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Comments – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Thu 16 Jul 2009 09:03:00 AM UTC — Deborah S.
Comments on WOT scorecards have proven to be popular and useful, but sometimes they can be troublesome. People are motivated to write comments by their own reasons; either they had an experience on a site they loved or one that they hated. Comments are usually very positive or very negative – sometimes about the same site. The point being that more information can sometimes complicate matters and muddle a decision. On the other hand, comments provide important information. See what I mean about getting muddled?
One of the problems is that not everyone leaving comments is being sincere. Comments can be misleading, contradictory and confusing. The accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information is not guaranteed. The person who writes the most convincing comments might be wrong or is trying to scam you. That’s social engineering at work. Then there are the random comments and meaningless rants. What does “This site sucks” really tell you?
When writing your comments, please consider the following:
• Be objective and truthful. Useful comments include not only whether you liked or disliked a site, service or product, but also why.
• Differentiate between the technical safety of the site and the content
• Support your assertions or statements
• Try to keep it short, but focused
Avoid these:
• Obscenities, discriminatory language or other language not suitable for a public forum
• Advertisements or "spam" content
• Email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses or other forms of contact information
• Critical or spiteful comments on other comments posted on the page or their authors
Examples of good comments:
I bought a puppy from this site 9 years ago and the service and caring that they showed was above and beyond. This is NOT a puppy mill. They are true Siberian Husky lovers with great dogs. Very professional and extremely caring about their pups. ~ from scorecard
I use this website to broadcast my internet radio show. If you are looking for fun then this is one of the sites you should check out. This one is on my list of good websites. There is nothing really financial going on aside from some Pay to View things but that is all managed by Stickam. ~ from scorecard
The directions are simple, sometimes to the point of not containing enough information, but I've experienced with recipes similar to these and they turned out well. If there are multiple alternative sets of ingredients that may be used for a dish, those alternatives are listed, too. ~ from scorecard
Good Quality Comments
I am glad this was addressed.. The quality of comments on scorecards these days is fairly low..
Peace
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Jared Gray
They're not nearly as bad as
They're not nearly as bad as Youtube comments (they make me shudder :P), but for some sites, especially social networking ones, I've noticed this trend. Perhaps you should post some examples of good comments with a negative opinion, though.
~djsonik >.>
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Maybe a guideline when posting/registering would be helpful...?
I order over the internet
I order over the internet alot, and the nature of most what I'm buying is niche/homemade cosmetics, ingredients and beauty products. (I make my own soap and lotion!) I have given three negative ratings in the past couple of weeks and left cursory comments. Mostly out of the interest of my own privacy. I know we're fairly anonymous, but still don't feel comfortable airing out the details of bad transactions.
Detailed comments don't lend anymore credibility than a quick one. If I'm iffy about a site and the comments seem suspect or murky I check out the users making the comments to see if they are reputable raters.
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It's not about that. It is about long comments containing more information. They can tell the reader what to be aware of. If you just say "This site sucks", and someone would read that, they could not be sure whether that site is actually harmful or just boring.
If you think about just leaving away details, how about that: "Warning - Phishing!" (And I've done that too, I admit, like most of us mass-rating sites, where you just can't be very specific). That comment can be written by anyone, but it tells you: Warning - Dangerous site!
But what if that person actually meant "They were collecting my personal data such as e-mail adress with a contact form and then they never replied"? (Which is not exactly what phishing is, but what for example MS does) That is something different, isn't it? Of yourse you should NEVER publish your details about bad transactions - but you SHOULD write what went wrong: E.g. did they not send you the goods, were the goods damaged when they arrived, or are they actually scammers? Stuff like that. Just think of the reader, not about your comment: Does the reader get the information he wants from your comment? If not, you might want to change it.
I agree with what you are
I agree with what you are saying, and I don't want other people to have to deal with paypal charge backs, grievances, credit cards disputes and the like, so I try to give as much detail as to make the comment useful.
However, like I said in my above post, I deal in a niche market. I have seen a vendor retaliate by publishing a client's name and her work and home phone numbers and addresses on the web for daring to air poor business practices and to scare her into silence. Writing 'I bought X and it arrived in a leaking broken bottle without adequate packaging', can give you away if you're the only one whose bottle of X was destroyed in transit, and the vendor sells a limited amount of X.
Completely paranoid of me and unlikely to happen, I know. And only marginally related to the original post's point, but just thought I'd give my personal perspective. I'll concede more detail is better 99% of the time. But I'd still rather write "products not as warranted" or rate red and move on, than than write "sold rancid strawberry seed oil" when it comes to small sites I know are operated by sole proprietors who would be able to guess my identity. Hope this doesn't come across as defensive or stubborn or anything.
How do you attach comments to site ratings?
Hi,
I wanted to attach a comment to my rating of a site which WOT rated as green yet when I accessed it AVASTI warned it had identified a virus. I was told to register in order to leave comment, which I did, but still couldn't find how I to leave a comment for this specific site. :-(
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Hi,
just click on the button on the scorecard saying "Leave a comment". This is the big grey one on the left.
Welcome to WOT!
Comments
Comments on sites need to be clear and concise. For many users their comments will be based upon their everyday interaction with specific sites, whereas for others their comments will be made with malicious intent.
Others seek sites that pose a threat to users either via malicious downloads, phishing etc. and these sites are rated and commented accordingly, but it is important to comment without bias.
Users may not agree with the religous or political bias of a particular site, but if the site is safe it should be rated as such regardless of the users own beliefs. This does make it more difficult, and it would be easy to rate on what we perceive to be good and bad in our own minds, but we have to look at the bigger picture of what is safe or unsafe for the majority.
Colin
http://freepcsecurity.co.uk
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it" - Winston Churchill
rating window
why can't I maxamize the warning window that comes up on a bad site...this is really a question rather than a comment...I am new to this and need to figure out how to use it.
@ Ken Grant
You can customize WOT however you want. Access Settings by right clicking the browser add-on. Click on the Settings tab and choose which settings you want. Remember to click the Apply settings button before leaving the area to make your choices stick.
Click here for tutorial
Colin
http://freepcsecurity.co.uk
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it" - Winston Churchill