy... and that's on courses where reviewers that have been around a while (and I trust) have given 2.5, 3, or 3.5 star ratings.

When reading reviews of a new (to me) course and a noob has given a 4.5 star rating I find myself hoping that when I scroll down they'll be a rating/review from the likes of Innovadude, The Valkyrie Kid, Olorin, DGtourist, JR Stengele, timg, Donovan, Texconsinite, or gwillim. Those are the type of reviewers that I know I can... for lack of a better word: trust.

ERic

I don't feel loved (or trusted) now. I do agree when you have been on the site awhile you get to know the people (sort of) and you get a feel for who is going to give you the best and most accurate assessment of a course.

 

[ERicJ]

Probably the loophole with the trusted reviewer icon is that negatives don't count. So you can have 50 positives and 100 negatives and be "trusted." Really all you have to do is write a lot of reviews, and no matter how bad they are and how many negatives you get eventually you will get 50 votes and be "trusted."

I think that the equation should be positives-negatives=more than 50. That way you know the reviewer has that many more positives than negatives. I'm not sure if this would effect anybody who currently has the icon or not, but it seems reasonable to me. There are weaknesses to that idea, as it then gives somebody who doesn't like you a reason to pull up all your reviews and give you a bunch of negatives. I'm not sure how you protect against something like that.

That's a big reason why I don't have negatives count against you. Regarding the quantity of reviews, if someone writes a ton of reviews and they're all pretty crappy, they aren't going to get the helpful votes regardless.

Also, with the new system, you might have 100 helpful votes but if they aren't from a somewhat diverse group of members, you won't be considered "trusted".

Tim,

Not exactly true. As of this writing there's only one reviewer with more than 40 reviews who isn't "trusted" and he's only a few votes away from getting that status. Thumbs Up-to-Down ratio is 47/246.

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/mem_b...0&state=&city=&page=1&sort=reviews&order=DESC

I think a good check and balance to the system would be that in order to be trusted: (thumbs_up > thumbs_down).

ERic

 

[timg]

Sounds like a plan to me.

 

[sidewinding]

Out of curiosity I picked two random silver level reviewers and looked at their HTN ratio (Helpful to Not Helpful). One had an 88.5:1 HTN ratio and the other had a 2.5:1 HTN ratio. IMO, the one with the 88.5:1 ratio should be recognized as being more of a trusted reviewer than the one with the 2.5:1 ratio.

Maybe something like:

Bronze = > 25:1 HTN ratio
Silver = > 50:1 HTN ratio
Gold = > 75:1 HTN ratio

...or maybe just be able to see the HTN ratio when you hover over someones medal.

 

[JR Stengele]

I vote for positive - negative = total. That way the trusted reviewers are truely trusted. I know I am up to like 64 (guessing) to 2 and that seems about right even though the 2 negative are totally bogus. Oh well. I do think that equation is the most fair at this point though.

 

[Greg Layton]

...or maybe just be able to see the HTN ratio when you hover over someones medal.

Why restrict it to folks with medals? An HTN ratio (nice name, btw) would be helpful for all reviewers.

 

[sidewinding]

I vote for positive - negative = total. That way the trusted reviewers are truely trusted. I know I am up to like 64 (guessing) to 2 and that seems about right even though the 2 negative are totally bogus. Oh well. I do think that equation is the most fair at this point though.

With the HTN ratio system you would still be a bronze. I have 68 helpfuls to 15 not helpfuls which is 4.5:1 so I would'nt even be a trusted reviewer anymore if we changed. Most of my non helpfuls came from really short reviews I wrote when just starting out. For this very reason we should be allowed to delete a review all together along with the votes. If you just edit the review and make it better the thums downs remain there forever and they probably influence future votes for that review.