Obnoxious Reviews!

Hi All,
Is there anyway to turn off Reviews and Reviewer star ratings. I can understand people wanting to read artist bios, or facts about particular recordings, but personally I don’t appreciate the views of some pathetic reviewer being imposed on my private collection of music. It’s quite frankly, annoying. If I wish to seek this type of criticism out before buying an album that’s one thing, but this is a collection of music I have already bought. If it’s not there already please give us the option of shutting out this useless chatter!

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I ignore most of the reviews.

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There isn’t currently a switch to turn off reviews. You might like to open a Feature Request about it.

Some of the more amusing examples of bad reviews have been discussed in this thread.

You can add your own star rating, using the arrow next to the stars. User star ratings always override Editorial ratings.

I do, too. But I still feel that they are intrusive and have no place in my private music collection.

Reviews are hands down the worst part of roon.

Just to add an alternative perspective.

One of the key purposes of Roon is to support us going on a journey of exploration. I quite like having some critics and music journalists along for that journey. I sometimes disagree (sometimes very much) but their opinion is almost always interesting.

For classical music in particular, there are sometimes some quite incisive critical reviews which make me think, or help me choose a particular performance of a work. For nonclassical repertoire in corners which I don’t know at all, I can flip through an artist’s repertoire and see which ones might be interesting to try.

If I don’t like what a review says I can just ignore it. But almost always it provokes some thought or reaction which adds to my exploration experience.

And sometimes they are just entertaining - I got one the other day which described a singer as sounding like “Diana Krall and Björk sharing a coffee in a late night diner” which was spot on :smile:

Clearly the feature irritates some, so why no have a switch to disable. But for those of us who find this interesting, please don’t stop investing in collating interesting and sometimes challenging reviews!

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Although I often disagree with the reviews, I’m really glad they’re there. For people who hate them, a “disable” button wouldn’t hurt, though.

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Actually, I often find the reviews amusing. When you’re an old fart like me, it’s hilarious to read rave reviews about albums that were torpedoed by the critics way back when or to read damning critiques about albums that are all time favourites of mine.

It’s a bit like arguing with your car’s navigation system: harmless fun.

But hey, why not an option to turn them off. Another setting you forget exists and then spend ages trying to remember where the bloody feature is hidden :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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There have already been multiple threads where people impotently rage at the reviews they don’t agree with. Perhaps a search before creating a new thread wouldn’t be amiss.

I think that INFORMATION about albums is critical for Roon to provide a full experience. It’s too bad that most album information is in the form of a review rather than more like the artist biographies.

On the other hand, if there were multiple reviews – 2-5 – reviews, they would likely be more balanced, and less annoying.

Often times I feel that Stephen Thomas Erlewhine is in my study criticizing my tastes. It would be nice if there was a much greater variety and balance of reviews.

At the very least, it would be nice to be able to paste in our own reviews or to have Wikipedia right there - not as a link, but more embedded.

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I love the reviews, along with the extraordinary amount of salt they generate. :+1:

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I also love the reviews! Allmusic integration is a big reason I went with a lifetime subscription. It’s genius!

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I’ve put in a number of requests for Roon to be able to add in other reviews, not just the default one that is scraped. Still waiting for this functionality. Many albums don’t have any review at all and that is another reason I am keen for this feature.

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Don’t loose hope. It seems like something for user generated content – and reviews would surely be one such thing – is on the radar:

:slight_smile:

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I must be missing something as the only reviews I see on the album page is the Allmusic one. Can you enlighten me please

You are missing something, but I’m not sure what it is! The topic is about being able to add other reviews in addition to the default AllMusic ones, or where there is no AllMusic review present.

Thanks. So the visible ratings are gleaned from the likes of Allmusic etc?
Be good to add personal ratings that other subscribers could access if they wished. I subscribe to Stereophile magazine and they have a monthly in-depth review of albums which I find helpful.
I subscribe to both Tidal and Qobuz that gives me the best of both worlds.

Cheers, Tom

Not so much the ratings, but the reviews. You can already add personal ratings in addition to the scraped ratings that come with the reviews.

AllMusic reviews are a mixed blessing. Most are very good. Some are a tad pointless and a very small minority are rubbish. It’s the rubbish ones that annoy me - I would like a Nuclear Destruct option allowing me to block individual reviews :joy:

If we all liked the same things then life on this blue and green rock of ours would be pretty dull. It’s one person’s view what does it matter if it doesn’t align with your own. Deal with it people.

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