How can you tell what is a non-review?

Let's discuss what would it consist of, and also at the same time create some rules that would be used as a guide that we would all need to follow and thereby not put up a review that is so-so but still a review.

(Draft) Rules (7/21/08)

1. Customer service issues (i.e. broken disc, wrong disc, mailing issue, etc.) are not reviews.

2. Fan-boy' reviews (reviews before the movie's release saying "I can't wait..." or giving information about the actors, possible plot, or release date) are not reviews.

3. Reviews that are not original (ie. copy/pasted from any other source) are not reviews. (Question: Do they need to be proven first?)

Objectionable Content:

4. Reviews that ONLY criticize another review (and offer no opinion based on their own viewing) are not reviews.

5. You agree that your name will be posted as the one who submitted the non-review.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by wowwee123 on July 16, 2008 at 9:11pm: OK. Can you produce a draft of your own, of how the rules should be presented and let's see what the turnip, poohbear and others have to say?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by poohbear7882 on July 21, 2008 at 1:47pm: I agree on the plagiarized reviews. Sure, they're reviews, but not YOUR review. I consider these to be non-reviews as well.

As for criticisms of other reviews: If they are in fact doing nothing more than responding to/criticizing another review, I consider that a non-review. On occasion you'll find one that criticizes anothers review but then proceeds to actually give an opinion based their own viewing of the movie.

Both of these will need to be worded carefully.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by wowwee123 on July 21, 2008 at 1:49pm: So where do I start with the rules?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by poohbear7882 on July 21, 2008 at 1:56pm: Well, let's see...

--Reviews that are not original (ie. copy/pasted from any other source) are not reviews.

--Reviews that ONLY criticize another review (and offer no opinion based on their own viewing) are not reviews.

What do you think about these? Specific enough?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by wowwee123 on July 21, 2008 at 2:16pm: What about what I also wrote here?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by poohbear7882 on July 21, 2008 at 2:21pm: That's what I looked at to get the format for these two. The format seems easy enough to understand and it will be easy to word any new rules.

As for breaking the rules... Are you referring to someone submitting a review here that, based on the rules, qualifies as a review?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by wowwee123 on July 21, 2008 at 2:24pm: Correct, how do we respond to that person? I don't want to be the only one....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by poohbear7882 on July 21, 2008 at 2:30pm: Well, what can be done really? I mean, beyond telling the person that they've erred, there's not really very much that can be done.

Of course, the offending post could be deleted, but who's to say that they won't disagree with the rules and just post the review again. Although, that doesn't seem like it will be an issue...the people participating in these discussions have all been mature. Sorry, I'm rambling...

Permalink Reply by wowwee123 on July 21, 2008 at 2:32pm: I agree with you, we'll simply need to deal with it when it comes.

Permalink Reply by I'm Not a Turnip on July 22, 2008 at 10:37am: I'm going to vote for the literal when it comes to This is Not a Review.

A stolen review is still a review. Until there is a "plagiarized" category, I think this should be handled with a phone call to customer service.

I also think criticizing another person's review might fit better under "Report objectionable content or language". In fact, if the criticism is kept brief, impersonal and anonymous, I would write it off as a disagreement and wouldn't report it at all.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by poohbear7882 on July 22, 2008 at 1:47pm: Does customer service actually do anything about it?

IMO, criticizing another review is fine, if the criticism is accompanied by the second persons review. There are loads of reviewers that disagree with other reviews within their own review...but then there are those that simply state:

abc1234 is a moron for saying this movie is great and giving it 5 stars.

Or something similar.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by I'm Not a Turnip on July 23, 2008 at 10:24am: I honestly don't know what calling customer service would accomplish. There was a topic here during the early days of this forum where plagiarism was discussed. I've been looking for it, but, unfortunately, I can't find it. Someone posted screen shots of reviews that were adjacent to each other on the same page. I seem to remember that one of the employee-members of this forum brought it to the attention of "the right people" and had the reviews removed. That's why I suggested customer service. Whether that's right or wrong, I can only guess!; ▶ Reply to This