Reviews and set rating enhancements
Posted by Huw,
We have had a quiet news week so I have had time to implement a couple of much-requested features.
Reviews written by members are among the most useful aspects of the site and over the last 16 years some 37,000 have been contributed. However, the number being submitted has reduced considerably from over 7000 in 2008 to just over 1100 last year. This is probably due to external factors such as the ease at which anyone can publish video reviews on YouTube, the increase in the number of LEGO blogs and the use of social media.
However, it could also be that it is not as easy to write them here as it should be. So, I have made some changes that will hopefully make it easier:
- There is now a prominent 'Review this set' link on set listing pages.
- Reviews can be saved in a draft status and previewed, then worked on later before publishing or submitting for moderation.
- A new Your Reviews page (linked to on My Menu) shows all the reviews you have written, their current status, and provides links to edit and view them.
- Reviews that are rejected by moderators (around 0.5% of submissions) are no longer deleted but are returned to a draft status to enable authors to rework them.
In addition, it is now possible to rate sets by clicking on stars that also appear in set listings. Once you have done so you can sort listings by your rating and filter by a specific rating. You can rate sets you do not currently own and at the moment they are personal to you: they are not aggregated or used in the calculation of the overall set rating, which still uses the scores given in reviews.
You could use the stars, for example, to rank your wanted list: give the sets you want the most 5 stars.
Of course, you need to have a Brickset account and be logged in for all of this to work.
I hope these new features are of use to someone. If you notice anything not working or looking right please let us know in the comments.
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49 comments on this article
Thanks Huw great work once again, would you be able to add half stars too (sorry to be a pain). For those of use with lets just say quite a few sets it would be really useful to have a little more differentiation.
I wish I could delete the reviews I wrote as a KFOL. Those are horrid.
^^ No, sorry, the database can't handle non-integer values in that field without a lot of faffing about.
^ I did wonder about providing the option to delete reviews but haven't added that ability yet.
I like these enhanced features and I like, in particular, the save as draft feature as a welcome change.
Is there anyway that pre-submitted reviews could be sent to a mentor for critique. I am particularly interested in assisting KFOL and TFOL reviewers write better reviews.
Not easily -- but what I suggest we do is add some critique to the top of the review before rejecting it which they can read and act upon if they wish.
One thing I REALLY miss are pictures. For me, review without pictures is useless. I know it's challenging to to allow people to post pictures, but wtih them, BrickSet would become really "ultimate" AFOL site.
Your dedication to providing better user-experience and community engagement is commendable! Really appreciate all the work you and others pour into this site to make it such a good one. I for one am encouraged by the changes to have a go at writing a review for some of the sets I have bought. Thanks.
Nice work.
I've been thinking about reviewing some sets lately and this may just be what I need to be pushed towards getting on with the task at hand!
half stars could be realized by "rescaling" to a scale of 10 (1 star is 2 points so half stars are still integers)
As someone who has let many reviews pile up on the backburner and not gotten around to posting them all yet here on the site, I'd welcome any useful new feature changes to the reviewer function.
While I understand the pictures offer a visible means of seeing the sets during a review I'm afraid that feature is one that I couldn't take full advantage of. It's quite difficult to get just the right shots without a suitable environment and for most casual reviewers adding pictures can be more of a chore. Especially with a cat in the house to muck up shots when he's in the mood.
I'm surprised at the large drop between 2008 and now in the number of reviews submitted. While admittedly reviews can be much easier to add to Youtube there are still benefits from the written word. In most cases for video reviewers I find that, while they can sometimes be very thorough in showing off all the key features and details they sometimes lack certain elements that make for a good objective review. And when you're always rushing to be the first one out with a new video review you sometimes come across videos that are much weaker in the presentation department.
So being able to read reviews here also can help. I would love to be able to delete reviews though. A few of them could use a bit of spit and polish and if they have received more downvotes due to the unhelpful nature of them it'd be nice personally to be able to step in, delete the old review and try again fresh with a better take.
Anyway, I've rambled a bit too much. Good to see more site improvements Huw. It's one of the main reasons I still frequent this site more so than any other similar style of sites for offsite collection management.
It's possible to add images, just see this excellent review posted yesterday by martiniman: http://brickset.com/reviews/50766 , but they need to be hosted elsewhere then embedded in the review by using the image icon on the toolbar. However, I agree with ^, images are not necessary. A well written and concise review without them is just as valuable and useful even if, as they say, 'a picture is worth thousand words' :-)
Yes, I could go to a 1-10 scale but I wanted to keep it simple for now. Too many stars still provides too much choice for many!
@Timoonn I want to retire it. It was provided only to help people transition to the new site and given it's been live more than 2 years now I am hoping nobody still uses it, or, worse, prefers it to the new presentation.
I wrote a guide to review writing two year's ago. It includes instructions for adding images. Here is the link:
http://brickset.com/assets/docs/reviewGuide.pdf
I agree that being able to post pictures on-site would be a great option as long as people don't mind potato camera pictures, but I imagine that then it becomes a question of server space. I've done pictures with my reviews sometimes if I thought them to be appropriate but yeah I've had to host them externally.
There's a lot of reviews I want to write but...you know...life...
Cheers, Huw, for the ability to rate a set without writing a review. I know I miss this feature from the old LUGnet site, and I'm happy to see it appear here. I'll use this all the time, many thanks!
This all sounds really great! Thanks!
Love the new additions!!!
I'm also a fan of the 'classic' set list. It was a perfect sized overview with many details (year, parts, price, etc) and the links to LEGO, Amazon, BrickLink and ebay.
Now I have to scroll so much more in the 'list' set list. :(
Great additions. Never realised the 'classic' tab was from the older website. I did check out sets that way sometimes but it's not a terrible miss.
Loving the star addition. Until recently I used one of the extra flags as a 'top wants' thing, but stars are going to make things a lot easier. Thanks. Can you also see other peoples ratings? I had a quick try with looking someone's wish list up and it looks like you can see 'your rating' - if you want to get someone a present, it would be handy to see which sets they really want.
About the reviews, I think pictures can be nice but definitely not necessary. Good thing to have a draft function, I've heard more than once someone saying on the forum they lost it all ;) Didn't realise the number of reviews was going down, I will get started on some too.
Thanks Huw!
no rating for minifigs?
taking a look and I don't see very obvious changes, except in my reviews page.
Could it be that the drop off in reviews is because a saturation point has been reached? With 37,000 reviews there are probably few if none sets left that haven't been reviewed yet.
I would be happy to review a set but when I already see that a set has one or more reviews I do not see the excitement or usefulness of doing so.
Great work, Huw! These additions are helpful.
VictorvanSchagen has a valid point. I've felt the same way about leaving a review.
Awesome work on this website again... when I got back in to Lego 3 years ago I am so glad I found Brickset.. keeping track of all my sets and a great resource for all things Lego. Great work. Thanks
Awesome news for reviewers.
@Huw I'm not saying other aspects of the change would be easy, but generally the half-star system can easily be implemented by having 10 integer values 1-10 that map to half-stars.
I like the changes presented, thanks!
I'm excited for the updates. One question/suggestion: I'd love to filter reviews so I can easily jump to Brickset official reviews of sets. Is that possible/am I just dense?
@VictorvanSchagen and @LuvLegos_Cool_J , you should not be put off writing a review if someone has already. It is very useful to read a range of opinions.
Maybe the suggested structure of the review puts people off writing free-form opinion pieces, which are more valuable than describing the minifigs, for example. I'll consider removing it.
@brandonadair85, official reviews are stored as news articles rather than reviews (just to make things difficult for everyone!) and you can see a list here: http://brickset.com/reviews/brickset
@Fauch, not yet. but it could be added. Would many people find it useful?
@VictorvanSchagen and @LuvLegos_Cool_J, I agree with Huw's comments. I have sometimes used the user reviews here at Brickset as a means to decide whether I would purchase a set. I also add some weighting to the decision based on a the consistent quality of a user's reviews.
I don't understand how to use the stars to rate the set. It doesn't seem to work. Clicking on stars doesn't work.
When will we be able to like comments, Huw? :-)
These particular features are great, though!
Great upgrade - both saving reviews as drafts and the My Reviews page are particularly useful.
I always enjoy reading different opinions on sets (as long as they are well argued) and don't hesitate to write one if I have a contrary point of view to the existing ones. I'm not convinced about photos - they can add something if well presented and relevant, but that isn't always the case (I certainly don't feel comfortable in my own skills to add them to my reviews!).
There are some great reviewers on here and, as FlagsNZ said, I find some of them very useful in prioritising my own purchases!
@MrLEGONinja, what browser/device are you using?
Huw, if you store and integer from 1-10, each representing half a star you can support half stars without much change to the backend. (E.g. 10=5stars, 5=2.5 stars)
Finally some more changes. This will be really helpful. Thanks Huw
Was the removal of the 'Classic' view option part of the changes? I now only have List, Gallery, Table, and CSV.
As stated above, classic view has been retired unless it causes huge outcry. It was provided only to help people transition to the new site and given it's been live more than 2 years now I am hoping nobody still uses it, or, worse, prefers it to the new presentation.
I stopped writing reviews due to the elaborate expectations out there. People expect listings of bag contents, minifigs, many pictures, that is all an awful lot of work.
That's ok, but imho is one of the reasons for the lower contrubution count.
Franky I don't see it as much as a prob, better one good than four mediocre reviews. Mine were always the latter.
Question, when one writes a review would you class it as 'parent' if it's a set your kid built and as 'AFOL' when you do it yourself? Or do you just use 'AFOL' all the time?
If you are writing it from a parents' POV then choose that otherwise choose AFOL.
The 'Classic' view makes the site much easier to use when not using a mobile device. With 1920x1200 resolution on a 24" monitor, I can only view two sets at a time using the 'List' view. Two. I don't see how anyone could prefer 'List' to 'Classic' unless they have an unhealthy addiction to scrolling.
OK, just for you (and Timoonn) I will reinstate it but will not make it generally available: it's untidy and difficult to maintain.
I love good written reviews. There is so many moments I don't want to consume video. Even worse, many review video's are 90% speedbuild and then end with a 10 second shot of a pro and con list.
If you make review videos, speak! Same with how to's. Many of them are on YT nowadays, where you will find out that in the end the 5 minute video contains info that could have been written in a 5 point bullet list.
I can imagine hosting the images is not possible for everyone. Maybe you could put a link in the add image window to a service like tinypic.
Can you add a feature that lets you see what articles your commenting on please
I feel like main thing that keeps me from considering Brickset set ratings is the typically small sample size. Since these are only aggregated from written review scores, many are based off 1-3 ratings. I think incorporating these new 'quick ratings' could really help give the sets more meaningful overall ratings.
Can I have Classic View back too Please? It's far easier to read/use for me.
@Huw: the my reviews link doesn't work for me on the mobile site. It goes to reviews but without the author filter.
My biggest problem with reviews is that people seem to use the 'helpful' vote as an 'I agree' vote. My critical reviews get a lower helpful rating than positive ones.
^ Thanks for spotting that, it's now sorted.
And, yes, that does seem to be the case. I don't know what can be done about it though. It's probably the same on Amazon, for example.
Thank you for restoring the 'Classic' view. I am now able to view four or five sets at a time.
Thank you for Classic view back. So Happy
Interestingly, if you keep a user review in draft for a few days while you work on it, then forget about it for a bit (whoops!) and then post it, it records it as having been written on the date of the first 'draft save'. So the review I just posted today (27th Oct) has been listed as being written on the 17th Oct and has disappeared underneath the 40 that have been submitted subsequently! Just a quirk to be aware of...