'Thanks' option for good reviews

NotAProghead wrote: ^ Initial suggestion was only "Thanks" button and the number of thanks, no place for negative reactions.  Jim, you've written lots of reviews. Aren't you curious do people like them and which ones? No. About PMs. Only few people bother to write PMs while clicking the button is a simple way to say "Good job, buddy". Only a few people bother, but it is that "bothering" and the personal nature of it that makes it valuable.  Drive by clappies or disses mean nothing to me as a reviewer, again, I think its a popularity thing based more on what the readers would think of the A)band and B) agreement with reviewer opinion, not quality.

I find the entire premise of rating reviews pointless.  I think too many people on Amazon simply grade the writer's opinion, not their quality of writing/reviewing.  If they agree The Wall is awesome, they'll vote positively, and if they disagree with even a well written opposing view, they'll vote negative accordingly.  I never use these "stats" to decide if I wish to read someone's reviews, and I find the little "scores" above each review irritating. 

And in a place like this where people know some of the people behind the reviews, I can see it becoming a popularity contest or a situation where people go after reviewers who don't share their taste, just like they go after bands they seek to "lower" in ratings by giving one star reviews to Haken or whatever.   I can see a person who hates Kayo Dot just clicking the negative button any time they see a Coyote review on the main page. 

I think this stuff is really silly and degrades, I hope Max sticks with his method of allowing people to send easy PMs to reviewers they feel compelled to comment on. 

I 'm one who will send a private message to someone who does a particularly good review of something I already know or if I get something I really like based on their review.  I'd also like to add that I've had some good personal recommendations from folks on this site and have liked everything I've tried. 

Edited by Slartibartfast - February 06 2011 at 10:14

Snow Dog wrote: I think I would prefer something like "Was this review helpful" like they have on some sites. Thank you seems a bit twee and non professional to me.

Yeah, I agree on the terminology. The problem, though, is if we have positive and negative possibilities, which is how the "Was this helpful?" system is set up, it would open an entire new avenue of abuse that someone here will have to waste time on. I think that would be less of a problem in the purely positive system that NAP is describing. However, user feedback is usually to separate and hide the waste of time crap from the decent stuff, so other people saying this review is really good doesn't really help you because you've already read it. 

Catcher10 wrote: I will send a PM to the reviewer if I think they did a good job.

I like this idea, I'm always looking for feedback on my reviews and rarely get it.

Do you think many do it too? 

It seems it was not discussed yet. I saw such feature in other forums.