5 star reviews

I’ve done a four F review

-- When the moderator chooses sides, his site sucks.

Ratings are subjective and hold a strong bias towards the reviewer. If a new woodworker buys a tool and it is the only one they have used, then it is automatically the best tool ever, even if it sucks. What you have here is more of an overview of a product. Without relation to a similar item or multiple reviews of the same item all you will get is opinion.

-- http://www.niceashplanes.com/ http://www.efcabineture.com/

rhett is exactly right. Nothing against new woodworkers, I’m one of them myself, but we do get all excited about our new tools and tend to extoll virtues upon our new tools even if they do suck but it’s only because we don’t have any other good tools to compare them to. This is exactly why I always look for reviews from the people who DO know. I do know some things about some things, if I don’t I am smart enough to know I don’t and look for someone who does, especially when I am going to spend my money.

-- I was born at a very young age, as I grew up, I got older.

Rich: I’m giving this thread five stars ;-)

-- -- Neil

If one considers that a 3 Star review should be considered average quality then anything higher than 3 should be considered exceptional. The problem with any review system is defining what would be considered as a universal average. Consequently, almost any rating system out there is flawed from the start and should be taken with a rather large grain of salt.

I appreciate all the comments, thank you, but i think you are missing a key point from my posting.

If you write a review, you have an option of assigning a rating. If you skip over that step, the system automatically assigns a 5 star rating. As readers, we never know if the writer pro-actively gave the product a 5 star rating of if they just didn’t bother to assign a rating.

I advocate that if the writer does not pro-actively pick a rating (by clicking in the right place) there should be no assigned rating. Someplace, the review would say “not rated”.

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

I agree with your comment on the default being ‘no rating’.

-- Don, Royersford, PA

Rich , maybe Martin could make it so the post doesn’t print until the poster actually selects the star rating.
Some People here don’t realize that by giving a tool 1 star or 5 stars if they have negative or positive Customer Service that they actually affect the overall ratings of the tools. They’re rating the service and not the tool.

Regarding all of the 5 star ratings on here :
I just love the ones that aren’t even out of the box or “just got it yesterday”.
Also , the reviewers that are giving the tools 5 stars , compared to what ?
Someone recently suggested that Customer Service also should be part of the rating.
How many tools do you own that you never had to call CS about ?
Does that really make the tool better or worse in the end ?
No , it just gives you a look at one certain person within the company that you called , and has nothing to do with the actual tool at all.
I feel that the tools really need to be used for a good period of time before they can actually be “reviewed”.

-- When did quiet and quite become the same word ? I'm guessing about the same time as your and you're did.

Internet reviewers tend to over-rate with the 5-star systems. 10
point review systems are more effective in gauging satisfaction.

A 3-star review tends to be interpreted as “inadequate” and
as a book reviewer, when I give a 3 star review to a book, the
author and friends routinely vote such review “not helpful”
with the Amazon voting system.

Anyway – to my thinking 3 stars is a functional product or decent
book with no big flaws or dealbreakers. A 2 star is a disappointment,
a 1 star a waste of time and money. A 4 star is a pretty good
product with some minor flaws in design, quality, or appeal
to the reviewer’s needs. A 5 star is a virtually flawless product,
a superior and deeply engaging book, a product you would
buy again without hesitation.

I agree with the 10 point system being more “accurate” : )

-- When did quiet and quite become the same word ? I'm guessing about the same time as your and you're did.

One foreseeable problem with switching to a 10-point system would be The Legacy Dilemma.

You’d have to map all the old reviews OVER TO a 10-point system, meaning … just double the rating … not necessarily very accurate.

Hmmm.

-- -- Neil

Grade inflation is rife in this country!

I agree that reviews should not have a default rating.

Also, I believe that some people tend to overrate the products that they decided to buy. It’s kind of like in Lake Wobegon where all the children are above average.

-- I was walking down the street, something caught my eye, and dragged it 15 feet.

I agree that reviews should not have a default rating.

-- Shameless - Winner of two Stumpy Nubs Awards

A default rating of that type makes ratings very unreliable. Should never be done that way. Default if used should be ‘No Rating” JMHO

-- If we could hear the trees grow or the heart beat of every animal,the things that we pass off as 'ordinary' , then the roar of God’s creation would overwhelm us.