The Extra Cool Group! (of people Michael is experimenting on) discussion
Pertaining to the project
>
The Top Reviewers List: Are you a pandering vote whore?
date
newest »
newest »
message 251:
by
David
(new)
Dec 09, 2010 08:13PM
Apparently one of the secrets to cranking up one's vote total is to write a review of "Twilight" (with some kind of appropriate mix of humor, subtle denigration and faux-seriousness of purpose). My question is "do I actually have to read Twilight" in order to do this?
reply
|
flag
No. Rent the movie. It is worth it for the vampire baseball sequence alone. Comedy gold. The hat-pop alone...wait, I can't type anymore because I am dying.
"I'm going to start studying you, Keely."Should I be looking over my shoulder?
"This isn't fucking politics people, this is entertainment."
I don't know, I think books are socially important. Ideas can change us, especially well presented ones. These stories can become a part of us, which is both what makes books important and why people do seem to want to 'kill me' over them.
What confuses me is that a lot of the people who are the most angry at my reviews try to make the argument that books are 'just entertainment'. If they really thought that, why argue about them?
Mod
When pursuing the great path of doucheness, at a certain level of accomplishment, it's impossible to not react douchily to everything you encounter. In a knee-jerk fashion that might lead to contradictory debating points.
Michael wrote: "When pursuing the great path of doucheness, at a certain level of accomplishment, it's impossible to not react douchily to everything you encounter. In a knee-jerk fashion that might lead to contradictory debating points."HUH????
When someone reaches the next level of Douchebaggery, they will automatically respond douchily to everything.
When transcending your own douchebag limits, your bag will douche itself to be clean again for the next round.
I just try to have fun (though I could be a whore), but I sure like getting votes. The funny thing is that the reviews I expect to amass votes get f*ck all, while one of my biggest throw away reviews is my highest vote getter.
Brian wrote: "Brad wrote: "The funny thing is that the reviews I expect to amass votes get f*ck all, while one of my biggest throw away reviews is my highest vote getter."This is such a common experience, it must mean something. Many of us seem to be poor predictors..."
No worse than the entire publishing industry?
The "Like" button at the bottom of the review.
I actually rarely vote but I will start trying to.
Maybe I am a vote whore. It just struck me that one of the things that annoys me most on goodreads is when someone comes to my review, takes the time to read it, makes a comment telling me they enjoy it, buyt doesn't vote. I suppose I must be a bit of a vote whore or this wouldn't bug me. But one of the reasons I want more votes, I guess, is because I would much rather have China Mieville at the top of my "my books" list than Stieg Larsson and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and that is a long way from happening.
Mod
I agree. I wrote this review of a book Brian mailed me that I haven't even read yet, and somehow this review--that doesn't mention the book, and basically just talks about Brian--has 11 or 12 votes.
But, most of my very favorite reviews have gotten an acceptable number of votes...I guess my reviews of Twilight, Dead Until Dark, and the Harry Potter books must've SUCKED.
Michael wrote: "somehow this review--that doesn't mention the book, and basically just talks about Brian--has 11 or 12 votes."Celebrity will do it, every time.
But it was such a loving composition to the gifter of the book!
Brad wrote: "It just struck me that one of the things that annoys me most on goodreads is when someone comes to my review, takes the time to read it, makes a comment telling me they enjoy it, buyt doesn't vote. I suppose I must be a bit of a vote whore... "I think that might partly be caused by being able to comment on reviews in our updates but not vote on them. Maybe GR will put a like button on the updates one day.
Brad wrote: ". . . the reviews I expect to amass votes get f*ck all, while one of my biggest throw away reviews is my highest vote getter . . ."Brian wrote: "This is such a common experience, it must mean something . . ."
Well, I know that for me, the reviews I am the most proud of can be rather long, involved, and personal, and those don't seem to be the sort that get responses. However, write a short, simple throwaway review and you'll get a lot of attention, especially if you take a strong for/against stance. Plus, less awesome reviews are also less intimidating.
A lot of it has to do with the feeling you leave your reader with. If the end is funny and short, people will respond to that, independent of whatever else you say (unless your reviews are like mine, and they never reach the end).
Mariel said: "Keely, yes."
It'll be nice to have the company.
I've noticed the ones I write when drunk get more comments/likes - not that I've been drunk that much this year..
You have drunk book reviews??? Please let me know which ones.
ha the surprisingly literate ones. ;)
Mod
Well, it didn't talk about you until I started doodling in the margins. (Brian + Michael = 4evr, etc.)
HAH! I knew it! Ha-ha. No, you need them, deserve them after all YOUR hard work. Elizabeth wrote: "I'm probably a vote whore. I spend a lot of time on those reviews. Some of it is just that I love to write about books and the reading experience and I think you all should know what I think of the..."
Hmmm, if I were a vote whore I'd apparantly be an uncommonly bad one. My reviews garner almost no votes. This may well be in large part because I'm not a particularly interesting reviewer [while I'm not always the most humble of individuals, I can certainly entertain that hypothesis] it also seems to go beyond that. My friends on goodreads tend not to be inclined toward the "like" button. I have literally had more people walk up to me at a birthday party and tell me they loved a particular Goodreads review of mine than have ever voted for it, or for any of my others.
Do you think the like button on Facebook has influenced the way we vote?
