User Reviews?

[chromatic]

Someone may have suggested this before, but... I was wondering whether it might be possible to add, or link, user reviews (separately, and as opposed to, the formal and formally written/edited mod reviews) to albums listed here -

A lot of the time, when I'm trying to decide whether to get a particular album, the sites that I often go to for reviews (Amazon, Pitchfork, Discogs, Dubroom etc) don't have any, particularly when it's a lesser-known/more obscure album (and finding info about those lesser known albums is one of the fantastic things about this site) -
but at the same time, I don't want to clutter the forums by posting a new 'is this album worth it' topic every time I have such a question. I realise that other reggae review sites do exist, but given the encyclopedic nature/ambitions of this page, its fantastic searchability and organisation (and, personally, the fact that I use it a lot) it'd be great (not to mention convenient) to be able to share the massive combined knowledge of the users in this way...

[Mark]

That's why I would like small low quality audio samples added to the site. That gives a real impression of the music, but no one seems to find it a good idea. No response so far anyway.

This site has some very rare stuff that most of us will never hear. Sound samples would at least give an impression. It could also help "de-mystifying" some rare stuff sold for very high prices which are in reality hardly worth listening to.

The reviews already exist:
http://roots-archives.com/reviews

[chromatic]

I hadn't noticed that leggo rocker was editing reviews - which makes me a bit confused about the way the forum works: can any users write reviews, and have them edited, and if so, are they just submitted through the contact page?

I was thinking something more along the lines of a wiki system - I agree that it's great to have clean, well-edited reviews, but at the same time that'd be a big job if you had a lot coming in... also, from what I can make out, the review isn't linked to the actual info page for the album, so if you only went to the info page you wouldn't know it had been reviewed... and from what I can see, there are only recent reviews listed (though I'm not sure if there are older ones which aren't represented on the front review page?)

What I'm suggesting is a way in which, when you searched for an artist/album which took you to the info page for a particular album, you could link to unmoderated wiki-style reviews by users (and perhaps a system by which, in a list of artists' works, you could see which had been reviewed without going through them page by page).

[matty]

I like to be suprised when listening to an album for the first time, Audio samples would take all the fun away.
Thats just my opinion.

[Jah Glu]

Leggo. Is there any album you have reviewed on roots-archives.com/reviews that you didnt like? I havent got the time to browse through all of the reviews but of those reviews i have seen, you have always liked them very much.

[Survival]

Leggo. Is there any album you have reviewed on roots-archives.com/reviews that you didnt like? I havent got the time to browse through all of the reviews but of those reviews i have seen, you have always liked them very much.

I was wondering that myself to.

[Jah Glu]

alright...it's just that how can you take a reviewers reviews seriously if he only gives good credit. Besides there is already a reggae reviewing site (www.reggae-reviews.com) which is reviewing a lot of albums...

[benjamin]

yeah I link the idea of informal reviews, could help a lot.

[chromatic]

I like Reggae Reviews, but I've checked out all of the reggae reviewing sites I could find on the web and none of them had the kind of wiki-system I mentioned and/or were comprehensive - and since there's already such a good database, & also community, here I thought it'd be a fantastic way to make knowledge communal (& avoid clogging the forums). You could keep the formal mod reviews, whose editorial quality and obvious care taken is really appreciated, separate...

So thanks Leggo for your response - I appreciate the issues with 'open' systems, but the department system you mention (with links to the album page?) sounds like a great possibility...

[seb]

The idea of commenting albums by users has been abandonned for now as we suspect most of the posts would just be "is it a good album?" or "buy it" kind of comments. That would be a huge moderating job to check all these posts