Thoughts On Negative Reviews
At AboutUs it is our goal to foster constructive dialog between organizations and their constituents. Constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement whose goal is to genuinely help the organization are welcome. Rants whose goal is to harm the organization are inappropriate on AboutUs.
Negative reviews sometimes create non-productive "edit wars". On the other hand, they have the potential to be a positive experience for everyone; here's how:
Constructive vs. Non Constructive
Constructive edits leave the site richer in content and do so in an inoffensive and tasteful manner.
Positive vs. Negative Review
Negative reviews can often be constructive, not only to the next reader, but also to the organization to which the review is directed. They might bring to your attention something that you may otherwise have no way of accessing.
If a negative review is stated in a non-constructive manner, sometimes the best option is deletion.
Recommendations for the poster of a negative review
Do so in a way that states the facts and refers to outside sources if possible. If it is just your opinion, please state that. Being logged in and signing your comments helps the credibility of your review. If you say something about yourself, then people are more likely to understand how you came to your point of view. There may be reasons you don't want to do this, and if so that is ok, but please make the review in a constructive manner. Anonymous negative reviews, especially ones that are over the top are likely to be deleted.
Recommendations for the organization
Please don't delete the negative review. Best is to respond to the review with facts, corrections, acknowledgments, citations, references, etc. The reader will prefer that over the negative comment being deleted. Deleted negative comments do not reflect well.
Slander and Libel
Please note that negative is not slanderous and/or libelous. While there are comments that are explicitly libelous/slanderous there are others that take more than an impartial eye to look like a slander. And while comments like, "The owner of this company is mentally retarded" are bound to be deleted, others like, "These folks need to improve their Customer Service" are more likely to stay.
