Enquiring minds want to know
Jan 05 '01 (Updated Feb 02 '01)
The Bottom Line My biggest consideration is my web of trust - I always ask myself if I would like my name associated with the epinion rating.
OK - so you have read through my reviews. Most of you have decided that you have liked my writing well enough to fill my pieces with a lot of HR's - which I greatly appreciate! I try to go back and read those who have rated me and I especially try not to leave anyone out. I am alerted to many different authors so I read a lot of epinions every day. And I rate - sigh - which is what gets me in trouble sometimes.
I have been fortunate enough to stay clear of the "revenge rater". Oh, he has found me a couple of times, but rarely. I have received emails from people asking for feedback on "why I rated the way I do" which I am always happy to answer. Now I would like to offer an epinion that should clarify some of my ratings.
VH OK - I always thought I was fairly liberal with these, but after reading other people's standards I have decided that perhaps I am more anal retentive than I originally thought. Normally, I will rate "Very Helpful" a review that gives good information, teaches me something and is well written. By well written I mean a clear understanding of grammar, spelling, and basic sentence structure. (Grammar by my standards is not terribly picky, I basically mean using capitals and periods appropriately) I am not terribly picky, but at the same time I am easily distracted by poor English skills, especially spelling mistakes. I would never lower a rating based on just a typo or two. Nine or ten and I might. I also don't really care about length - I have never understood why a review of a pregnancy test needs to be 4 pages long. I am a quality over quantity reviewer, which is why many people have been confused by my rating. I can give a music review a VH even if every song on the album is not analyzed. However, I don't care how many cast members you can list in a movie review, if I didn't learn anything about the film there is not going to be an VH. I also adore an extensive vocabulary, yet abhor when that vocabulary is used incorrectly. If your review is written with a variety of uncommon words with extensive definitions and they are used inappropriately, I will not VH the review. After all, my ratings are to reflect to my WOT, and most importantly, the average consumer, how useful I found your epinion.
H Why is a Helpful rating bad? I wish I could answer this for the average person out there, but all I can say is that I was the student who would complain about an A- on an exam I felt deserved an A. So yes, I do understand why people don't like these. I use the Helpful rating for several reasons. One of the H reviews may have been really well written in thought, but I found it difficult to follow grammatically. There may be some information about a product, but some significant questions I felt were unanswered. If the epinion is an editorial, perhaps I felt that the facts were not backed up well or that the epinion was merely a rant with no real purpose. I don't think recommended epinion's are bad, I just think they could have been done better.
SH Somewhat Helpful is the rating left for the writer with good-intentions who never did quite get the nack of writing the particular piece. Perhaps there was not enough detail for me, or maybe the grammar and spelling were so bad I couldn't let it go, but the heart of the writer was there. They attempted to write a good piece, but couldn't quite get there. I normally think about if I would want anyone on my web of trust to waste their time with this epinion - if the answer is yes, H. If the answer is no, SH. I will almost always leave a comment with an SH, so I am not going to get into anymore specific reasons of why I would leave that rating here. If there hasn't been a comment left, perhaps it is because someone already pointed out the same problems that I found with the piece and I don't want to just bash someone over the head with it. IN any case, if you are confused, email me.
NH Not Helpful is reserved typically for the pompous jerk who feels that the pennies to be earned off of a meaningless and useless epinion are worth ruining his or her name by writing one. These will consist of "this is way cool everyone should by it because i think it is way awesome and this would be neet to have" reviews. No attempt at spelling, grammar, or even providing any resemblance of helpful information. Basically, you were so angry at All Advantage for lowering their pay rates that you decided to go into epinions, register for an account, and pound out 100 words over and over again so that you could make up the difference. Is this going to help anyone? I think not.
Not Rating Yes, this is me. I am a non-rater. I have read several very thought provoking epinions which I felt were extremely well written with some challenging information. Unfortunately, the epinion goes totally against my moral philosophies and values. I cannot rate this opinion NH or SH because it is undeserving of a low rating. However, I think of my web of trust, those who go to the different categories and see "Opinion Very Helpful by hhassell99" and I cannot give the VH. I would never recommend that someone reads this epinion, I wouldn't send it to my friends, I would prefer that I never saw it on the site again - so I will leave the epinion unrated. No fair letting my biased ego get involved in rating. I will often leave a comment stating that I didn't rate but that I like the writing. (I know that this last paragraph will get a lot of people upset, but we are shooting for honesty here.)
OK - so I have presented the basics. I also would like to say that I welcome all emails questioning the way I rated an epinion. I have been known to rate, receive an email questioning the rating, read the epinion again, and realize that the H was given because I was having a really bad day and I didn't care how much you liked Tickle Me Elmo - in other words, I was unfair. It has happened, I hope it happens rarely (it seems to) but if you feel I was too strict please question me on it. It helps if you point out why. If I said I want more detail, ask me why? "How much more detailed can I get - would you like me to describe the box?" I can make mistakes (shh - don't tell anybody I admitted that) and I will be happy to admit I am wrong.
I also love to give advice and I hope I have helped someone out on more than one occasion by doing so. I am a comment queen - I love to comment on just about anything so hopefully you will here from me often. And I love to get comments too, as long as they are in good taste. So after scouring this epinion for grammar and/or spelling errors to point out to me, feel free to leave them in the comments with a "you hypocrite" statement, just do so politely :)
Take care and happy epinionating!!
~Heather
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Epinions.com ID:
hhassell99
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Member: Heather Sawyer
Location: Lakewood, CO
Reviews written: 56
Trusted by: 45 members
About Me:
Home Schooling, Breastfeeding, SAHM and a whole list of other qualities that annoy people.
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