Rating Other People's Comments

[Mr. Shankly]

Ok, you know how you can comment on an album, a band / artist, or somebody's chart and then someone else can come along and give the thumbs up or down on one's comment based on how "helpful" they perceive it? What criteria do you have for judging other people's comments? I ask because more often than not, I think some people give the thumbs down automatically if someone says something negative about one of their favorite bands or albums. It's almost like the more thoughtful or critical you are, the more likely you are to get the thumbs down.

Witness my comment on The Lonesome Crowded West:

http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=1856

What do you think? Did I deserve -1 for that comment? Why?

The irony is, if you put virtually no thought into your comment (i.e."This album rules!"), you're much less likely to get judged negatively. Am I wrong?

Not that this keeps me up at night. It just bugs me that music connoisseurs can be so trivial and petty.
What do you think? What causes you to give someone the thumbs down for their comments?

[Taric]

I think people who go to the comment-section are more likely to be over-postive about the album and don't take criticism well. Just stick to "This album rules!" and you'll be fine.

I mostly find comments not helpful when they're just blind hatred.
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[19loveless91]

I actually think this is a bit of a problem on this site. If I'm not mistaken, if you get several downvotes, our member points system (which otherwise awards comments with 2 points) doesn't count that comment to your overall points tally. I generally agree with that, because it could eventually prevent someone getting to a higher level by doing Naples style comments for everything, but at the same time it kinda sucks that somebody would be denied the member points just for being controversial (despite spending some actual time on his comment), while others, who will put no thought into their comments, would get to a higher level, because what they said is considered a "normal" opinion.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of that around, especially now that the custom charts are out, just check the latest comments. And they will actually get to the higher level, just by doing comments like that, as their comments won't get downrated before that...

[Guest]

I'm guilty for not having put too much thought into it... yet. I suppose it's sometimes I thumbs-up a comment that I strongly agree with, and sometimes it's just that the person said something interesting or funny. But I'm not trendy, I have given thumbs-up for comments with multiple thumbs-down before.

[thejoj96]

I really want to get the most downvoted comment in BEA history. So far the record is -14 on the album page for Hounds of Love. So far my most downvoted comment has -9 (the last time I checked). DOWNVOTE MY COMMENTS PLEASE

[Mother Nature's Son]

I vote people's comments down if I disagree with them. If they make really good arguments to why they dislike an album that I like for example, I ignore the comment instead of voting it down. If a comment is magically great despite disagreeing with it, I can even vote it up, but that's pretty rare!
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"The Beatles, the greatest band known to mankind." - Bismah Mughal

[Happymeal]

Didn't your comment get a +1 though?(that being besides the point). In full honesty, I never thumbs up or down a comment whether I like it or not. You would need to say something on one extreme of the spectrum in order to get a thumbs up or down from me mainly because everyone has their opinion.

[purple]

I don't remember ever downvoting a comment. I'll upvote most positive comments on my chart, especially if they're not generic. I usually only upvote a comment on an album or artist page if it makes me giggle. I'm also in the habit of upvoting comments with many downvotes, no matter how much I disagree with them, in the hope that users who haven't modified their view-negative-comment settings can see the whole conversation; I know that's kind of stupid, but I know when I first joined it took me a couple of months to find that setting. I might be one of the forum douchebags, but I'm all thumbs up.

[Guest]

[Defago]

I'll upvote any comments with good arguments, and downvote comments which are irrelevant, fanboyish or have faulty arguments, regardless of if I agree or not with the comment made. Also I upvote joj.