Posted by Rick Denney on November 07, 2003 at 14:02:17:
In Reply to: tuba rating chart ??? posted by js on November 07, 2003 at 10:02:33:
Some observations of other sites: If people sign their own names, you'll have the politicking you are hoping to avoid. If people post their opinions anonymously, they will often inflate their qualifications and you'll have some who post in bad faith just for fun. If it is moderated, the moderator assumes liability for what is said and must verify any opinions that could cause harm to sellers. If it is unmoderated, the noise may become deafening.
I've spent a lot of time in various product review forums, and the "multiple-choice" reviews are worse than worthless--they are actively misleading. But the "essay question" reviews expose enough about the skill of the reviewer so that an assessment of the opinion can usually be made. Thus, I'd recommend just allowing people to post opinions without a rating system. In that case, if I was interested in a RickBAT I could go read the opinions of the six or eight people who tried it.
For example, one response might be:
"the rickbat is awesome, dude!!!! the sound is, like, monstrous. nobody sez i'm out of tune, and the clarinet players run screaming when i wail on that beast!!!!!!!!"
Another might be:
"I tried the RickBAT in an orchestral rehearsal. The sound that came back to me from the hall suggested that it had a poor scale. The middle register sang nicely but it was quite difficult to get a good response out of the low register. The third partial is quite flat, but the G was in tune using 1 and 3. The dynamic range was pretty good in the middle register, but tended to break up in the upper register. The G below the staff was quite a struggle for me. In middle-register loud playing, however, it's sound is commanding and powerful, and it is quite inexpensive."
With such responses, it isn't hard to make an honest appraisal not only of the instrument, but also of the reviewers. If I want something cheap and loud to scare clarinet players with, I might want the instrument, but if I need something for more sensitive applications, I'd know to shy away. Even these ratings will be manipulated, but it will give people some things to look for when they play-test instruments.
One photography rating site I have visited tested all ratings against the norms established by other reviewers, and rejected obvious outliers. They claim this eliminates manipulation, but of course all it really does is reinforce the commonly held view, which can be just as mythical as the outlier.
Rick "who likes the idea, but only for written reviews and not for numerical ratings" Denney