Need some advice/comments on a particular ePinion

[dreamlab]

I am at wits' end. I wrote an ePinion on Hannibal (the book) a couple of weeks ago. It got about 15 rates (all "very helpful"). I noticed a typo and tried to update it and the system kept returning a "page not found". I tried everything and to cut a long story short, I deleted it and tried to reload the same text.

Anyway, I just took a look and it is getting hits, but this time, most of the ratings are "helpful", with one "somewhat helpful".

I respect the opinion of people on this board and I was wondering if someone can explain what's going on. I suspect that the first 2-3 ratings that came in were "helpfuls" and so people who read it later just followed the rating trend and gave "helpfuls".

I dunno. But at this point I am not the most objective person! I have a couple of "helpful" opinions but usually I understand why. In this case, I am completely baffled.

Can someone take a peek and just let me know what they think? Perhaps the review is borderline "helpful"/"very helpful"...

<>

(I am not looking for hits so feel free to log off and read as a non-member. At this point I am just confused. I understand "helpful", but "somewhat helpful" is a bit beyond me")

[jo.com]

I read the review:
1. I am not a movie advisor and if one doesn't respond to you here, I would write to one and ask for guidance.

2. For me, anyone who write a movie review (almost!) is deserving of high marks before not only do I find them difficult, I find I can't enjoy the movie if I'm reviewing it.

3. There are some grammatical mistakes, though not enough, imo, to bring down your ratings.

4. Are these all your words? It reads a tad like a review coming from somewhere...at least some of it does. That is just my take, though I rated it VH because for me it was...one of your helpfuls is from an movie advisor..why not write Psychovant and ask for help. good luck

[dreamlab]

I appreicate it. I notice the grammatical mistakes, but as I said, I am "afraid" to update it because last time I tried, it took 2 weeks before I was able to load the review again! It bothers me to see those errors too

Anyway, I just want to respond to one important question you had: I wrote the whole piece - did not lift any words or passages from another opinion or other source. I try to be "original" when I write the review - original in the sense that I don't copy from other people. Just curious - did you see anything that seem to inidicate that's the case?

Thanks again for taking the time to read the review and respond. As I said, I have reviews rated as "helpful" but usually I understand why. This one just baffles me a bit because of the number of "helpfuls" and also "somewhat helpful".

[magenta321]

Well, I agree with Jo.com, get an expert to take a look at it. However, I would have a book advisor look at it, since it's a book review

The review seemed pretty good to me. I didn't notice the errors in it. I also did a very quick google search, and didn't find another source which sounded similar to yours. So, I am not sure why it was rated as it was, but perhaps that is where the advisor comes in. I am not sure what they are looking for in book reviews.

And, perhaps you got on H and everyone else followed suit, or maybe the rubber stampers didn't deem it long enough. Perhaps a combo of the two, plus a few readers who did read it, and felt it only deserved an H. Dunno.

[Redlass]

I enjoyed your review because in addition to providing a plot summary, you also explained some of the things you like and disliked about the book and critiqued the way the story was told.

I wouldn't presume to try to explain why others rate the way they do and wouldn't want to insult them by claiming to know their minds. A few things jump out that might explain why some people rated it helpful rather than very helpful:

• Spoilers. Well, actually only one spoiler. You give away what happens to a character who is a fairly major figure in the beginning. Some people will rate reviews down that spoil an important plot element for people who haven't read the book.
• Organization. This is a tough one and one I know I struggle with all the time. Your organization works, but sometimes it is difficult to follow the changes in your thoughts. It might help to have smoother transitions.
• Comparisons. Some people will rate reviews on a curve by comparing them with other reviews in that category. This particular book has a lot of reviews written on it and some people may be trying to rank them.

Those are just a couple of thoughts that might be helpful. I certainly don't know whether those are the reasons the review was rated the way it was, but it might give you something to chew on.

[dreamlab]

I wrote Psychovant an email Just wondering, is there an easy way to figure out who's a book review adivsor?

Finally, I apologize for posting a link here. I didn't know it was a no-no on this forum. Thanks for pointing this out!

Connie

[Redlass]

From Epinions' home page, click on the "Member Center." In one of the boxes along the left side of the screen, there is a list of advisors.

The last time I checked, though, the book advisors were listed under the "beauty" category. They may have fixed that glitch.

No problem about the link--in fact, there's a poll on that very topic in the Cafe right now.

[jo.com]

Gosh I feel dumb but what else is new. Psychovant is a movie reviewer and you wrote a book review not a movie. Ok well you found out how to find the reviews but what I said holds true about fiction books. If I know I'm reviewing them I can't enjoy them so anyone who writes reviews on adult fiction I am in awe of.

[KateTPZ]

Connie - I'm a book advisor (for what that's worth) and I just read your Hannibal review. I found it somewhat choppy, found a few grammatical mistakes that threw off my rhythm (easy to do to me, by the way!) and thought it assumed the reader was familiar with the two other books. I'm not familiar with either (I've seen the movie "Silence of the Lambs," but I know movies are often quite different than books).

Hope that helps.

I also have no clue what happened when you were trying to edit your review - although oddities like that are not unheard of. It would be worth trying again - some of those grammatical errors really made a difference between VH and H for me.