Thread: Could you add a value rating to the reviews?

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Post by David_fram February 5, 2004 (1 of 13)
Could you add a value rating to the reviews?

Thanks

David

Post by zeus February 5, 2004 (2 of 13)
David_fram said:

Could you add a value rating to the reviews?

Maybe! Tell me what your ideas are. I'd also like to hear from others on whether this would be useful or not.

Stephen

Post by beardawgs February 6, 2004 (3 of 13)
David_fram said:

Could you add a value rating to the reviews?

Hmmm… how would you judge a good value disc? Price/timing ratio won’t work, as there are some fabulous discs out there lasting some 40-50 mins with some great music on them. And then, what if you get a disc on sale or on one of those low price websites? We paid for some of our SACDs £5 or £6 which doesn’t necessarily makes them a good value if what’s on them is crap.

I would recommend something like penguin ‘rosette’ mark, for truly outstanding discs – mixture of music/performance/recording that makes a particular impact on the reviewer. It would be, of course, like all other marks, a personal opinion, and we should be careful to give that ‘sixth’ star only to really impressive discs (from our classical collection right now I would give that mark so far to MTT recording of Mahler’s 6th and Fischer’s recording of Dvorak’s 8/9 symphonies).

Post by zeus February 6, 2004 (4 of 13)
beardawgs said:

Hmmm… how would you judge a good value disc?

I took the original request to be something along the lines of "Was this review useful to you?", but maybe I misunderstood ...

Post by beardawgs February 6, 2004 (5 of 13)
zeus said:

I took the original request to be something along the lines of "Was this review useful to you?", but maybe I misunderstood ...

For me all reviews are useful in their own terms. If we all put an effort and explain why do think that one recording is better than the other (or worse) do we really need amazon-like ‘top 10’ or ‘top 50’ reviewers? We are all music lovers who want to share their opinions with others who visit this website, and I wouldn’t like to take part in judging anybody’s ‘usefulness’. I am sure that we are all grateful to anyone who can spare some time and contribute their comments, and thanks to this website we have made a great friendship with Paul (nucaleena) which is priceless!

Post by zeus February 6, 2004 (6 of 13)
beardawgs said:

For me all reviews are useful in their own terms. If we all put an effort and explain why do think that one recording is better than the other (or worse) do we really need amazon-like ‘top 10’ or ‘top 50’ reviewers? We are all music lovers who want to share their opinions with others who visit this website, and I wouldn’t like to take part in judging anybody’s ‘usefulness’. I am sure that we are all grateful to anyone who can spare some time and contribute their comments, and thanks to this website we have made a great friendship with Paul (nucaleena) which is priceless!

As I said, I'm open to any input. I think review ratings can be useful as they give feedback to the reviewers themselves. Also, it's an easy way for others to concur (or not) without going to the effort of writing their own review. This rating can also be used as a sort key so the most "useful" reviews float to the top. I've seen a few sites where such a facility is put to good use.

Post by beardawgs February 6, 2004 (7 of 13)
zeus said:

As I said, I'm open to any input. I think review ratings can be useful as they give feedback to the reviewers themselves. Also, it's an easy way for others to concur (or not) without going to the effort of writing their own review. This rating can also be used as a sort key so the most "useful" reviews float to the top. I've seen a few sites where such a facility is put to good use.

You’re right Stephen, it would be good to know was your review useful to anyone. I can speak only for myself here as all reviews I posted are personal views and impressions. As I don’t always agree what others have to say about a recording, I don’t expect that other people agree with me, which is natural. It would be interesting to see what others think of that idea. But then, I would hate to over-generalise all our personal views. I am personally not very keen on star marking system, as it is the quick fix if you’re too lazy to read what one has to say. I too often just glimpse over the number of the stars without really reading what’s in the review itself. But, whatever are the drawbacks, it’s the best way to sum one’s views, even if I find it really difficult to star-rate some discs as a whole.

As for the logistics, if you decide to go forward with that, maybe you should make a distinction between ‘I have this disk and agree/disagree’ and ‘I don’t have the disc, and find this review useful/not useful’.

Post by David_fram February 6, 2004 (8 of 13)
Originally I meant to do with pricing but I think in retrospect that probably wouldn't work, mainly thinking of the £15 waste of money at MVC on the Meat Loaf Bat Outta Hell SACD. It wold be nice to have some way however of labelling a reference type disc. This would enable people to get an idea of what discs people think are best for putting your home system through it's paces.The idea of rating reviews would also be useful because it would give people an idea about how experienced the reviewer is. I've put reviews up but I am not particualarly musical so find it hard to comment on some aspects of the playing especially as I can rarely make direct comparisons. As for the point above about saying what you rting it in respect to (have/not have) I think thats a good idea as well. The main thing I find useful is finding out what people thought of a certain disc, recently I brought 6 Pentatone RQR SACDs off ebay based on reviews from various sources. The other information I would find useful is the track listings as I've noticed places like Amazon UK don't always have them or perhaps a picture of the back of the cd case. It would also be worth considering adding links on the individual pages for reviews on other sites of the SACDs to help people find more information about the discs. It is nice to see a discussion on how to improve a site, especially as this is the best SACD info sorce I have yet found. Well done, David

Post by nucaleena February 6, 2004 (9 of 13)
zeus said:

Maybe! Tell me what your ideas are. I'd also like to hear from others on whether this would be useful or not.

Stephen

I'll toss my hat into the ring on this one.
1) Firstly, I'm not convinced about a rating for £$ value, - we know what prices are (and how they vary) and we have ratings for quality, so I don't really see much need for one which relates something as subjective as "quality" to price.
2) Nor am i sure about rating reviewers because i doubt that most people would stop to distinguish between "has this review been useful to me in making a decision to purchase" and "do i agree with the reviewer". I think its a good way of promoting bad blood, to be honest.
3) However, I don't have a problem with the idea of a rosette style award. Someone (i'm sorry, I've forgotten who) recently said they'd like to be abole to add a "sixth star" and mentioned the Penguin guide system of awarding a rosette. A rosette is awarded for that certain almost indefinable something extra which makes a great performance (so its not really a sixth star). As the Guide editors stress, that opinion is totally subjective ("the spine tingle factor"). Looking back at my reviews, I've found q. a few 5:5's but five of those are really special and are more valuable TO ME than the other 5:5's, whether because of musical "worth" (again, subjective) or something else which is beyond simple technical perfection or performing proficiency.
4) Maybe if we were to adopt a Rosette system, and bearing this site's nature in mind, we should do what the guide used to do and have one for performance (the Rosette) and one for sound (which was a symbol in the shape of a cd, and denoted technical excellence beyond the ordinary.) In both cases, and to ensure that it was something special, not just a sixth star, we'd need some sort of self-imposed cut-off, like, a Rosette or Sound award should only be awarded to, say, 5% of all your (the reviewer's SACDs).

Post by beardawgs February 6, 2004 (10 of 13)
nucaleena said:

Nor am i sure about rating reviewers because i doubt that most people would stop to distinguish between "has this review been useful to me in making a decision to purchase" and "do i agree with the reviewer". I think its a good way of promoting bad blood, to be honest.

You’ve just hit the nail on the head Paul. I’m sure that by now regular users of this website know whose reviews they appreciate and find helpful. At least we do. It is very personal, and if you don’t agree with someone’s view, it doesn’t necessary mean that they were wrong. For me it is all a question of compatibility.

Talking about the ‘rosette’ style marks, I think there should be just one, not two separate for the recording and the performance. The disc as a whole should be judged for that ‘the spine tingle factor,, and for that I can not separate the two. At least I can’t enjoy badly performed music, however well recorded and vice versa. And that approach would assure the exclusivity of certain particularly excellent discs from our collections.

PS: and if someone feels like discussing a reviewer or a review, that’s why we have this forum, at least there is enough space to elaborate and put forward a different opinion for further discussion.

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