You don't HAVE to rate every review. Just give the ones that are helpful thumbs up. The ones that are true reviews, but you don't find helpful, just ignore. Having 25 unrated "great book!" will tell something about the book even if the individual reviews are not all that informative.

The data cleanup people have specifically asked us to help remove the blurbs from reviews by giving them thumbs down. That really isn't a review, but in the early days it was the only way to get it there because you couldn't submit data edits. If a book doesn't have a description entered, but it has a review with the blurb in it, please copy it into the description of the book through a data edit submission before giving the blurb a thumbs down.

I don't think the site cares about reviews, which makes me sad.  They seem to be making it harder and harder to post a real review while shoving stars everywhere.

From FABIL you can star it, but not review it.

From the book's info page you can star it, but you have to dig in a menu off to the side to find the option to review it. (Used to be an easier to find option).

To convert your BIR list you can star it, but not review it.

You can star but not review, but you can't review & not star.

I only give thumbs up and only to reviews that I learn something from about the book.  Thumbs down really doesn't appeal to me as a rating tool.

Ruth

I only give a thumbs down review if it pertains to that certain book such as "this book has a different isbn." 

  I don't find the reviews helpful on here at all and I never see any removed completely.   Not even the ones that have been featured in the "Let's Clean Up The Reviews" thread.   I've never seen any change and I hate it because I feel as if those people were told their thumbs downs would help and it simply doesn't change a thing, that I can see.

I like the reviews, and I don't find them hard to do. You star it and then you click "review this book". I use the reviews a lot, and if there isn't one, I go over  to Amazon to look at what they have up. I use the reviews to help me decide if I want to get a book or not, since I'm not holding it in my hand and I can't page through it. I click "thumbs up" on reviews that have helped me either want or not want a book.

I have seen a review disappear - it was both inaccurate and contained spoilers, so I wanted to put it in the "clean up thread" but then I couldn't find the thread. Some time later when I did find the thread, I checked back and the review had gone. I just checked again, it's still gone. :-)

My policy is to thumbs down blurbs, spoilers, reviews from other sources, inaccurate information and comments about particular copies, and thumbs up reviews that seem genuinely helpful. The short "good book" reviews I generally just leave alone.

I didn't realize you *had* to star a book to review it -- I guess because I always star them.

It should be difficult to rate a book you haven't read.  How can you give a book stars without actually reading it?  It lends itself to people giving low ratings to subjects about which they don't approve without actually reading the book, for example.  High ratings to unread books are just as bad; any ratings based on not having actually read the book would be misleading.  So the concept of reading the book and rating the book are tied together.  You can't rate a book without it going onto your BIR  and vice versa, and you can't review a book you haven't read, so you have to rate books to review them.  At least I think that's how it goes.

Willa, I think you really nailed the criteria for judging Reviews, especially with the inclusion of just leaving some alone.

I don't see any reason why the BIR list on PBS can't contain books you read before joining.  It's Books I've Read, nothing specific limiting it to PBS gotten gains.  All you have to do is rate a title and add it to your BIR.  I've included several books that I read just prior to joining PBS, and often say to myself that, had I the time, I'd get down to adding every title I could remember.  I don't think I have the memory for it, and I'm positive I don't have the time