Reviews without text

OK, this has been pissing me off. A reviewer going by the name of "tamtam" has been giving many many albums with an extremely high rating one star when nearly everyone else on that album reviewed it highly. I think five star ratings without reviews should go too, as you don't know if it's the same person or whatever. I mean, "tamtam" took Dredg's El Cielo down to rank 200 something with a one star review, just gave Devin Townsend's Synchestra a two star review, nearly bringing it down out of the five star area whereas EVERY OTHER REVIEWER gave it five stars. He gave Terria 2 stars as well. This is just one example of someone who is knocking albums for no known reason. If you don't like an album that EVERYONE else loves, JUSTIFY IT. Reviews without text should not be allowed, period.

Upon further searching, tamtam also gave CttE 2 stars, The Snow Goose and Relayer 1 star, and SFAM 2 stars. Whether you agree or not doesn't matter, these are all without reviews. Admittedly, he gave Red five stars, but in a way that's just as bad as he could just buffing his favorite bands and knocking others.

I agree fully, in fact i have an idea..

Btw, there's also some geezer who gave most of the albums in the top 10 one lousy star, except for floyd, he gave them both 5 stars

IMO the real problem is we all give too much respect to the top 100 list. In the last few days I've been listening constantly to Fripp's & Sylvian's "Damage" (new in my collection) and having a great time. If I was purchasing according to the list solely I would never reach this one cause it's not well known. One should know what he likes, use the downloadable mp3 and then maybe also concider the list to pick his choices. If not so, one would be disappointed frequently.

Still, there should be a technical way to prevent reviews without text.

Oh, and I remember some of Geeer's posts. The man can write !

1. If ratings without reviews are outlawed, then it have to be all of them regardless of value (1 - 5).
2. I already did some research about the effect of these ratings on the chart positions several months ago ... it showed that the effect is only marginal.

Sean Trane wrote: W.Chuck wrote: I know...I hate those reviews, they just ruin the true result, so they shouldn't be counted anymore and so I think they can be removed.   What true results? you mean those rather untrustworthy list made of whatever few reviews are available? Only true results would be if every album was receiving the same amount of review.   Stop paying attention to those useless and tampered-with lists. Read the reviews , not the ratings, to find out for new bands. and stop wanting to make your favorite albums be up on those lists. Nothing more useless than that. This being said, this Tam Tam character has been giving many 5* ratings too and just as undiservingly. Look at his ratings in Family.

I dont think it's really about the lists.  a rating is a good way to judge the general opinion one's PA peers have of a certain album if you were considering it for purchase.  there are albums that don't have many reviews, so random one star or five star ratings without explanations don't really help you learn about the album. 

W.Chuck wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: I already did some research about the effect of these ratings on the chart positions several months ago ... it showed that the effect is only marginal. I also looked sometimes and the effect I noticed was more than just marginal, sometimes there was a difference of 1.00-2.00 !

I think I'm gonna check this out as well for major albums as well as some minor ones and see the difference. Then if I'm bored enough, I'll post it here for all you guys to see...maybe that'll help?

The problem is that some people's whose opinion I DO value...such as Velvetclown for example...have textless reviews. It is a shame that some people abuse this, but one must realize that not everyone is comfortable with their own writing skills to submit full length reviews...or simply do not have the time, but still have an opinion.

I think Tony R's solution is a good one and if you guys think that a certain member is abusing it then you can hold him accountable.