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Craig639
Par Member
I think I've posted this before, but the problem I see with the review process is that the heavily rated courses have several reviews that say basically the same thing. Why even bother grading a review when 80% of the reviews say the same exact thing?
Along the same line, what incentive is there to review a course with umpteen reviews…like a top 10 course with 100 reviews?
Sure it's nice to pump up the stats, but its basically the same info over and over and over....and over.
I may want to give a course a score of 0-5 discs, but if I don't write a novel, the review will get all thumbs down.
Along the same line, what incentive is there to review a course with umpteen reviews…like a top 10 course with 100 reviews?
Sure it's nice to pump up the stats, but its basically the same info over and over and over....and over.
I may want to give a course a score of 0-5 discs, but if I don't write a novel, the review will get all thumbs down.
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I think the best courses for the year are based solely on the people who wrote reviews that year... but I could be wrong.
Maybe you won't grade it. There is no rule that you have to give any particular review a thumb. Many people do, though. There were a lot of Flip City reviews when I wrote mine, but lots of people still thumbed it.
The key word is basically. If you think that all the other reviews say the same thing, focus on something else, or provide some points supporting where you disagree with the conventional wisdom on aspects of the course.
Also, I would say the potential to get tons of thumbs up for a single review is a good incentive. Write a review about a top 10 course, and you are guaranteed to get tons of thumbs. Write it well and those will be thumbs up. My Flip City review has 30+ thumbs, mostly up. Worth the effort, for sure.
It sounds like you have an aversion to writing. If you don't want to put forth the "effort" to write a review, fine, but you should stop the whining.
I wrote 330 words on Crystal Mountain (that is less than a 1 1/2 double spaced pages - or about three times longer than your post here) and had 90% thumbs up (9 out of 10). Hardly a novel. I also gave it a 1/2 Disc rating, btw.
Just give cursory descriptions of all the things any course has (tees, baskets, par, distance, elevation, number of holes) separating the good from the bad as you do. Add in any special extras the course has/lacks, and add a few "other thoughts" about the round(s) you experienced. This will flush a review out plenty to avoid most thumbs down, and boom goes the dynamite, you are done.
If you employ English properly, and are kind enough to use punctuation and paragraphing, the thumbs up will come your way. If a course deserves a 0 out of 5 Disc rating, it shouldn't be hard to describe why.
Most reviews that have tons of thumbs down fail to do these simple steps and generally have 3 sentences per section or fewer. If a novel has only 9 sentences, I guarantee it sucks.
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Norcal
Par Member
There's not much point in reviewing a course that has already been reviewed dozens of times if you're not interested in accumulating "thumbs". There's only a finite amount of useful information to share. Why regurgitate it over and over? That only adds to the clutter.
There should be an option to rate courses in addition to reviewing them. This would greatly reduce the 2-sentence "reviews" that are so prevalent now. More importantly, it would give users a better sense of the tastes of a given review author.
There should be an option to rate courses in addition to reviewing them. This would greatly reduce the 2-sentence "reviews" that are so prevalent now. More importantly, it would give users a better sense of the tastes of a given review author.
Disagree. Say, for example, there are 15 reviews of a course done by drive-by reviewers or non-trusted reviewers. Having a Trusted Reviewer add their 2 cents could be a big help to gain an overall feel for the course. Those with TR status (note: generalizing here) typically have more credibility and can contribute something over and above the din from the less articulate or inexperienced reviewers.
I agree that giving an option to rate the course without writing a review would lessen the number of useless reviews, but I don't want a rating without the supporting info.
Actually, I don't really care what your rating of the course is. I want to hear the "why" of it. What you hate, I may love, after all....
I try to review courses that don't have many reviews, or are missing critical info, or the reviews are 3-sentence duds. I also try to provide historical/background notes, a quirky outlook, or a humorous occurance from the rounds I played. And a catchy or punny title. Although I don't have lots of votes, they're mostly :thmbup: and slowly accumulating. I might one day make TR. 
If some of you don't see the point in reviewing something that has been reviewed several times before, well, then you're missing the point of a review. Just because we have the perspective of 139 people who did it before you doesn't mean that we have yours, even if you largely agree with them.
That being said, I think there is a lot of group think contaminating both the reviews and the thumbs, but I don't really know of a way around that. We see a course with 30 reviews, all or nearly all of them good, and we want to go play it. When we do, we're often too chicken to point out a flaw, or at least deduct for it.
That being said, I think there is a lot of group think contaminating both the reviews and the thumbs, but I don't really know of a way around that. We see a course with 30 reviews, all or nearly all of them good, and we want to go play it. When we do, we're often too chicken to point out a flaw, or at least deduct for it.
Grape Drank
Bogey Member
I do this as well, mostly because I do spend a good amount of time writing a review. On some of these courses a review will be on the first page for a while but no one is going to seriously go through every page reading all the reviews. I think that yeah at some point it's not worth it to keep reviewing a course. Just from my perspective, I would rather write one about a course that is less reviewed by DGCR members.
ForTheGlory
Birdie Member
@sgamerp
Thanks for the screen shot. It seems like I don't have the option update courses. Maybe because I'm not a prime member? I see the tab for "update conditions" but it is shaded dark and unusable. I do see the "change history" tab under the course decription but not the "update course info".
Thanks for the screen shot. It seems like I don't have the option update courses. Maybe because I'm not a prime member? I see the tab for "update conditions" but it is shaded dark and unusable. I do see the "change history" tab under the course decription but not the "update course info".
That means you're logged into the forums but not the course review side of the site, there should be a sign in link in the top nab bar.
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Some other reasons for reviewing a heavily reviewed course:
1. Courses can change over time. Of course, you can update course conditions, but a review provides a more detailed state of the course.
2. Seeing the same information in a number of reviews reinforces it. Any one reviewers could have an atypical point of view. But if you read the same praise or complaint repeatedly, it's more confirmation.
3. Most reviewers will likely have *something* original to say. There's enough details to a course, and enough different tastes that any reviewer who's trying will flesh out the picture.
That you have to review to rate is a good incentive for producing more reviews, which are much more useful. But IMO, it also probably produces better ratings. If someone has to think about writing a review, their rating will be more considered. If it's just a number, there's a tendency to descend into fanboyism / haterdom (see IMDB). I think the explicit Pro and Con sections also encourage more thought out ratings.
1. Courses can change over time. Of course, you can update course conditions, but a review provides a more detailed state of the course.
2. Seeing the same information in a number of reviews reinforces it. Any one reviewers could have an atypical point of view. But if you read the same praise or complaint repeatedly, it's more confirmation.
3. Most reviewers will likely have *something* original to say. There's enough details to a course, and enough different tastes that any reviewer who's trying will flesh out the picture.
That you have to review to rate is a good incentive for producing more reviews, which are much more useful. But IMO, it also probably produces better ratings. If someone has to think about writing a review, their rating will be more considered. If it's just a number, there's a tendency to descend into fanboyism / haterdom (see IMDB). I think the explicit Pro and Con sections also encourage more thought out ratings.
Craig639
Par Member
You're a toolbox. Maybe I should stop whining?
I was just pointing out that there could be a better system for rating a course. I didn't think I'd get you're panties in a bunch by adding a comment.
Read the entire thread, and thumbed at least one review for each poster on the thread.
deBebbler, which review of Sillybizz's is the transcendent 3-line haiku?
deBebbler, which review of Sillybizz's is the transcendent 3-line haiku?
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Norcal
Par Member
No, it's an incentive to write a two-sentence review. Take a look at the reviews- fully fleshed out reviews are the exception while two-sentence 'rate-reviews' are the rule. They aren't useful, they're harmful because you have to sort through a bunch of chaff to get to the wheat.
That's what some of the filters like TR only, most helpful, courses played and years of experience are for, you can sort out reviews by more experienced players and reviewers and generally get a lot of the better ones to the top.
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I would guess it does some of both. If you look at people who would prefer to just rate:
(a) some will right a decent review
(b) some will right a garbage review
(c) some won't bother rating
(a) and (c) are both better than them just rating IMO, and (b) isn't much worse since it's easy to filter reviews by trusted reviewer and/or most helpful.
It's what it sounded like to me.
I guess I was wrong. :|
Yup.
Lol, none that I've read. I was using "your" very loosely in that post.
But I bet Bizz could write a hum-dinger haiku.
For Highbridge, mine would be:
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