What it means to "Like" a tasting note
Just curious how people decide which tasting notes to “Like.” Do you like the writing? Do you like the content of the note? Do you agree with the description of the tea? Did you learn something from the note?
I’ve been liking tasting notes somewhat haphazardly – if the note says something funny or interesting, if it’s a tea that I’ve tried and agree about, or even if I disagree but thought it was a fair assessment. I guess I don’t have strict criteria. Do you?
if i find it amusing i like it
if the person seems to need a hug i like it
if it’s informative (descriptive of the tea) i like it
Personally, I generally mark it as “like” if I have read it. It’s sort of my way of indicating to myself what I have read, and what I need to read. I don’t really use the “like” to indicate whether or not I like the note, because writing (to me) is subjective. Some people are very eloquent and compose the most brilliant notes, while others stick to just the bare bones type of tasting note. That doesn’t mean one is better than the other, just different. Some of us like to write, others don’t.
So rather than using my “like” as a scale of judgment, I simply use mine as a flag of sorts so that I know what I’ve read, and what I haven’t.
I like a thread if one or more of the following apply:
I like the tea drank
I share the opinion of the drinker of the tea drank
I like the way it was steeped (I’ll like any tasting note using a Breville lol)
I like or agree with a part of the tasting note that surrounds the story of the tea (i.e. “I got a new puppy!” or “I’m so not a morning person.”)
The identical thread w/ more answers can be found here.
http://steepster.com/discuss/325-what-do-you-mean-when-you-click-like
From our (Steepster) perspective, we purposefully left it open to see how people actually use it and how they find it helpful. At it’s most basic level, we think it’s a way for people to call attention to tasting notes that others might like. It also acts as a reward/recognition for users who submit tasting notes that others enjoy (for whatever reason).
We also have plenty of ideas about how to make these things more helpful, as in indicating why you like a tasting (well written, many details, funny, etc.). If you have any suggestions about how this might work best, feel free to let us know!
It would be nice to be able to dislike portions too. I feel weird, say for example, “liking” a tasting note where a person takes comfort in a huge, delicious mug of chai after their grandma dies- but I do love that tea can have comforting qualities.
yea…that starts you down a slippery slope though. It’s not always the best thing to encourage public “shaming” of someone, let alone build it into your feature set. But your point makes sense. At the very least, you can use the comments to discuss any parts you might want to.
maybe have a like and a ? flag, not actually ? but something that lets us flag we read it
As part of this I should mention that “Likes” as well as comments help determine the “popularity” of a tasting note. And we show tasting notes on a tea page in order of popularity, a rudimentary way to show the most relevant tasting notes until we make the ratings more granular.
I “like” AmazonV’s idea of having a separate indicator a person can click if they simply want to keep track of which posts they’ve read. Especially since if that’s why they’re “liking” a post it’s skewing the relevance rating you’re intending to capture, Jason. Seems a number of folks are using it purely for that logging/tracking purpose.
Jason, you know how to improve the tea ratings system? Well, this is just an idea, there could be issues I haven’t thought through… but, what if the weight of a person’s rating increased for the # of likes they have on their particular rating? It’s kind of like Amazon.com…. if something is rated 5 out of 5 stars and 150 out of 160 people agree with that persons review, you know it is a pretty helpful review. In this case though, the users actual numerical rating weight could have a greater impact on the actual teas final rating than say, some hidden rating from a user or company that would rather not everyone know they rated the tea (or simply from a user who didn’t take the time to write).
You could take that idea further, too… what if a user (say for example TeaEqualsBliss) has LOTS of likes, more than some random user who just signed up an account today. It seems like the more likes a person has (or, perhaps, the more tea reviews they’ve submitted) the more their rating on a tea is weighted in general. That way, even if there are dubious ratings submitted from fake or simply low-use accounts, those ratings won’t have as much of an impact as someone who has 2000+ reviews, or 2000+ likes from other users. Just a couple of ideas, hope they are helpful!
Shinobicha, that is something we’ve always wanted/planned to do. We’d like there to be some sort of reputation system to help people the best ratings and users rise to the top. It would also be useful in helping people determine if they want to do swaps and such with certain users.
No strict criteria. I tend to click like if there’s any info I find useful or funny or touching. Sometimes I just get in a rhythm and use it to check off what I’ve read (particularly if I haven’t been on in a while and have a long list of notes on my dashboard). Whether I like something has nothing at all to do with whether I agree with what the person thought of the tea. I can like a note that has a completely different reaction to a tea than I did, as long as I get a good idea from the note of why the person had that reaction.
i “like” tealogs with the same mentality of liking things on facebook. If i like the writing inthe note, or the description it gets liked. If i like something commented in the note i’ll like it. If i agree with it i’ll like it…. pretty much if I enjoyed reading it for one reason or another it gets liked :)
I do not need to agree with the comment to “like” it. I “like” nice writing, descriptions that grab me or that tickle my fancy. But I don’t do a “like” just to indicate that I read the note.
I click on “like” when I’ve especially enjoyed reading the note, or if I found it particularly informative. My idea is that a “like” encourages others to read that tasting note.
I agree with LiberTEAS. That’s the same way I handle it – marking that I’ve read it. If I really like the way a tea taster has written the note, I’ll start to “follow” them. If I really don’t like a note – and I can’t think of one I’ve “hated” or something – I won’t mark it. But everything is subjective.
Good question though. Got me thinking! :)
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