Cellartracker tasting notes

WINE TALK
#1

Why do people score wines and not give a single note. Today I noticed scores from a '07 SLH tasting, Novy- Gary’s, Susan’s. Lucia- Gary’s, Susan’s. 94pts,93pts,94pts, and 97pts. You just gave a wine 97pts and can’t tell me one thing about it. I’m not the best at writing notes, but I at least try to say something even if it is just about the experience I had. There’s one guy that I swear owns every bottle I do and has scored every one without a single note.

Sorry for the rant.

#2

This is just what some people do. By default the site actually suppresses the display of notes that only have a score and no note. You may have toggled that display option at some point. Click TASTING NOTES at the top of the screen and then look to the left for the toggle: “Show all notes” or “Only show notes with text”

#3

I only provide a note when I have something interesting to say. I’m not a pro critic and have no responsibility to either myself or the public to figure out how to describe a typical Riesling in a new way for the 500th time.

#4

I did not know that Eric, Thank You.

#5

even worse is either:

  • tasty, but expensive… 80+ - I thought the rating should reflect wine not ‘value’… otherwise two buck chuck would get a decent score too

or

  • terrible. hardly drinkable… 89 - huh?


    i’m exaggerating, but you get what i’m sayin’.
#6

Neither am I Nick, but I think if you did rate something 97pts you would probably have something to say.

#7

not if you are like some who drink 97 pointers all day long?
but yah i agree with your point
[welldone.gif]

#8

Well yes, if I give a wine an exceptionally high or low rating, I do say why - extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. But only the first time; if the next bottle and the next and the next are 97 points in the same way, I won’t waste my keystrokes, people can just refer to the first note.

#9

Fair enough. I trust you also know that you can click a user’s handle and then choose the option to ignore them… (which for now does not alter the community average)

#10

I found this on my first day of usage…my ignored list is now quite long…

#11

82 points.

#12

I had a feeling it was you Ken neener

#13

Joe, the guy who put those TNs into CT…look at his profile. He has nearly 10000 wines in his inventory. He has about 50 notes written, some with a level of detail. From a cursory look, I think his account is for some kind of store or retail location in Springfield, Missouri.

As for a TN that has only a score, no value for me. I take the other tact, as you know.

#14

But then you can use the private TN feature and not pollute the public TN stream (I consider scores without notes or with notes like “Excellent” pollution and I’m sure that others think my notes without scores are the same :slight_smile: ). If I take a note I usually want to remember something about it and TN text does that far better than a score for me.

#15

First and foremost CellarTracker is for people to track data of interest to THEMSELVES. In most cases a lot of this data will have value/interest to others. However, a few years ago it became clear that there are a lot of people who like to just record a score, and this drives many other people nuts. So I added a filter and flipped it on by default for EVERYONE. So if people don’t like the notes without scores, you won’t even see them unless you go out of your way to change the defaults. The private note feature is not necessarily a replacement, since you only get one per wine. It does not have a score or a note. Some people do use it to keep a private log, and that is their choice.

#16

mmm yes. But I think we need to keep in mind that we’re part of a community. The problem with the filter is, of course, the person who puts in one word like “tasted” or “not bad” since that comes through.

I think notes are most valuable when people write a sentence or two but… not my issue.

#17

Yes, entirely true. Which is also why you can block people…

BTW, I am an idealist and agree with you … but building and managing a site like this does drive a little realism into me. My goal is to make things ‘scale’ in ways that are useful, and not everyone wants the same things from the site.

#18

select avg(ratings.score) from ratings,ignored where ratings.wineid = 55 and ratings.userid != ignored.userid and ignored.ignorerId = 22

[grin.gif]

#19

What Eric said about people using the scores for themselves. I think in most of those cases people are putting that score up for their own personal reference. Eric has left options for you to push those aside if you feel the need.

#20

Berry, I wish it were the simple, but the average is calculated and cached in a global cache for all users of the site. You donl;t think I am recomputing the averages of 1.1 million tasting notes everytime someone does a global search, right? I would need to move to per-user caches. And every time a user blocks someone I have to destroy their cache and rebuild. Do-able, but nasty and expensive stuff that would trigger the addition and deletion of hundreds of thousands of rows at a time for a simple end-user action. I try to avoid that where I can… If you want/need a per-user average that blocks your own ignore list you can actually use the site to generate a summarized view of tasting notes from the community and group by individual wine. Those aggregates are computed on demand.

What I am trying to say is that my life is hard, and this hurts my head a little… :slight_smile: