I propose...

[Three Putt]

Notapro and I hit some new ones this summer, but I was busier catching up with my buddy than paying attention enough to give the courses a fair shake.

If I spent less time running my mouth and more time actually paying attention to disc golf courses, I'd have twice as many reviews as I do. :\ Pretty much every course I've rated a three or higher I've played at least twice; I'd get home and not be able to remember 18 shots. "What did you think of 14?" "Oh, I was telling my buddy about how The Stone Roses was better than anything Oasis recorded and didn't pay any attention to it." :|

 

[Jukeshoe]

If I spent less time running my mouth and more time actually paying attention to disc golf courses, I'd have twice as many reviews as I do. :\ Pretty much every course I've rated a three or higher I've played at least twice; I'd get home and not be able to remember 18 shots. "What did you think of 14?" "Oh, I was telling my buddy about how The Stone Roses was better than anything Oasis recorded and didn't pay any attention to it." :|

Exactly.








Also, you're right about the disc golf related stuff, too.

 

[EarthRocker]

I think I did one review a few years ago, under some name I made up on the fly so that I could review Little Mulberry down in Georgia.

I bring this up because at that time, the only way I could even find out about a course in friggin' Dacula, GA, was by almost literally stumbling across this site. I've never been much of a 'joiner,' don't use Facespace or any of that - so when I found this joint the first time, I was amazed and very, very thankful for the maps and the photos and the directions...and the REVIEWS.

After playing the course, I'm pretty sure I typed a glowing review, on my phone, and posted it. But I couldn't possibly tell you what name I might have used.
Cut to present time, and now I'm a member of the community, and I make my stupid music posts or whatever, but any time I even think about doing a review, I go in and see so many good ones that I honestly can't think of anything to write that would improve anyone's understanding of the course's pros and cons, whatever...
And I also realize, too, that I'm just not as picky as a lot of people are. This is not a criticsm of anyone at all, it's just that, for me, ALL DG courses are worth playing, at least once. It's like women and pizza, right? Even the bad ones are better than having none at all.

So. All you reviewers out there, I thank you. I may not write my own, but I've read most of yours (in the southeast US, anyway), and I am always appreciative. Always. Some are super-funny, some are super-poetic, and some are super-critical in ways I'll never understand.

But they ALL matter.

 

[Monocacy]

. . . but any time I even think about doing a review, I go in and see so many good ones that I honestly can't think of anything to write that would improve anyone's understanding of the course's pros and cons, whatever...

^^^ I feel this way often. If I don't have anything to add, I probably won't write a review.

BUT . . . many courses have no reviews, or just a handful. And occasionally someone might have a new insight on a course, or the local club might have cleaned up a problem area, etc.

So I do try to review new courses, or older courses that haven't seen much attention from reviewers yet.

And mad props to folks who play the mall and review darn near everything they play. :clap:

 

[BogeyNoMore]

If I just sit back and let votes happen will I eventually become diamond? I basically quit writing reviews once I hit gold... not that I had that as a limiting factor, I just didn't really enjoy writing reviews... I still have notes on hundreds of courses that I intended to turn into reviews. Now those notes are out of date and I'm not allowed to write any more... good talk.

Like Martin, I simply don't enjoy writing reviews as much as I used to. I used to be quite prolific, but lately they've been few and far between from me.

But I vote....

 

[Moose33]

1000 helpful votes and 250 uniques I believe.

Nobody reads reviews anymore it seems. Maybe 10 of us or so. Either way, if you enjoy it, keep at it. I'd like to get down your way at some point and the more quality reviews the better.

I keep plugging away, just played and reviewed a new one today actually. First time I've had two new ones in a month in some time.

Won't be back to bagging 20+ in a year until my work travel is able to resume, but I hope that can happen in 2021.

Would love to add a few more states crack 100 next year. If I can hit 4-5 more this year it's definitely possible.

 

[wolfhaley]

I think I got 78 new ones this year. I might be able to crack 100 this year, which is crazy. I'll add 3 in about 3 weeks then I'm gonna line something up in September for a week. Should be doable.

It's impossible to review all of them. Maybe a quarter if I'm lucky.

 

[The Valkyrie Kid]

I like the part about pizza and women. It's true.

I think I did one review a few years ago, under some name I made up on the fly so that I could review Little Mulberry down in Georgia.

I bring this up because at that time, the only way I could even find out about a course in friggin' Dacula, GA, was by almost literally stumbling across this site. I've never been much of a 'joiner,' don't use Facespace or any of that - so when I found this joint the first time, I was amazed and very, very thankful for the maps and the photos and the directions...and the REVIEWS.

After playing the course, I'm pretty sure I typed a glowing review, on my phone, and posted it. But I couldn't possibly tell you what name I might have used.
Cut to present time, and now I'm a member of the community, and I make my stupid music posts or whatever, but any time I even think about doing a review, I go in and see so many good ones that I honestly can't think of anything to write that would improve anyone's understanding of the course's pros and cons, whatever...
And I also realize, too, that I'm just not as picky as a lot of people are. This is not a criticsm of anyone at all, it's just that, for me, ALL DG courses are worth playing, at least once. It's like women and pizza, right? Even the bad ones are better than having none at all.

So. All you reviewers out there, I thank you. I may not write my own, but I've read most of yours (in the southeast US, anyway), and I am always appreciative. Always. Some are super-funny, some are super-poetic, and some are super-critical in ways I'll never understand.

But they ALL matter.

 

[JuanA]

If I spent less time running my mouth and more time actually paying attention to disc golf courses, I'd have twice as many reviews as I do. :\

This is my problem as well. I usually bag courses on the weekend with one other person. We end up having such a good time, that I forget to take notes. I don't like to write reviews unless I really have a feel for what I just played, so many go unreviewed.

I have today off so I'm going out to bag 5 by myself. One has no pictures or reviews so I want to see how it goes.

 

[Discette]

I pretty much stopped writing reviews and have been focusing on adding full sets of photographs for the courses I play. Because sometimes one picture is worth 1000 words.

So while I will not likely reach Diamond Trusted Reviewer, I am a Diamond Shutterbug!


I usually save my thumbs for courses I have actually played or plan on playing. I rarely thumb a random review.

 

[magictenor1]

It's nice to get recognition but that's not why I'm here. I read reviews mainly to see where I want to play and to get pertinent info. I've been a member here since the beginning and at 1st I wrote lots of reviews. Now I generally will only write one for a course that doesn't have many.

 

[Cerealman]

I get the sentiment behind Olorin's suggestion. I'm at nearly 80 percent in both thumbs (790 currently) and unique voters (198 of the 250 required). And what once seemed like a ridiculous goal is now not; I've started to think about reaching Diamond TR status as one of my disc golf goals in 2021. Credit to wellsbranch250 for the nudges that got me writing more reviews.

Getting the thumbs required to reach Diamond status will likely mean 20-30 well-written reviews, thanks to the excellent support of the DGCR community. I tend to prioritize courses that are new or have few reviews - three of my last four reviews were for courses created this year, for example.

However, getting 52 more unique voters seems like an overwhelming task, especially since it seems reviews don't receive as many thumbs these days. For example, only about half of the 43 Diamond reviewers have thumbed my reviews. (Btw, a huge thanks to you Diamonds who seemingly thumb every one of my reviews, lol.) There are many more Gold and Silver level reviewers who I've given thumbs to for their excellent reviews without it being reciprocated.

So in this season of giving, feel free to encourage ALL reviewers by dropping a few more thumbs on reviews. It can be very motivating for the noob reviewers. A buddy of mine recently wrote his first reviews and was thrilled to get thumbs from several Diamonds. A few years ago, I got a mention and thumbs-up from The Valkyrie Kid; that made my day and yeah, I'll admit I bragged to a couple of my friends...

 

[BogeyNoMore]

When I was a Gold TR...

I had to play entire courses uphill.


In the snow.



No downhill holes at all.



...to earn my Diamond.




*grumbles something about kids today being soft*

 

[Olorin]

MrFrosty has to be high on many people's list! The dude has been intrepidly traveling all over here and yon, writing great reviews. I envy his lifestyle to bag so many new courses.
HTN = 1007/31. Helpful % = 97%

MrFrosty now has 1744 Helpfuls with and a HTN ratio of 97.7%
If you've never read a MrFrosty review then you should because they're always helpful.

 

[Golden Tuna]

I used to read (and write) reviews all the time. Never for recognition or likes, but for data and other travelers.

Frankly, I stopped doing it because there are always going to be course evangelists that down-vote anything less than a glowing review for their favorite drinking spot. I realize this is the case with any user-generated data, but with the introduction of UDisc, it no longer seemed to be a good use of my time.

As a long-time member of the community, I do not understand the fixation people have on their reviewer stats. No judgement, it was just never important to me...

I'm generally against campaigning, so I don't care for the nature of the post, but I do appreciate the folks that take the time to put thoughtful yet concise reviews together.

 

[Emoney]

Yup. I stopped reviewing after my very honest review of Flip city. Got so much hate. That is still my favorite course out of the 80+ i have played.

Helpful or not helpful is a bad premise. You can only give so much information for a course where it becomes redundant.
Do you want me to tell you where the port-a-john is? A description for every hole? Where to best use drugs on the course?

Its dumb...just let me put my rating, make a long character limit to deter fly-by or fan-boy ratings, a post limit and amount of time as member before they can review....ect

Get rid of the like/dislike

I "dislike" how the review section is run....i think it allows garbage reviews and deters people from reviewing. Has to be a better balance... Cmon you algorithm computer nerds ....you could figure it out.


Lol im a lil ranty today...apologies

 

[Three Putt]

I used to read (and write) reviews all the time. Never for recognition or likes, but for data and other travelers.

Frankly, I stopped doing it because there are always going to be course evangelists that down-vote anything less than a glowing review for their favorite drinking spot. I realize this is the case with any user-generated data, but with the introduction of UDisc, it no longer seemed to be a good use of my time.

As a long-time member of the community, I do not understand the fixation people have on their reviewer stats. No judgement, it was just never important to me...

I'm generally against campaigning, so I don't care for the nature of the post, but I do appreciate the folks that take the time to put thoughtful yet concise reviews together.

I think sometimes the stats on a review can help your mindset on reviews going forward.

When this site started I was a competition-based player and I rated courses with a "can we hold an A-tier here?" bias. The course that tripped me up was Campton Hills. I HATED Campton Hills from the time it went in. It was a 15-minute drive from my in-laws house and we ended up in the area 3-4 times a year when my kids were little, and I couldn't wrap my brain around why anyone in the mid '00's would spend time and money (and they did spend some money on stairs and platforms) to build a pitch and putt. I also couldn't figure out if you were going to build stairs and platforms why in the name of God you didn't install legit tee off areas. The place really bugged me so when this site started I wrote a review and blasted it.

And...I got a bunch of thumbs down. At the time I thought just what you said, buncha Campton Hills homeboys giving me the homeboy bias thumbs down for saying their crappy course is crappy.

After I got over myself just assuming everyone else was dumb I finally realized that disc golf actually is supposed to be fun and every course doesn't have to cater to competitive disc golf. The review I wrote managed to miss the point of Campton Hills and it should have a bunch of thumbs down. All the other people who wrote a lot of reviews that played there mentioned "fun" and all I did was talk about what the course didn't have.

Having that feedback changed the way I looked at a lot of courses; I really try to focus on what a course does have and how well it does what it can rather than worrying so much about what it can't do. Fun courses are fun, and we have to let them be fun. If a course is easy and bad it should get called out for being bad, but easy doesn't=bad. Easy and fun is good for the player looking to play for fun.

Without that feedback, I'd probably still be missing the point on a lot of courses.

The overall totals are more a function of how many reviews you write; I took it more as a "congratulations, you submitted a lot of data" thing that was nice to get after I wrote reviews for 12 or 13 or however many years it was. I'm still planning on trying to hit new courses and write more reviews even though I'm "topped out" on that recognition. If it wasn't fun to bag courses and then blather on and on about what I thought about them, I wouldn't do it.

I've left that review as is BTW; it reminds me that I'm still wrong a lot. It's probably not the only review I've written that was wrong, but...hey, it's the Internet. If I'm like 12% right I'm better than most of the Internet. :|

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I just don't like the idea of people campaigning for thumbs, regardless of whether it's for someone else, or particularly for themselves. :\

 

[eegor]

I reviewed quite a bit when I was travelling and playing. Now, I play the same courses over and over... unless one of them changes drastically, I'll let others review them. As for likes and dislikes... I don't really care. My reviews are my honest opinion. They were generally well-received. I hope all reviewers are giving an honest assessment of their experience at the courses they review. That's the only way this works.

 

[Moose33]

I love playing new courses and writing the review is a part of that. For me it serves two purposes; to help players who have not played it get a minimally biased opinion on any course I have played and to record the moment in time that I last played the course. How did it looks, what was the vibe, how did it make me feel.

There are some courses that the vibe is great a and you want to play there again, but you can't rate it crazy high because the features may not warrant it and you get some thumbs down. Doesn't bother me too much anymore. Other times there is a course I don't vibe with and it's just objectively very good so you have to score it well.

I hope people like what I write and would like Diamond status one day, but honestly it's just as much for me as it is for you guys.