Trusted Reviewers???

[markmcc]

I am 0/25 in two categories (Top Rated, Most Favorited) and 1/25 in the third (Most Wishlisted). I play mostly rural courses and just haven't spent any time around the DG hotspots.

If it wasn't for my Diamond X review ( 16 thumbs up) and a couple of others I'd still be averaging less than 3 thumbs up per review. Slow going when you're out in the sticks most of the time!!

 

[Three Putt]

I have played two of the top 25, but one is Waterworks and I have not been there since 1999.

*suddenly has Prince stuck in his head*

Foundation Park is the only one I have reviewed; it's second on my thumbs list.

Top thumbs up for for me are:
Crystal City Underground; Crystal City, MO - 26/0
Foundation Park; Centralia, IL- 18/1
Sioux Passage - Original; Florissant, MO - 17/0
Central Park - Old Layout (Course Extinct); Oak Brook, IL - 17/0
Randall Oaks; West Dundee, IL - 15/0
Shady Oaks Park; Streamwood, IL - 15/1
Endicott Park; St. John, MO - 15/0
Black Bear Park; Hoffman Estates, IL - 15/0

That's one really unique course (Crystal City,) one great course (Foundation Park,) three old workhorse courses that have really good local reputations (Sioux Passage, Shady Oaks, Endicott,) two 9ers (Oak Brook, Randall Oaks) and a really meh course (Hoffmann Estates.)

I have as many thumbs up for Sunrise in Bartlett as I do for Highland, which kinda busts the idea that you get more thumbs for good courses. :|

 

[BogeyNoMore]

mndiscg seems to hit the least popular courses around. 350 reviews averaging less than 3 thumbs per review. I don't even recognize any of the names of courses he's reviewed. Reviewing all those out of the way courses objectively is yeoman's work. You'd be hard pressed to find a better reviewer that gets less votes. If anyone deserves the votes to go diamond, it's him.

 

[prerube]

Has anyone else had their reviews edited / partially deleted, because some local (?) didn't like what you had to say about their course?

no, I actually have trouble believing it happened to you. Tim would just delete your review if it was offensive enough to edit.

I assume you are referring to Bud Pell. You got so many thumbs down because it is a weak review and it also talks as much about other reviews as it does the course.

 

[Jukeshoe]

Idlewild Burlington, KY 35 1
Flip City Shelby, MI 30 3
Sky High Wrightwood, CA 24 0
Rollin Ridge Reedsville, WI 21 0
Oak Grove Pasadena, CA 20 0
Rogers Lakewood Valparaiso, IN 17 2
Winter Park Kewaunee, WI 17 0
Justin Trails Big Brother Sparta, WI 17 0
Charlie Vettiner Louisville, KY 17 0
Leviathan Ludington, MI 16 1

My top 10 for :thmbup:s....second number is :thmbdown:s.

3 of those are Top 10 rated, 5 are Top 25.

 

[davetherocketguy]

I'm pretty sure zero of my reviews are for courses in the top 25 for anything. The most thumbs for me was Shore Acres in Saugatuck, MI. I've played some courses that were up there in rankings but I don't review every single course I play because I am not always in the reviewer state of mind when I dg..

-Dave

 

[MidwestZest]

mndiscg seems to hit the least popular courses around. 350 reviews averaging less than 3 thumbs per review. I don't even recognize any of the names of courses he's reviewed. Reviewing all those out of the way courses objectively is yeoman's work. You'd be hard pressed to find a better reviewer that gets less votes. If anyone deserves the votes to go diamond, it's him.

Most definitely - and it's not even that all those courses are out of the way (although some definitely are.) Its just that the course density and DGCR member base in MN, IA, IL, SD, and NE just isn't nearly what it is in other states. I'm finding that I'm on a similar track, averaging less than 3 total votes per review. It's just a wasteland of sorts.

Quite amazing that a good reviewer like that with 350 reviews is on the same level as some users with only 35-40 reviews. Just what the level-gap is I suppose.

 

[Stardoggy]

I'm not much above mndiscg at 3.33 thumbs per review. WI is a pretty dead zone for thumbers as well, so I feel his pain. That's with a couple top ten courses in there (Flip, RR).

75 reviews/250up/16down

 

[reposado]

i have a little experience both ways. florida is not a high traffic area, but ive played a lot in north carolina as well. which , yeah, is obviously high traffic

 

[Countchunkula]

I've definitely noticed a bump in thumbs when reviewing a current or former top 10 course (Flip, Maple Hill, Stafford Lake, Dela).

I've also gotten a ton of thumbs by being one of the first to review a new local (Chicago area) course (Canyons, Fairfield).

Sometimes humorous reviews have gotten a lot of positive attention (Nims).

Long story short, I totally agree with the OP. The quickest way to TR status is to review courses in the top 10. Not that I'm a total thumb whore; I chose not to review Idlewild because it was so far beyond my skill level when I played it.

 

[mndiscg]

mndiscg seems to hit the least popular courses around. 350 reviews averaging less than 3 thumbs per review. I don't even recognize any of the names of courses he's reviewed. Reviewing all those out of the way courses objectively is yeoman's work. You'd be hard pressed to find a better reviewer that gets less votes. If anyone deserves the votes to go diamond, it's him.

Thanks for the shout out! I have reviewed some popular courses: BRP, Bryant Lake, Kaposia, Standing Rocks, Phantom Falls, Bucksnort, Beaver Ranch, Bailey. But beyond that, most of my courses are pretty rural and my reviews get little fanfare.

I've also had about 10 extinct courses removed from the site. Courses that hadn't been reviewed for 5 years, if ever that were no longer there or were in bad enough shape that they couldn't be called a disc golf course.

Here's another example of why everyone should review every course they play: Lake Sylvan DGC

It's a nice course but no rural 9 hole city park course will ever be a 5.

 

[JR Stengele]

Ive reviewed 3 of the top 25. I play anything at least once and therefore Ive have had many in areas people rarely know of or go to. Im ok with that. I still have one with zero but most have a few.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Can you cherry pick your way to the next rung on the TR ladder by playing courses with the most name recgonition to grab the most thumbs and unique voters to achieve? Yes, you can.

Most of us don't need travel to play a bunch of 2.0 - 3.0 rated courses... easy enough to do that locally. If I'm putting my time, effort and $$ into traveling for DG, it's going to be with specific intent of playing as many high quality courses as I can conveniently get to. Most of those tend to be pretty popular and/or well known.

You still have to put enough content in your reviews such that people feel its useful. Every once in a while I see review that makes me wonder how they got any helpful votes, yet they have :thmbup:'s.
I think voters need to be a bit more discerning about that.

 

[hook_nuts]

If anyone need more thumbs up just ask and I'll go thumbs up your reviews.

 

[mndiscg]

If anyone need more thumbs up just ask and I'll go thumbs up your reviews.

Help a brother out! About 60 more and I'll get a diamond!

 

[craigd]

It's been a slow crawl for me. My first review was in Nov 2008. Currently up to 782 thumbs up with 25 thumbs down. I got to review flyboy but that was the only course in the top 10 (at the time). Still only wound up with 27 thumbs for that one.

 

[scarpfish]

If anyone need more thumbs up just ask and I'll go thumbs up your reviews.

That sort of thing is part of the problem. Thumbs up a review because its a good review, not because your DGCR buddy wrote it.

 

[jtreadwell]

I got my bronze medal with only one top course (maple hill). Most of my thumbs come from posting quality reviews of new courses that didn't have many in the first place. My area (northern new England ) doesn't see a lot of dgcr use in general, so the locals appreciate a good review when we can get one ☺

 

[Jukeshoe]

WTF is --->☺?

 

[Three Putt]

If anyone need more thumbs up just ask and I'll go thumbs up your reviews.

That sort of thing is part of the problem. Thumbs up a review because its a good review, not because your DGCR buddy wrote it.

We used to do a lot of that back in the day; there were only a handful of guys writing multiple reviews, so we would read and thumb each others reviews. It will come back to haunt me if I ever get 1000 thumbs; I'm sure I've got nowhere near the number of unique voters I need.