Quality of comments

The addition of the Facebook and Myspace applications have brought more traffic to the site, which I would assume helps fund many of the improvements around here, such as new servers and other computing upgrades that have helped make this site much more efficient. But it comes at a price. The overall quality of the average review has plumeted with the introduction of these applications. There are reviewers out there who have left over a 100 reviews and probably haven't written a single review with more than five words, or managed to use a single capital letter or punctuation mark. But the good reviews are still here; you just have to wade through the worthless ones to find them. In the end, I'll take the faster loading speeds with junk reviews to sort through over the slower RIA from a couple years ago. So even though the abundance of worthless reviews doesn't bother me that much, I still can't give quality of reviews more than two stars. UPDATE: I'll upgrade this to three stars, beca... Read more

The comments, talking about the comments on people's reviews? It's usually not too bad I suppose. Most of the people who care enough to say something about a review usually are intelligent enough to make interesting comments, regardless of being useful or not.The reviews themselves however, is another story. I see the importance of tapping into the Facebook and MySpace crowd, since that's where you find the most people and therefore one of the best places to introduce people to RIA. However, not without a trade back. There seems to be a morning dead hours where there's no quality reviews being submitted, and I have sensed all the good reviewers have stayed away from those dead hours probably to avoid seeing pages and pages of nonsense on the Recent Reviews page.

At best, extremely good. At worst, which unfortunately is a significant number of reviews, sub-literate gruntings of brain-damaged pigs. Some funny stuff though, and not all of it intentional. UPDATE: The advent of Facebook and myspace applications and the speedrating feature have really driven the comments into the ground. I've never been one to whine much, but I think it has reached a point where it threatens the long-term viability of the site for those of us who are at least partially literate. A big part of my enjoyment of the site has been the ability to read the views of some intelligent folks on here, get a different perspective than my own, or perhaps brighten my day with a little humor. It has never bothered me that those folks are much in the minority, but as is inevitable, some of them leave the site over time. In the past this wasn't a big deal, because usually someone showed up to replace them on the literate end of the spectrum. These days, however, that seems les... Read more

I'm not expecting William Shakespeare, but I wish that facebook/myspace crowd would put a little more effort in their reviews. "1, OMG LOL ONLEY BST HOT PICTURES."

Some have some outstanding reviews, and you can tell they have put a lot of thought into them. And then you have those who have absolutely no thought put into them, and it shows by the quality of their reviews.

I'll give this a three because there are some decent reviewers, some that are mediocre, but still a few that just can't seem to get their point across without talking downright nasty, using every expletive in the book, and nothing seems to be done about it. Something just isn't right about that.

I like reviews from the smart people. If you are going to use bad words and inappropiate content, please leave this site.

Most comments that I have read have been somewhat concise and impacted in correspondence with the lecture at hand as it were.In contrast to my statement some comments(including my own)have strayed far into uncharted waters deemed never to return on course...

This varies. I'm rating this four stars, because I can almost always find a high-quality response somewhere in the list.

This site is as funny as it gets. Where do all of these brain dead retards come from. I've heard better arguments from the one-toothed white-trash lady that lives in the trailer park down the road.

I think the majority of the reviews are well-thought out and insightful, at the least to the person who left the review, but one thing that I have to frown upon is the misuse, or no use, of punctuation marks. Now I know I can get a little carried away with using them and they might not be all in the right place but at least you can understand what I write. I hope. And I don't mean to be critical of other people's writing, but would it hurt to put a period at the end of a sentence? Some people leave comments with everything running together and you can't tell where it begins or ends. The reviewers assume that the reader will know what they're talking about but that's not always the case. That's probably one of my hugest peeves. Other than that, it would be those one- or two- letter comments. And yes, I might have done that once or twice. Remind me that I find that annoying and I'll change it.

Some of the comments are very good, some are extremely funny. Others are moronic, annoying and a waste of time. The one word sucks or cool is pointless. There are those who waste time and space by posting who? or I don't know who this is on certain items. That is neither helpful or not helpful- that is annoying and pointless. If you don't know it then don't rate it.

I will admit. THere are actually a lot of people here that respect the use of leaving their opinion, by making witty, funny ,decent, worth wile comments, that people actually want to read. But then there are those who just come here to say the latest gossip about some one ,or put someone down. It's just not right. And old proverb If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all

Pretty good, but they're can be some real dumbasses on this site.

I am pleasantly surprised with the quality of the comments. There are thoughtful, literate writers here, as well as spray-painters and dung-flingers, but what you have is representative of any diverse group of people. I like this site. It's fun to say what I really think (hey, I can't do it at work!)

I think that the quality of the comments on this site are pretty average. Of course it depends on which topic you go to, but I consider it down the middle for the most part. I'm beginning to wonder why folks seem to link a lengthy narrative on something to it being considered "helpful." Yes, I understand that a review that simply says "it sucks" isn't saying a whole lot, but to the contrary, a long-winded epic about something is going to turn folks off just as fast. I rate things I know something about, and I comment on things I know a great deal about. I really don't care whether someone deems my review helpful or not, since that's highly subjective. Whether I write a line or two or a paragraph like this, I just want to get my opinion out there.

There are some really good, informative and thoughtful comments out there, but some people obviously don't have the higher cognitive functions to think more that two seconds and right something people actually care to listen to. "it sucks" is the most common comment I see, and I just wanna email them a dictionary. If you don't like someting, i would like to know why. Why not just rate it a one star and not waste time writing that? Thanks to Castlebee and some others, there are some thoughtful and very well plannad comments out there, and I would like to profusely thank them. Good comments are the reason this was started, and I think that we should try to uphold a high standard of excellence on our comments.

It's pretty typical; there are an equal number of ignorant comments as there are intelligent, insightful ones.

This is dependent on the users, not the website--some comments are helpful/well-written, others, well, aren't. "They suck" or "She's fat" or "He's a moron" is pretty lacking, it'd probably help if they said WHY it sucked. Some people obviously have problems with different religious, racial, political, or sexual beliefs, and though it's not typically helpful, it's a free country (for the most part), and for these and the above mentioned comments, I find that just skipping over them is the best course of action.

There are a lot of good, intelligent, sometimes very funny comments on the site. This is one of the highest forms of pluralism and its great to see a forum where we can discuss just about anything on the internet. But yet there are a couple of things that need to be addressed. Sometimes the arguments get out of control on the site; while at times they are entertaining to watch, it defeats the purpose of the site. Issues are meant to be debated based on the merit of the arguments, not on personal vendettas. Also people tend to leave only one sentence postings on here that succinctly define their views. It's good to back up what you have to say with facts. "George Bush is an a**hole" isn't enough. Tell us why you think that, back up slogans with facts.

I agree with Magellan. It's great to have a sounding board like this but some people really get carried away with the hateful comments. Rateitall claims to edit any hate propeganda, but I've seen things that make me leave this site wondering what is happening to our great nation. Saying someone will burn in hell for their religious beliefs is pretty brutal. I've seen some sick comments about gays and lesbians too. Keep the hate to yourself and keep the comments to thought-out opinions that will stimulate thinking not resentment. On the aside, just a little pet peeve of mine, edit your comments before sending. I've started a list of some of the atrocious spelling and grammar I've seen here. Some are quite hilarious. Peace to all of you.

I agree, about 95% of the comments on this site are very helpful to reviewers. Whereas some people with so little integrity give someone 15 non-helpful votes simply because they disagree with them, I rate a comment on its usefulness. I am pro-choice, but if someone who is pro-life makes a good point, even though I do not seemingly agree with them, I will rate it helpful. Comments like "Abortion is murder", "This movie sucked", or "George Bush is an idiot" which are posted and not supported by any subsequent facts do not deserve to get a "helpful" vote.

There are many great, intelligent and honest comments on this web site and there are many mean-spirited and ignorant comments here as well. They definitely give you some idea of how that particular person thinks; or not. It's what makes this forum so unique and interesting.

Most of the comments are helpful, even if I disagree with them. Its good to have a good argument with someone, as long as thier fair. Some people just flat out LIE on here; which is immature.

I think RateItAll should welcome any comments from anybody, as long as they don't allow profanity - which (unfortunately) they do from time to time.

I'd give this a 4.5 if I could. Overall, I think people leave well thought-out reviews. However, I've noticed that some people can't seem to write more than "It's great!" or "It sucks!". WHY do you feel this way? Also, I find that some people can't seem to review something without attacking other posters who disagree with them. Everybody has different opinions and they are all welcome here. Not everybody in this world is going to agree with you, so learn to live with that fact. Overall, I enjoy reading peoples' posts here.

Most of the comments I have seen were helpful.I try to learn from what people have wriiten and see things in alot of different points of veiw. When it comes down to it we are all different and that should be respected whether there are two words written or two paragraphs. This is a plce where all opinions are shared and should be welcomed. Sometimes "it sucks" just sums it up for a person. Although that may not seem helpful to us it is still someone elses right to an opinion.

Some comments I like, others I hate. But this is America and we have free speech so people on this website can say anything they want. i cannot stop them.

I had to give this one a three because even though people are expressing their mind, I think they can be unecesssarily cruel. When someone has to down someone they don't even know are probably hateful and jealous.Whether or not anyone wants to admit it,famous people are envied because they're beautiful and they have money. But at the same time, there are some really informative people that leave comments. I really like this site with the good and the bad.

Is it just me or are the comments getting progressively worse on this site? It seems like I'm seeing more idiotic, one line comments than ever before. "It's gay," "It sucks," "Bangles Rock," etc. And now that Castlebee has rated everything that there is to be rated, she seems to have slowed down - to the detriment of all. Even in what seems to be a period of gradual decay of the amount of brainpower behind many of the comments left on the site, a couple of reviewers stand out for their absolute lack of insight. Every time I see a comment from Pellehermanni, I lose a little bit of faith in the world. Each time AryanDan starts to ramble on about Jews persecuting Aryans, I feel a little less like coming back to the site. And whenever the parody that is Blaqpower continues with his/her tasteless stereotype, it actually pisses me off (whoever has made up this identity - it's time to give it a rest). Where have you gone, Eric the Federalist?

overall, i think that there are mostly really informative comments on here. and i'm about to say what a few people have already said, but i feel no shame for it. i'm in good company: why would you leave a comment if all you're going to say is "it sucked"? obviously, by rating it with a single star, you're expressing that you think it sucked. so why do you feel the need to tell us verbally? why not tell why it sucked?

I feel that overall, the quality of the comments on this site is very good. There are very many people here who leave long, well-written comments that I wish I could have written. Some people write short, but good comments. I do wish that something could be done about the people who leave comments like "So-and-so is a (assorted insult here) because he/she doesn't agree with me". I find these comments very immature and they don't belong at a wonderful site like RateItAll.

About 95.5% of the comments left on this sight are good and worth reading. A reviewer called "danmuse" told me my comments were "provocative" and I think the same thing about him. Everyone (or almost everyone) on this sight has one or more good qualities. The reviewer called "ellajedlicka21" has an ability to make people think, and I like that. "fathi gepril elwago" had an absolutely HILARIOUS R.E.M. comment, and I like things that make me laugh. "Medgar Evers" is insightful and mature. "Mark Chatow" is willing to stand up to his critics. "noah", even though I never agree with him, is helpful. "afterglow70" is honest. "remy" doesn't feel the need to be long and drawn-out; he keeps his opinions short and sweet. "Neil8" is hard to argue with (and I don't have to because we almost always agree) because of how technical he gets ;-). "CastleBee" is intelligent and uses this quality in his/her comments. "Wiggum" always has facts to back his opinions, unlike some people. "Impeach... Read more

I do think a lot of the comments are helpful, although I'm likely to disagree with the conclutions of the majority of the commenters. It seems like most of the users of RateItAll.com are Republican US citizens. They have a special view on the world, politics etc.. However I have one sugestion about a problem that really concern me. I find it strange that you can't change a comment a bit, for instance when you're trying to delete the spell errors in your comment, that you automatically lose the amount of people that say your comment is helpful. I do understand the thought behind, but I can't say it's working perfectly or the way it should. :-(

Proverbs 15:2 - The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. For the most part, when a user has taken the time to formulate their thoughts and structure a comment, the comments have been quality reading. A certain amount of respect is gained from all when effort is given, even if the point apposes your own. Since nobody knows who anyone is anyway, the slanderous attacks only reduce the integrity of the remaining comments of the attacker.

Amen to that!

Most of the comments seem sincere and many are helpful. There are those who need to work on content though - "It SUCKS" REALLY doesn't express much aside from your own personal disgust. I would agree that many things really do - but why not let us in on WHY? Apparently, these people need to have their friends and family all chip in and buy them a vocabulary.

Some comments are great, others aren't worth reading. It helps that when you rate comments as "helpful," they rise to the top. So usually the comments at the top of the list are better than the ones at the bottom.

This rating is for "TruthTeller". All of your comments are so childish and low-class. Obviously you have an obsession with bowel movements, which is what your comments are. Also, I'd love to see what you look like since you are very critical on appearances.

Some comments are very helpful, but a lot are just downright hateful! Why bother rating something if all you are going to say is "it sucks" and give no reason why? I don't care to read that. Go leave your graffiti somewhere else.

Comments like "This movie sucked" just aren't helpful to me. It seems that most popular items on this site have at least a couple quality comments, but the site would be a lot better if more people would leave long, thoughtful reviews instead of quick, worthless comments like "I love this snowboard!!!" If RateItAll is going to become a useful community, people really need to help each other out by leaving quality comments on the things that fall into their area of expertise.