I generally check the software offers pretty regularly, and find the comments helpful. Occasionally I do post, and rarely even will vote up or down on a comment.

I can only speak for myself, but one thing that really bugs me about comments is when people don't get to the point. If you have something to say, say it. If I get to more than three sentences and nothing beneficial is there I just move on. Once in a while I will vote negative if I feel the comment is just completely misguided or useless.

I'm not everyone though, and can only offer my opinion on comments. I don't recall yours, so please don't take this as anything personal.

Heidi:

I enjoy GAOTD, and crarefully review the comments. I don not comment, because usually I am downloading and installing shortly before the expiration, and have little to say about my experience. I am sorry to see so much confrontational commenting, and hope that the comments can be made more useful. I rely on the feedback to judge whether the presented utilities might be useful for my clients, and so find comments that directly address the required user knowledge to be especially useful, compared with "this is so simple, the tools already exist in the operating system" or comments of similar vein. I just came across this thread today, so do not know what your comments were, but applaud any efforts to provide suggestions and direction to those seeking to improve the quality of the feedback.

Oh, and JoanRC, as a beer swilling loser myself, I resemble your remarks!

LOL---alright. I guess I was being a little oversensitive. I don't expect what I find useful about a software to be what everybody else does. There is just something about seeing a "negative" sign right next to something you wrote that is a bit unsettling.

You've inspired me to attempt a comment at a future date. I'll try not to take it so personally if it turns out to be useless to the "voting group" ;)

Hello Heidi.

Based on my experience in consumer research, I would suggest that you ignore the voting altogether. We have no way of knowing what criteria were used when the vote was cast. Was it a spur of the moment vote? Or did they give it some thought? Were they reading too quickly and misinterpreting what they saw?

I gave you a positive vote just to negate one of the negative ones. I thought it was wonderfull that your daughter might have taken a new look at biology after seeing this screensaver; but, I don't usually give positive votes for that type of comment.

The people who voted agianst you, on the other hand, (and I have this on unimpeachable authority) are beer swilling losers who spend their days on the internet voting against anyone they don't like because it gives them a sense of power. They can't hold on to a relationship and are jealous because you obviously have a lovely, intelligent daughter who might one day find a cure for cancer. They, on the other hand, can't get off the couch and go change their underwear once in a while, or train their dog to go fetch them a beer out of the fridge(their dog left them and took up residence with the neighbours). And they wonder why they can't hold a job.

People who cannot make useful comments, vote. ;)

Although it is worth remembering - the comment section is for providing feedback on the games. Comments do not end in a question mark? Users wanting to know how to uninstall or is the "left mouse button", your left, or my left - should probably visit the forums instead.

Many people want a "review" or your "opinion" on the software. There are some things (which you learn over time) that no matter what will get "voted down". If a comment is of no use or benefit to anyone else - it will probably get voted down.

If a comment is truly useless or pointless - it will probably get voted out.

Either way far too many people put too much importance on voting. At the end of the day comment votes don't count for anything, so I don't worry about them at all.

Bonjour Heidi
Welcome to the Forum.
Don't let it get to you. Nobody around here does.
If your comment was of value, ignore the rating.
Funky is right, ppl are weird that way, they waste their time complaining & rating negatively.
So please, don't waste *your* time on it :D

heidi- ignore this. there are people who just go down the list of comments, marking them negatively, without even reading them. i don't know why they would bother, but they do.

hi Heidi i think your comment was very positive and not sure why others would look at it negatively or give you negative comments unless they are negative ppl in general and you have to take that into consideration that maybe they have a lower graphic card and unable to view the screen saver. I wouldn't let others hurt your feelings as i would say most of the ones that are liking todays software download aren't commenting and only the negative ppl are. Keep up the good reviews though:)

Today I made my first post about the GAOTD software and apparently few are finding it helpful.

What is the purpose in rating whether or not you find a comment helpful and how can a yes or no type of answer result in any valuable information?

If I am wondering how something installs, I may find one comment helpful and another one not. If I am concerned about resources or the quality, there are many comments I would just skip because they do not contain that information. But there is no rhyme or reason to the comment rating part of that section so why is it even needed?

I guess I never even noticed that part of it before so it's not like I'm offended because I could care less actually, but I just don't understand implementing a rating system that doesn't produce anything and probably only serves to discourage comments.

I know I won't be making another comment. Why spend the time doing it when it only seems to be a bother to others?

Just my two cents.