Have Your Reviews Been Rated "Not Helpful?"

Kathryn writes, I write a lot of reviews (I'm up there in the top 500). One day, it seems, I got what I can only describe as dogpiled with Not Helpful on dozens of my reviews, including innocuous ones I had written over a long period. It seems as though I wrote something that annoyed someone and he/she got lots of friends to click Not Helpful of a lot of what I had written. I happened only once, and I get plenty of Helpful and Not Helpful clicks on what I write.

Have you felt that your reviews were unfairly rated "Not Helpful?"

Comments

[Pollardito]

that's strange. but some people really love to build up drama/vendettas though, so i could see how that could happen.

the only reviews i've ever marked unhelpful were ones where it's clear that the person is pre-reviewing a movie that they haven't seen yet and just wanting to (for some reason) register publically that they think it will be the most coolest movie ever. i guess there was one where someone rated the show k-ville highly while stating that it was nearly unwatchable (but they rated it high because it used local new orleans crew and extras)...

i can't remember marking much of anything helpful, so you can at least have the peace-of-mind of knowing that there are probably lots of people like me that appreciated your comments but didn't really weigh in with those buttons.

[Old Timer Too]

Agreed on those of us who do not mark reviews, but appreciate them, anyway. I will flag a review that isn't associated with the film, but rather with the Netflix service. As to being helpful, I won't mark not helpful mostly because it becomes a case of, do I agree with the person's opinion or not?

When I write a review, I try to provide additional helpful information, such as a rating if I disagree with the one provided by the industry or if there is no rating provided. I may add comments about the content that parents might find objectionable, but I won't for a film that is targeted for a certain audience (i.e., Planet Terror is not targeted for families, unless your last name is Addams and then my comments will likely be ignored). I'm not going to lead anyone by the nose ring when it comes to choosing what they want to watch.

[hclemente]

I think most of us know that reviews tend to get rated based on whether the rater agrees with the reviewer, rather than whether it's helpful or not. This is why a well-written and informative review with a bit of criticism sometimes gets rated more poorly than a gushing one-sided review. Say something critical, and someone is bound to get pissed off. This is particularly true of films that have a rabid fan base. It's happened to me too. Kathryn's case is a ridiculous extreme, but it doesn't surprise me too much based on the things I've seen.

Only thing I can really suggest is that those of us who do appreciate an informative review, such as the writers of the previous two posts, should take the time to rate or flag a review. Otherwise, we're left with just boneheads bothering to rate reviews. The best way to make a difference is to participate in the process.

[eazyguy52]

I've only written 22 reviews on Netflix, and about half of those were actually condensed versions of reviews I wrote elsewhere and sometimes I think I put up a couple of them in my sleep because of inexcusable grammatical errors. But it's funny how people will rate a film and why.

I watched the film The Ghost and Mr Chicken since it was available on Watch Now and I had never seen any of Don Knott's solo Universal Studio films that he put out after he left the Andy Griffith Show. At any rate, I pretty much panned the film.

Only four of thirty people found my review helpful. I can't decided if the review is really that bad, or if you're not suppose to pan a film of somebody who passed over to the other side recently.

Then again, maybe some were offended that I wrapped up the review by saying former playmate Joan Staley was the best thing about the film.

"The only thing I found worthwhile in this film was Joan Staley, a former Playboy playmate from the early years. She was a blond then but don't let that deter you. It was enough for me to give this film a two instead of a one. Hey, I love good scenery as well as the next person."

[igj]

Agreed that reviews that I get write that get rated unhelpful are ones that are negative reviews of films that other people like/love. Even when I post a 'little bit bad, little bit good,' it gets many negatives. I only get all helpfuls when I rave about a film.

[CJ]

I've written 500+ reviews in the last 7 years and have a reviewer rank in the 30's (it seems to move up and down). I've never noticed any trends in my reviews for tagging as "Not Helpful". I can pretty much tell after writing a review if it's going to get all "helpfuls" or a mixture of "Helpfuls" and "Not Helpfuls". I write most all my reviews just to help me clarify my feelings about the rented DVD I just saw - there's no effort being made to get lots of "Helpful" boxes checked.

But then I only occasionally go back to look at any of my posted reviews. And I only occasionally will check a "Helpful" box for someone's review, if it's extraordinary. However, I've never checked a "Not Helpful" box for whatever reason. Guess I'm not into checking boxes.

[Phatz]

I was a member 7 years ago. Canceled my account and the one I have now has been for 5 years. My reviewer rank which fluctuates is currently 141. I used to write reviews more often but I got tired of people marking them not helpful. I had one review I wrote that in three days had 17 not helpful. Now, I am certain the review was useful, just not popular. There was also a time where one person could place multiple votes. years ago you could re-click every 24 hour or so and get another vote in. Fortunately that is *not* the case any more. After that incident I deleted a number of my reviews and posted them all in the comments section (now, leave a note). I tend to take the time to really think through a review if I am going to post it. For the most part I only post my review to the public if there are less than 20 or so other reviews. I have thousands of reviews between friends. The 'helpful' or 'not helpful' feature is nice but some people abuse it to rank their opinions and on the rating and not the usefulness of what you said. Generally one of the first reviews posted is going to be the primary one read and the one that gets all the helpful marks. Just like CJ said, personally, I don't click not helpful. I just leave it alone if it is useless. I mark helpful on everything that was thoughtful. Or flag the ones that are not even reviews. I guess I just need to have more friends to share my notes with =)

Cheers friends!
Phatz

[profpudwick]

I mostly write reviews on dvds where there is no review already written, e.g., "German Support Aircraft & Gliders of WWII" or "America By Rail: Route of the Southwest Chief." No one rates my reviews one way or the other.

[Phatz]

Well profpudwick,

I just marked them helpful for you ;-)
LOL.

Cheers friend!

[profpudwick]

Thanks Phatz. That was nice!

[Rich407]

Maybe it's just me, but worrying about whether your reviews are being rated, in any way, is just ... completely and utterly a waste of time. I mean, c'mon, don't you have more things going on in your life than to worry about something that meager? I can't remember the last time I ever even bothered to read a Netflix review myself. I only even bother to rate things maybe every six months, and then only if I remember and have nothing better to do.

[hclemente]

Rich407, you think worrying about ratings is meager and waste of time because, as you yourself said, you don't even bother reading Netflix reviews. However, I for one, rely on reviews when I am on the fence about whether to add or bump something up on my queue. Therefore the "Reviews Voted Most Helpful" section is important to me. If the rating system is abused, that means that the reviews at the top of the list aren't really helpful ones, just the ones fan-boys like the most. And that would mean I'd have to dig deeper (or look to another site) for more accurate reviews. And THAT would be a waste of MY time.

[Pollardito]

if they didn't care they wouldn't write a review. it's pretty natural to want to know if something you spent time on was useful to someone else

[AaronzDad]

Well I for one rely pretty heavily on the customer reviews. Often I will open the reviews page and browse through ten or twenty of 'em to get a feel for the movie. One thing I've learned to do is scroll to the end of the review list to find the lowest-rated ones to get "the other side of the story".

It IS obvious the reviews on top of the heap are the gushing ones clicked as "helpful" by other users who feel just as strongly about that film. I've only written a few and some are at the top of the list and most of my negative reviews are lost somewhere in the pits of the review ocean.

I even got an email once (I'm pretty easy to find if you think about it) from some idiot telling me I didn't know what I was talking about and I shouldn't be reviewing movies I wasn't "intelligent enough to understand". Yeah.

I wrote the guy back thanking him for clearing that up for me and saying I now understood it was only HIS viewpoint that mattered. :)

Rich407 is right. Some people take this review thing WAY too seriously.

[NetflixJunkie]

I would like to see the button wording change for these reviews. Seems to me that "Agree" or "Disagree" would be more to the point.