Frustrations with Ciao

After reading another very well written article on the frustrations with Ciao, I though I would outline the frustration that I am having at the moment.

I am pretty new to Ciao. I was a member some time ago but find I didn't really use the site that much but I came back with a view to posting up some reviews. Mostly things were going pretty well until someone gave me some vindictive feedback.

I found out from a helpful guide of what I needed to do in order to report this vindictive feedback, and so I did what was advised. Now Ciao have pulled the review from the site entirely. I queried this and got a very prompt response saying that "there database had detected that it was off topic".

After writing back to explain that my American Pie Band Camp review was under the correct section and not off topic I replied, only not to receive a response at all.

This seems to indicate to me that I can leave vindictive feedback for anyone, you will report me and then YOUR review will get pulled from the site. Oh yes and all your points taken away for that review too. Would you think that fair? I wouldn't, personally I feel that I am being punished much more than the person leaving me vindictive feedback in the first place.

One this is for certain, that is that however pulled the review DID NOT read it before actioning.

This experience is a pity as my opinion of Ciao has been a positive one up till now, when i give feedback on a review i am not doing it to be spiteful, if you rated my review as not helpful i would expect comments onto why it was not helpful i would then maybe re-write it, i would not automatically choose one of your reviews and leave bad feedback just becuase you left back feedback for me

Ok After reading this again I can see that this article is less than very helpful, and to be honest very helpfull is the minimum i aim for. and think ing about it the reason i think that is that it is just a rant at Ciao, and what i think it needs is maybe a potential solution to make it very helpdesk.

My solution is this. if a user has submitted a vindictive feedback report please just take a look at the article or review in question, look at all the information given in the report and then make a decision and then let both parties know of that decision in a prompt way.

At the moment they have partially brought back my review, i say partially becuase if i search for it i can find it, but the review is no longer listed under my Ciao. I hope this isnt the way things are done in general as i have taken a lot of time out to try and get my review and points reinstated, but i had to call the UK office as i only had 1 reply from using the email address.

EDIT:
This has now been sorted out (to a degree) my review is back but the vindictive feedback is still there, it took a lot of mucking around by me to get this far so i dont think ill pursue it any further, just beware if you leave "spikyredcactus" not helpful feedback, they will leave vindictive feedback for you.

EDIT 18/10
This is getting almost funny now. I had an email from Ciao telling me that they didnt think the feedback was vindictive, even though the review was not off topic, then then get another email sayying that the rating was removed, but its still there.

If they are this inept at a small issue, what are they like on the larger issues? rating of Ciao changed to average from good

UPDATE 13.11.07
Another niggle that I have although it is not a fault of Ciao themselves is reads and rates. When I searched for reviews to read I used to read anything and everything that I came across, but soon realised that not everyone you read will rate your reviews in turn, I felt this a bit unfair and as you could easily spend all day on Ciao reading reviews I decided that I need to bring in a method of reading and rating myself, and this is what I do

For people that read/rate my reviews I will rate one of their reviews, I will not check to see how many reviews they have rated etc but will repay them reading my review with me reading one of theirs.

When I search for reviews to read I normally look at specific categories and I only look at reviews written the day before (so that I know I capture them all). Also because I have limited time I do not look at any white circle reviews unless they have been marked as very helpful, nor do I read quick reviews. Anybody that has a colours dot I will look at the statistics of that person to see how many reviews that they have rated compared to how many times they have been read. I personally think that that ratio should be 75% or better.

So, if you have had 1000 ratings received, I would expect to see that you have rated at least 750 reviews in turn. If that is not the case then I simply will not rate your review, as I think it is a two way street and a little effort needs to be put in.