200 Characters for Rating a Resource?

[Shelley]

So I'm not allowed to rate unless I review. Got it now and don't like this .
If you want to thank the chef for a great meal, you're not allowed to do so unless you write a review. Kind of funny but here it's a fact.

There are no victims here. You have a choice whether to rate & review or not.

Well, regarding the Chef analogy, I'm sure he/she would appreciate it more that you wrote up a review for his/her other customers to see when they go online to checkout the restaurant they are thinking of attending. How many times have you went out for a meal and been disappointed with the food/service when that new cafe/restaurant opened up or that place you attended for the first time?

Like I said, it's beneficial both to the Author and potential customers to get a feel for the resource (although they could venture into the discussion side) of said resource and get more of a feel for how the resource is but the first thing people will check will be reviews.

No thank you from my side, cheers.

That is certainly your privilege.

 

[HWS]

Rating and Reviews should be seperated.

Plus: All Reviews and Ratings before the character limit should be removed, because authors of new add-ons won't get reviews (and ratings) that easy which results in an unfair advantage for older add-ons.

 

[Sheldon]

Can anyone find that horse, and bury it?

 

[Daniel Hood]

I like when people type 750 characters explaining why they shouldn't have to type 200.

 

[lightbox]

This used to be a nice forum, back in the day. People were welcome and nobody got bashed for simple improvement requests and an open opinion. Things seem to have changed considerably. Will adapt accordingly, don't worry. Keep destroying the friendly atmosphere.

 

[Shelley]

This used to be a nice forum, back in the day. People were welcome and nobody got bashed for simple improvement requests and an open opinion. Things seem to have changed considerably. Will adapt accordingly, don't worry. Keep destroying the friendly atmosphere.

Nobody has bashed you. We've all been there where we're debating to get something changed. My advice, Don't attach blame but strengthen your argument and post suggestions/ideas (like others have done in this thread). Again, I honestly believe quality reviews will help in the long run, granted it's not the only factor that someone should base a purchase on. Doing your homework before purchasing, try before you buy but a consistent reviews also help too.

All that is happening here are disagreements with the majority posting their suggestions, no bashing at all, perhaps getting a little heated at times but it's remaining civil (compared to some threads) *remembers the redactor debate thread*

 

[DennisSkov]

I like when people type 750 characters explaining why they shouldn't have to type 200.

Well, to be fair... 200 characters per review is quite a lot. Some add-ons are very simple, and there's not much to review. Forcing people to type at least 200 characters is going to result in either
a) almost no reviews
b) people rambling about the same thing over and over again
c) or peopledoingsomethinglikethistobypasstheminimumcharacterlimit

I'd much rather see 4 reviews saying "Thanks, this add-on does the job!" than no reviews.

 

[Sheldon]

Well, to be fair... 200 characters per review is quite a lot. Some add-ons are very simple, and there's not much to review. Forcing people to type at least 200 characters is going to result in either
a) almost no reviews
b) people rambling about the same thing over and over again
c) or peopledoingsomethinglikethistobypasstheminimumcharacterlimit

I'd much rather see 4 reviews saying "Thanks, this add-on does the job!" than no reviews.

Yet another 367 characters (not counting space, 433 with) telling everyone 200 is too much.

I'd rather see a review that helps my decision making to install/purchase than one that says thanks.

 

[Daniel Hood]

Well to be fair no it isn't.

I'll highlight these posts (in regards to this addon : https://xenforo.com/community/resources/icewind-visitors-tab.3559/)

I know I wasn't asked, but I'll write one here as I haven't downloaded it myself:



I could probably write double that, but I'll stop there. It's not difficult. REALLY not difficult. Just as Shelley says, there's a lot more that could be said.

Picking up on your points, Shelley, I think repeated reviews are nice, but actually, if you're a resource author purely from a statistics point of view, a repeated review that is the same score as the last actually has little relevance. Obviously from a personal aspect, of course I love it if someone tells me every single time I do an update that it's 5* but it doesn't change the overall rating of the add-on. What I want more than anything is for people to re-review who previously gave it below 5*.

The language barrier, yeah fine. It's the only part of the argument I truly understand. But they are in the minority here. Allan is just being stubborn because we all know damn well he could easily write a 200 character review and I think that applies to most users here whose English is not their first language.

So @Chris D already did the example review, though I did one as well in about a minute after looking at the screenshots:


To comment on some of the points:

• Clearly it is something we're evaluating based on the change that has been made thus far. This isn't something you can change and then know the effects of in 5 minutes. Statistically, you can't know the effects in a day either. Changes have to made over time as we see what the actual reaction is (that's not the reaction in this thread).
• The purpose of a review is not to say thanks to the author; it's primary purpose is to provide information to other consumers. Obviously the author can take the information on board, but if you're giving a 5 out of 5, there probably isn't much actionable from the author's perspective.
• While I understand the point of the second language element, saying that "if we can't write a review in French..." is a strawman argument. XenForo.com is an English website (aside from the language packs) so everything is in English. Some English skill is going to be necessary to write a "critical appraisal" of a resource. There's nothing to say that you couldn't use Google translate to help get your thoughts across.
• Regarding minor releases: I would say that a review is still going to be for the resource as a whole. Reviews aren't linked between them anywhere, so if you're reviewing multiple times, then I would say that each should have the same scope. (I would also suggest that doing a new review for a bug fix release wouldn't be necessary in general, but I can understand the reasoning behind doing it.)
• I don't like the idea of letting resource authors control review lengths. I would say that it's the site admin's choice to control the type of content on the site and the scope of how it's approached. I would also note that we have had various cases of resource authors attempting to use both social and technical approaches to hide negative reviews.

 

[DennisSkov]

Yet another 367 characters (not counting space, 433 with) telling everyone 200 is too much.

I'm not saying 200 is to much. I'm saying forcing people to do a minimum of 200 characters is a bit too much. I've reviewed a bunch of stuff before (but only one add-on here). Sometimes my review are under 100 characters, sometimes they are way above 500 characters. It all depends on which product it is, what features it got, and how many of these features I'm using.

Besides, this is not a review. Reviews about a product/add-on and a discussion about something are two different things. Stating that a bunch of us just used more than 200 characters to have the '200 characters review' limit removed doesn't make any sense.

I agree that some sort of limit would be good.

 

[Lisa]

Isn't it time for all parties to just agree to disagree, just so we can stop reading the same arguments over and over again... Jeez

 

[Daniel Hood]

At the end of the day nobody is making you make a review. If you really want to tell people it's great, you'll find 200 characters to do it with. If you really feel like you got screwed and the add on sucks and you want to warn others, you'll find 200 characters to do it with. If you don't want to type 200 characters, don't.. It doesn't matter.

 

[DaveM]

Oh well I now have a stranded one that I post

The rose are red, and violet's blue,
The add on is sweet, and so are you.
Thank you for the code
It really is so cool
What would we all do,
Without people like you

 

[DennisSkov]

If you really want to tell people it's great, you'll find 200 characters to do it with. If you really feel like you got screwed and the add on sucks and you want to warn others, you'll find 200 characters to do it with.

Why not 300 or 500 characters then? As said, I agree there should be a limit. I just don't agree it should be 200 characters. The people who can do a solid 200+ characters on each review - good for them. Last time I tried to review an add-on, I felt like I had said everything that needed to be said when I approached 150 characters.

 

[jmurrayhead]

to those complaining about the limit - I just advise that you vote with your...er...not voting.

 

[Daniel Hood]

Why not 300 or 500 characters then? As said, I agree there should be a limit. I just don't agree it should be 200 characters. The people who can do a solid 200+ characters on each review - good for them. Last time I tried to review an add-on, I felt like I had said everything that needed to be said when I approached 150 characters.

Did your argument really just switch to "why not a higher number"? I think we're done here.

 

[lightbox]

Nobody ever said there shouldn't be reviews. It's fine for those who can contribute a review. But I don't think voting (and that's what it's called all over the place) should be coupled with a forced review. Can't remember when I had to review something to vote. When was the last time you had to vote in real life ... like elections?

@Daniel Hood
If you think you're done, why do you keep posting?

@Azhria Lilu
If you don't want to read ... don't read, it's as simple as that. But stop telling others to stop discussing, please.

 

[Martok]

But I don't think voting (and that's what it's called all over the place) should be coupled with a forced review.

It's not voting, it's rating. These are different things. Besides, it says in the Resources Manager to "Rate This Resource", not vote for it. Of course you will be aware that reviews and ratings go hand-in-hand as you wish see on numerous review sites.

 

[Daniel Hood]

@Daniel Hood
If you think you're done, why do you keep posting?

.. this argument doesn't make much sense since I didn't post after saying it lol? (until I was tagged, for virtualy no reason other than to argue)

 

[lightbox]

It's not voting, it's rating

That's what I was refering to. I'm not a native english speaker, but as far as I understand, a rating basically is the result of voting?