Integrity of ratings and comments

Where the hell is pbeavr when we need him? Ain't no integrity in these parts and there never has been. Rabid political partisans, fan clubs, and other assorted jackholes come here for various reasons and everyone has a little bias here and there that messes up the sample. But as others have said, this place ain't academic, so untwist a bit and enjoy the show, kids.

Where did the comments go? Are they no longer going to appear in my "feed"? UPDATE: They're back. Strange things are happening.

To some degree, I see this as a tempest in a teapot. Unlike some reviewers here, I view this as an entertainment site, and not a legitimate research tool. As such, it is full of comments that are staggering in their absence of any discernable intellect, as well as some very witty, well researched, or thoughtful posts. There are also a significant number of comments that are some version of the ever enlightening "I never herd of dat so I'm rating it 1 star." There are also, as a number of preceding reviewers have commented, endless posts that show no semblance of English grammar or spelling, to the point where they are not even cogent. And finally, there is the endless playfulness with the helpful/not helpful buttons. Frankly, getting worked up about the integrity of ratings and comments seems rather futile to me. This site is not a valuable statistical research tool and never will be. Have some fun, laugh at the cretins, and chuckle with the genuine wits, ... Read more

For the most part its not too good. For every good review there are about twenty useless ones (some of them mine!). A common problem seems to be people's misunderstanding of which way the rating scale goes for original weblists. Two people with nearly identical views on a topic one gives it five stars, the other one star. Thereby forcing the entry's score towards the middle. Another problem is people tending to drift in what they are reviewing. I do this myself just to make it a little more entertaining and to lighten the mood, if not for the readers, then at least for my own. Maybe that is not a problem if the goal is to entertain. But if the real aim is to get useful reviews on a variety of things it is a problem.

This sight is mostly for rating items...I hope..some users leave bogus ratings just so they can leave a comment. I would rather just rate items than just about comment on everything.

Many of the top 50 raters give quality responses that are articulate and rational. There are also other members who deliver helpful responses. However, what drives my rating down two stars are the subpar responses as well as many members' tendency to rate five-stars too often and one-star too often. Those are extremes that, in my opinion, shouldn't be used as liberally as they are. For instance, in the topic about the vice presidential debate, I noticed many members rating Edwards with five-stars and Cheney with one or vice-versa. You may prefer one candidate over another, but was their performance really superb enough to warrant five stars? Was their opponent really such a miserable failure that he only earned one?

I always feel that everyone has the right to state their own opinion...and that is one of the greatest things about this website. I am not complaining when I say this, because it would do no good. I was so happy when I made the top 10 of the most helpful reviewers list. I still am happy...but one trend I have noticed since I have made the top 10 is that I get so many more unhelpfuls than before. It doesn't really surprise me, and of course people have the right to click that unhelpful as much as they want...the more power to them. I just wanted to comment on it. Maybe my reviews are getting worse? Or my comments are getting pretty bad? I don't think they are compared to looking at old comments I have left. Like I said, I just thought I would state my opinion. As always, this site if full of really awesome people that I have respect for and keep up all the good reviews and comments as I always love reading them like most of the other people on this site.

Phht. I hear the sound of axes grinding. But that's fine, that's part of the fun.

I agree with Castlebee- most of the people who post on this site are honest, hard-working folks who simply want their honest to god opinion to be heard. I tip my hat off to people like Castlebee and Solenoid DH, two of my favorite posters, and all of the rest of you out there for making this site one of the best on the internet. However, as of late, I seem to be seeing a lot of ridiculous comments on Presidents , but if you're going to call the President an idiot, back it up. If you're gonna say he's the worst President ever, back that up to (I'm tired of one line posts about Presidents and leaders). I suggest that you research topics a bit more before rating on them, and that goes for past Presidents as well.

Several of my comments have been deleted for no reason whatsoever. Ive been threatened by someone in the administration that I may lose all of my helpful votes. This site went from great to terrible since Ive come here.

Hey Chauncey: you're complaining about integrity and then you use a phrase like "dumb-a** right-wing conservatives"? That's not hateful? That has "integrity"? Do park your hypocrisy at the door.

"Chauncey" has made the curious accusation that only right-wing raters get ugly with their comments. The truth is that there are some respectful raters on both the left and right issues. And there are some jerks on both sides as well. I'm consistently conservative and I have gotten plenty of hate mail from leftists, usually filled with profanity. But I wouldn't be so shallow-minded as to paint them all with a broad brush. Sometimes I have clicked "helpful" when I disagreed with a comment just because it was well-written. There are some thoughtful and intelligent liberals on here, and they're the ones I pay attention to. I'm glad to communicate with anyone who disagrees with me...if he has the integrity to be honest.

The intergrity of the ratings and comments vary depending on the individual who left them. Some are obviously not helpful (i.e. "They suck, the lead singer's fat", "All museums suck, I hate them", etc.). Some obviously rate the comment as "helpful" or "not helpful" based on whether or not the opinion matches theirs or not. Others rate things that they have no experience with (i.e. "All rap/country/whatever sucks, so they must too"), and others leave extremely ignorant remarks (i.e. "Kill the heathens", "This is America, who the hell watches movies in Chinese?", etc.). I've read several opinions which differ from mine, but as they were well-constructed arguments and were written intelligently and politely, I can respect those comments and am glad to hear an intelligent argument. Luckily, for those who really want to read the opinions, the inexperienced and ignorant comments stand out like a sore thumb, so if they choose to they can easily disregard them if they wish.

On almost all of my ratings i have found that people find them not helpful. i am just leaving my opinion!!! :(

I wouldn't say every comment left has depth to it. The ones that don't are easy to spot and once you weed those out the remaining comments are worth reading.

There really is no reason not to be honest when a person rates or leaves a comment. You have a website where anybody can say whatever they feel about any topic here and not be completely persecuted for it. It's safe so why not tell the truth?

I think that for the most part, people here are honest. I love reading reviews from Wiggum, CastleBee, Solenoid DH, BIGBABY, Snoopy, Afterglow70, axtrod2003, Molfan, and so many others here. They seem to put some thought into what they write and, whether I agree with them or not, I always find their comments helpful and interesting.

For the benefit of the doubt, I'll give this a 3, even though I would ideally give it a 2.5. Why? Because as with all things, no one can simply take everything they see and hear at face value. Rate It All is no exception, which means that one has to be skeptical when reading the opinions presented here and not believe something just because it's on a web site. While there certainly are many valuable opinions here, there is an inexhaustible amount of resources available for any intrepid soul who may possess the skills and determination necessary to turn raw stupidity into a money making opportunity. Of course, I would never make such claims without mountains of evidence to back it up - and believe me, the mountains of stupid around this place make the Himalayas look like Hillary Clinton's chest. Exhibit A: A quick browse of any comments page under People > Musicians will immediately reveal just how difficult it can be for many users of this site to spell, demonstrate proper grammar, or ... Read more

Hi my name is Sarah Kimball and I am a student at Tufts University. I am writing an article about online reviewers and sites and I was wondering if anyone wanted to let me know about themselves, how they started writing reviews, why the do it, how useful they are etc. Email me at [email protected] and i guess we'll see how easy it is to contact other reviewers! :)

I admit that sometimes I'll give something a lower rating than I normally would have otherwise, but it's usually because I'm so appalled at how high something is rated. For instance, Wings is the #1 rated comedy show on this site. I liked the show when it was on, but let's get real, that wasn't even close to being the best comedy show on tv.

Now I've read a bunch of reviewers who don't know squat about the things they're rating. E.g. a lot of TV-shows get reviews like: "I've never seen it but it can't be good..." etc. Come on people! If you haven't seen it how do you know if it's crap or not? Also I agree with what CastleBee and pretty much everyone else that say that it's not a popularity contest and about petty Not Helpful ratings races. If you haven't got anything constructive to say, say it somewhere else.

There have been a couple of issues on the site concerning a small group of people, probably partisaned extremists, moving certain items up and down on a list on purpose. This has got to stop. The purpose of the site is to inform people. Like CastleBee said, this is not a popularity contest. This is meant to be the most democratic way to get our views out. Altering lists is akin to someone stuffing a ballot box; this is not what a democracy is supposed to be. This has always been a problem, but it seems like its getting worse as of late. Rate-it-all is supposed to be a place where people can express their views and where their votes can be counted. Disagreements happen, that's fine, but don't get petty about it. But that said, I think there are still plenty of positives about the site. There are too many people to list on all sides of the issues that leave excellent and informative reviews.

I think a lot of the time, people are honest, but I'm pretty sure some people will rate something just to give it a lower ranking.

That really depends on the specific reviewer. If we're dealing with someone like afterglow70, then that gets a five-star rating. However, if we are dealing with, oh, Dorkavitch Chamalsky, the integrity is sometimes very low. So I'll give it an average rating. Tke care, everyone!

Integrity of ratings and comments? Huh? On more than one occasion, several of my comments have been deleted to my dismay without good cause. I guess whoever is running this site disagrees with my viewpoints and filters out what is contradictory to his/her own personal views. If this is truly an opinion site then ratings and comments ought to be left unedited, otherwise the ratings and comments that do appear are inaccurate representations of public opinions on different subjects, objects and ideas. Thus the integrity of this site as a whole is lost. Any other raters out there agree?

For those who are rating items you admittedly know nothing about(Dorkavitch), stop it, stop it now for petesake. I am disappointed in the system administrators for allowing this to happen after witnessing comments being removed in the past it would seem these would be as well. The ratings are for those topics you have knowledge of or experience with.

After several recent comments left by Dorkavitch Chamalsky, I felt such as issue such as the integrity of the comments should be addressed--quite frankly, he's been rating items which he does not know about. Many recent comments, including those left by him on Checkers Drive-In, Sonic Drive-In, and Taco John's show that he has no idea what he's talking about, and only giving arbitrary ratings. Personally, I think there should be SOME sort of quality control here. Although reading a good review can be a satisfying thing, there are certain reviews that should be removed, I feel, to help the overall quality of the site: reviews where it is clear that the reviewer has no idea what he is talking about, reviews that lie about what's being reviewed, reviews that are clearly describing something other than what's being reviewed, and reviews done in all-caps. Also, to a lesser extent, reviews that just say "this is good" or "this is bad" without ever explaining WHY so and so is good or bad... Read more

I just think it's great that people have the opportunity to comment on things. I have read a few and I am sorry but for those who have bad things to say about certain shows or singers or celebrities, I know this is site is about voicing opinions but don't you think that we should respect people for who they are and the craft they produce is their job, and they won't be here if no one really supports them? So think about it, there's a purpose for everything.

Overall, I think the people who come here regularly have every intention of giving an honest opinion and probably vote their conscious. As I mentioned in another topic area, I already have several favorite writers I enjoy reading on a regular basis. The site gets better and more valuable with every comment and vote and I have come to use this as a good reference for many things including travel and product information. It would be impossible to filter out people with less than honest or honorable intentions. One thing I have noticed - and it's really a small thing with little consequence overall - is that some people apparently get pretty hot under the collar about remarks other posters have made. Rather than posting a rebuttal of some kind they instead try to exact a kind of sophomoric revenge on the writer with whom they disagree. I would like to suggest the following thought for these folks - and you know who you are - who use the "helpful"/"not helpful" buttons as a means of... Read more

You tell 'em, CastleBee. I agree that most people who visit this site vote their conscience, which makes the ratings, for the most part, accurate. But it's clear that every now and then an individual (or small group) with an agenda will try to flood RateItAll with biased ratings. And when you're dealing with such single-minded people, one opinion that rubs them the wrong way can result in childish backlash (case in point - how someone has gone through all of CastleBee's excellent comments and rated them "not helpful"). Well I, for one, really appreciate the people who take time to leave quality, insightful reviews on this Web site. A lot of people might not know it (since it's kind of hard to find), but from the bottom left of the home page you can link to a list of all the comments left here in the past 24 hours, and it's interesting to stop by and read through them each day. Sure there are a lot of idiots out there, but users like CastleBee, Johnny Roulette, Shroomwoman, PoorOl... Read more

Absolutely horrible integrity to results. If you need an example, check out the ...Baby One More Time, Christina Aguilera, or Marshall Mathers LP pages. They all have totally inapproriate comments.

Sometimes it seems like a small group of fanatics can move a specific item up and down the ratings lists, but overall the ratings look pretty accurate to me. And even if some fanatics mess with the numerical ratings, the text comments are the most important thing anyway. Also, since you need to have a valid e-mail address to vote (and have your rating stay in the system), it's not easy to mess with the integrity of the lists (especially when the items on the list already have a lot of ratings).