Letters to the Editor
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No Free Lunches
Reviews can be illuminating, but what is needful is to first, in effect, rate the rater. By that, I mean that one must deduce the intelligence, tastes, and knowledge of each reviewer based on how the review is framed--everything from the degree of particulars and detail they provide to their ability to write a grammatical sentence.
Obviously, it helps to first have a general idea about the topic: it is easier to evaluate, say, reviews of a genre fiction with which genre one is familiar than those of some mysterious automobile component.
But I really don't think it is that hard to pick out the people who have some credible idea what they're talking about. The only problems are products with very few reviews.