Review Writing - Purpose and Impact

Recently there were some negative posts about the way some users write reviews. Is it OK to write reviews if the writer didn't finish the drama? Does the review influence the rating of a drama? Are spoilers OK? Why does anyone write reviews anyway and how do the attitudes of writer and reader differ?

Maybe this article will help us to understand the other party and reduce some anger....

I did two surveys. At first, I actively asked participation of review writers who wrote more than eight reviews and posted a link to the survey freely in the feeds. I got 62 participants. Almost half of them wrote more than 16 reviews for MDL. Afterwards, I posted another survey link addressed to review readers. Fifty-nine users participated. Thank you very much!

First of all: what is a review?
According to the definition of Wikipedia a (viewer) review is a critical appraisal of a book, play, film, etc. published in a newspaper or magazine. So...by definition a review on MyDramaList can be everything that deals with the drama/film...not of help. Step by step, this article will hopefully clear up this question as well.

Some Facts

The first review was published on 16 Dec. 2012 written by fantasylover97. As of June 9th there were almost 19.150 reviews on MDL. 70% of these reviews gave a higher rank than 7,9 and only 8% ranked the reviewed drama lower than 6. The remaining reviews ranked the drama they were written about between 5,9 and 7,9. Obviously most reviews are written by people who liked a drama even if 79% of the review writers claimed to write reviews whether they liked or disliked a drama. One participant gave a plausible reason why she/he doesn't like to write negative reviews: There aren't enough Jdrama reviews, so I don't want to add the negative ones, except in cases where the drama had many positive reviews.

Why Read Reviews?

Writers and readers both were asked why they read reviews. The purple lines represent the reader and the blue lines represent the writer. On the left side you can see the answer options. The writer survey had the option to write down freely any other reason they had.

I suggest there are three types of review reader:

The seeker: these persons search for something new to watch. Most of the time she/he wants to get a first impression of the show. Sometimes they just read reviews to kill time and find new ideas for their next choices.
The doubter: already interested in a certain drama/movie, but the person is not sure if she/he really should spend time on this show. That is why this type needs more information to decide to watch something they would not seriously consider without some insurance. Some of them even seek out spoilers to make sure they don't get disappointed.
The Post-Watcher: after finishing the drama the person is still totally into it. Either the watcher wants to get a different view or feel connected to people who feel like her/him. Another reason to read reviews after watching a drama is to clear the mind and find answers to questions the watcher could not clear up while watching.

As expected most people use reviews to find new dramas. 59% of the writers themselves use reviews to find something new or clear doubts. On the side of the reader it is 56%.

Most interesting discovery at this point — the strongest group is the Post-Watcher group. 41% of the writers and 44% of the readers read reviews after watching the show. So this group is very significant.

Ten writers chose the special option to write down different reasons but even if they used other words there were no different ideas.

But as usual, there were mix-types like this person: I read reviews before watching to get a feel for the story to see if I would enjoy watching (preferably spoiler free). I read reviews after watching to find out other people's take on different aspects of the drama especially if I feel some aspect in particular was done really well or really poorly. 

Spoiler

Both parties were asked if they think spoilers in a review are OK. Apart from the following answers I have to remind you there are rules on MDL which say: Do not post spoilers as you'll just ruin the show for those who follow! Do not post spoilers! Do not post spoilers! 

Good news: every participant knew what a spoiler is. Surprisingly, more writers (56%) than readers (29%) clearly said, “No, they are not OK!”. One reason for this is the additional option included in the reader survey because the writers group asked for this option: 16% of them said: If someone cannot help but include spoilers please mark them! Therefore, 35% of the readers chose “spoilers are OK, if they are clearly marked.” Another suggestion is to solve this technically with a spoiler cover function in the text as this quote says: It would be even better if MDL did like they do with comments and let you hide it all with a spoiler button that people can click on if they want spoilers.

According to 19% of all participants minor spoilers are OK, but think about it — there is no chance to define what a minor spoiler is in general!

Time to Write a Review

82% of all participants militate against review writing before finishing a drama/movie, like this MDLer: I think it should not be allowed to review a drama that you didn't finish. That's why we have the comment section and episode reviews. How can you review something if you dropped it? What if it started great and then went downhill? What if the first 2 episodes sucked and it got better? I think incomplete reviews are a waste of time and don't paint a clear picture for the viewer...  

However, isn't it unfair to restrict people from writing down their thoughts while watching? Some series are way too long, and may take three months to at least a year to finish airing on television or online. If it is not allowed to write one, there will be no reviews for a long time. At the upper right hand side, there is stated how many episodes a person watched before writing a review. If you don't agree with this attitude, just don't read it. A problem at this point: If someone uses the mobile version this information is missing. Maybe the Admins are already working on it.

It is important to say the review ranking does NOT affect the general ranking of a drama! 

Why write a review?

After all this negative feedback, why would anyone want to write a review?

Again I identified three types:
The Emotional: write reviews for her-/himself in the first place. This type needs to write down the strong feelings and arrange their own thoughts by this action and love to re-experience all the feelings again by reading the review after a certain time.
The Follower: they want to write something other people are interested in and be part of the hype.
The Persuader: tries to convince and help others to go for a drama or prevent them of being disappointed. Most who chose the answer “Other (please specify)” belonged to this type as well. One of the specific answers said: ... Mainly I write reviews hoping it helps people decide to watch a certain drama or not. I hope I can help others the way reviews help me to choose a show.

Because not every person reads reviews for the same reason and not every writer publishes reviews for the same reason it is only logical that there will always be someone who doesn't like something another person appreciates. Of course, opinions also depend on the region, attitude, gender and age and more. So, it is necessary to find the right combination! 

A suggestion: the Doubter need to find the Persuader and the Post-Watcher will love reviews of the Emotional. It is complicated to match the Seeker because they are uncertain what they are looking for. So they will be angry if there is too much information or disappointed when it is just full of emotions without analytic aspects. Reviews of the Follower are hard to judge and range from just random thoughts to really good.

Sadly, 93% of the participants state that they do not have a favorite review writer. The other 7% named one of the following MDLers:  amrita828, bossmama, NewKDramaAddict, purplenette, Soju, AnanyaS, Elle.  A problem in this case is that over 3550 users wrote only one or two reviews. So it is hard to find someone to follow.

Time Investment

The following diagram shows how much time a writer spent on average to write a review and how much time readers think review writers invested in writing a review.

An experienced writer spent 16 minutes on average to draw up a review. But there are a lot of reviews which are written down very quickly. This quote refers to those: A review with only a couple of sentences is not a review. A review is your personal opinion, but it needs to be more than ONLY an opinion. You can't just say that the story was OK and the acting was great; you need to say why you think that way. If a user only wants to express their current feelings, she/he also may write it down in the comment section or in the Feeds, where other MDL users directly react to the post.

By the way, there is a funny article about the review types on MDL. If you want to laugh check it out:  The Perfect Review

Of course every MDLer should feel free to write a review, but if you do so, please keep in mind what you want to effect and how the people who will read it will be affected! Be nice to each other and never forget to have fun! 

What do you think about this topic?

What kind of review do you like most?

Which type are you?