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CAT (Photo credit: Bahman Farzad) |
Would I pay for a boon on them? Maybe...
My sister loves crafting and learning about new ideas....
Should I pass on this book I downloaded?
Not...
Many of you know that I'm also a Vine member at Amazon... That means that individuals have been asked to become a group, chosen by Amazon itself, to provide reviews of products they sell... Now I have no fault with doing that and know that it's going to continue there and at other places, especially on line because it's easy to do...
But are we--have we actually corrupted a system of ranking that already leads to bad feelings, arguments, and, really, invalid information?
I started with cats because it is a recent acquisition. I believe it was offered free when I got it, but, to me, that doesn't matter. When I was deciding whether to bother doing anything for a review, I went online this morning... There were lots of 5s and one lonely 1. This article is NOT a review and I'm not voting on this particular book or similar ones I've received.
Have you seen them? They are the work of amateurs who are "authoring" books... OK, they might only charge 99 cents...but that adds up, doesn't it? Personally, I think my blog is created much better than many of those books that are now being sold... So, think about it, if I charged 99 cents for say 5 reviews which would normally lengthwise by equal to these books, with pictures, come out to a reasonably lengthy book... I could, rounding off, ask my 7000 visitors last month to pay me a dollar for 4 weeks of reviews... Again, rounding, say 5$ a week x 7000 that's $20 times 7000 or ...well, you figure it out...
Now, assuming I must be getting returning visitors, that you might vote "5" for my blog made into a book, a "5"...
Now, take that one step further, there are thousands of professional writers out there that "create" books through their imagination, skill, research or expertise...compared to my blog which is a response to other people's writing. Should the five that you gave me equate equally to the 5 that you give, say, Norah Roberts or James Patterson, et.al. Or do you agree that there is no comparison?
Ok, here's the twist that you find in good books...
Now, I also reviewed recently a new hair product and gave it a 5...
I also reviewed a new candy bar and gave it a 3...
Then I gave a 1 to a deodorant...
But in a global ranking system, everything is valued with the same weight...The book that has taken a year to write is evaluated the same as one created by taking pictures, adding a few simple words and calling it a book for sale, which is also evaluated the same as a new candy bar...
I get many who claim my reviews are too long (at Amazon)...Well, of course--I'm reviewing a book! It takes consideration to evaluate whether a book has met the standards I consider a reader expects...
It is NOT the same as my biting into a new candy bar...and saying, Yuk!
This is my personal challenge for books...if it's NOT a book, don't review it and give it credibility.
I even had one writer say, go to such a such store and get this "thing" that is free then proceed to do this great craft with your accumulated free materials and make these great crafts...
The item was paint chip samples...Now do you really think that a company is giving paint samples so that "great crafts" can be made from their inventory? Yet it's being sold, on line. Something, that in my opinion, is actually suggesting we all go out and steal from companies who sell paint...
And she was charging to tell her readers to do this...
My rant is over...Does any of this make sense, cause it's just my personal opinion, of course...
GABixlerReviews
Oh, you're wondering about what I suggest? Well, products are already categorized, so why lump everything together...If it's a movie, compare it to other movies...ONLY
If it's a book, compare it to other books, ONLY (and don't vote for phony stuff!
Books (Photo credit: henry…) |
If it's personal products, etc....
Writers give us sooooooo much enjoyment, why not adequately compensate them for their work by not comparing their work to...personal products or food products... Would you want to have your job evaluation be handled the same as I did that YUKKY Candy Bar? JMPO, of course!
When is a book not a book? Very nicely told. I can't imagine how I'd review a candy bar though---must look for more of your reviews.
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