亚马逊的评论控编辑本段回目录
尼古拉斯·杰克逊 - 大西洋月刊网博客作者兼科技频道制作人，前Slate杂志媒体聚合人，他的文章曾收录和发表在大不列颠百科全书，德克萨斯月刊和其他出版物上。
What Motivates Amazon's Hardcore Raters?
【大西洋月刊】亚马逊的评论控，你们哪儿来那么大劲儿？
Sep 27 2010, 9:55 AM ET
2010年9月27日，美国东部时间早9：55
Harriet Klausner is a speed reader. It's a gift she was born with, according to her Amazon.com profile, where she also claims to go through two books a day. Even at that speed it would take more than 31 years to read the 22,824 novels Klausner had reviewed as of this writing. But why does she do it?
哈里特·克劳斯娜（Harriet Klausner ）天生就是个高效阅读者。亚马逊的用户资料表明，她平均每天能啃掉两本书。写这篇文章的时候，克劳斯娜已经为22，824本小说作了书评。要知道，即使像她这样拥有高效阅读速度的人，也需要彻日耕读31年之久。您或许要问，她为什么要这样做呢？
After earning her master's degree in library science, Klausner moved around the United States with her husband, a palm reader. This, according to a personal website she maintains with a complete archive of her reviews. (Klausner didn't respond to an interview request.) "I also watched my book reviewing career begin to take shape," she writes, noting that, with each city she moved to, she always found work with a library or bookstore. "I take immense pleasure informing other readers about newcomers or unknown authors who have written superb novels."
在获得图书馆学硕士学位之后，克劳斯娜开始跟随丈夫周游全美，有意思的是，她的丈夫是个看手相的行家。所有这些信息都能在其个人网站找到，克劳斯娜也是在这里管理评论存档的。（克劳斯娜没有对采访请求作出回应）。“我还注意到我的书评生涯正在展开，”她这样写道，正因为如此，每搬到一座新城市，她总会选择与图书馆或者书店相关的工作。“对我来说，让读者知晓一本新书或者一位陌生作者的优秀小说，是一种莫大的喜悦。”
Beth Cholette, a psychologist who works at a college counseling center, also sees her Amazon profile as a way to inform others. A self-described "fitness enthusiast," Cholette reviews exercise DVDs, the occasional "chick lit novel" and some other products -- "like a protein bar." She does it "to help others," she told me. "That's it."
贝丝·绍莱特（Beth Cholette），是一名大学咨询服务中心的心理学家，她同样把自己亚马逊的主页视为向其他用户传递信息的渠道。绍莱特自称是一名“狂热的健身爱好者”，主要为运动光盘写评论，偶尔会给“女性流行小说”和其他产品作评 - “一条营养米条的评价，或许就能帮助到其他人，”他这样告诉我，“仅此而已。”
And help she has. With about 1,500 reviews to her name, Cholette will probably never unseat Klausner as the most prolific Amazon reviewer, but she ranks higher on the website's list of top customer reviewers. Under the new ranking system, Cholette places fourth because 93 percent of her comments have been chosen as helpful by readers. She also has more than 240 fan voters, or customers who frequently return to see what she has to say.
其实这样做，也让绍莱特尝到了甜头。大约1500条的评论，或许并不能取代克劳斯娜成为亚马逊的评论女王，但却足以让她跻身网站最多评论用户的前列。在新的排名方法下，绍莱特高举第四，这都要归功于评论的高反馈率 - 她有93%的评论被认为对阅读者起到了帮助作用。而且，绍莱特还有超过240名的粉丝或是亚马逊顾客会经常关注她的主页，看看她最近都说了些什么。
Klausner, on the other hand, ranks around 700. Only about 70 percent of readers have rated her reviews as helpful. Some, in fact, believe she's lying about having read that many books, calling attention to month-long spurts during which she averaged about 20 reviews per day. All of her reviews are either four or five stars and could be written after having read a jacket cover, her critics have said, with one going so far as to launch The Harriet Klausner Appreciation Society at harriet-rules.blogspot.com, a group blog for those who decidedly do not appreciate Harriet Klausner.
几家欢喜几家愁，新的排名方法让克劳斯娜掉跌到了700开外。这是因为，仅有70%的浏览者认为她的评论有帮助。有些人则相信，她在书的数量上撒了谎，一段时间内，平均每天20条的书评，是为了在月关注度上吸引眼球。批评者指出，她的书评不是4星就是5星，翻翻封皮就能写出来。至于有人为她建立的哈里特·克劳斯娜后援团网站（harriet-rules.blogspot.com）的事情，相信很多部落格都不会买账。
It's even been suggested that Klausner doesn't exist, or that the profile exists as a means of self promotion for publishers. But "Our Lady of the Infinite Reviews" has been profiled everywhere from Wired to Time, where Lev Grossman wrote that "online critics have a kind of just-plain-folks authenticity that the professionals just can't match."
有人甚至称，克劳斯娜根本就不存在，亚马逊的个人主页也只是出版商自我推销的伎俩。然而，“我们的评论女王”的确是无处不在的，从《连线》杂志到《时代》周刊，我们都能看到她的身影。《时代》周刊编辑列夫·格罗斯曼（Lev Grossman）这样写到，“线上的批评者拥有一种彻底的真实性和可靠性，这是某些专家所无法比拟的。”
And that explains why Amazon's reviewer system is so successful. It's built entirely on the back of the everyman. Cholette might call herself a fitness enthusiast, but she still spends most of her hours doing things the average Amazon shopper can relate to: working, commuting, being with family.
这也说明了亚马逊评论体系的巨大成功。一个个鲜活的人，成就了这个庞大的系统。绍莱特或许可以称自己为狂热的健身爱好者，但是她与众多的亚马逊顾客无异，他们都要花费绝大多数时间来工作，上下班和陪伴家人。
"Unfortunately, I believe that the difficulties in navigating the menus of this DVD significantly limit its usefulness," Cholette wrote in her review of Jason Crandell's Yoga Journal: Pose Encyclopedia. "Although it may have some value as a reference tool for beginning yoga students, the layout of this 'encyclopedia' prevents it from being utilized effectively as a follow-along practice. Finally, while I am generally a fan of video media, in this instance, I think more experienced students or teachers looking for a reference manual would be more likely to benefit from one in book form...."
“遗憾的是，这盘DVD糟糕的菜单导航，大大的影响了他本身的效用，”绍莱特在对《杰森·克兰德尔（Jason Crandell'）瑜伽日志：动作大全》的评论中这样写道。“虽然对瑜伽初学者有一定的参考价值，但是本身的编排并不适于跟随练习。作为视频媒体的粉丝，我也不得不承认，有经验的练习者或老师，大都是从书本式的参考手册中有所斩获的...”
As a writer, it's difficult for me to reproduce those sentences here. They're bland. But Cholette is not a writer; she's a psychologist who just happens to enjoy spending her free time with exercise DVDs. And who am I to judge her review anyway? Two out of two people found it helpful.
身为一名作者，我可不会用那样重复的句子，太枯燥乏味了。当然，绍莱特并不是一位作家，她仅仅是一个用运动光碟打发业余时间的心理学家。要问我怎么看待她的评论？我想，对所有人都有所帮助吧。
Hundreds of Amazon users have reviewed more than 1,000 products each on the site. And millions of people have read and responded to those reviews. Amazon maintains two different public lists of the top 10,000 reviewers: a classic ranking and a new ranking that are both updated daily. In addition to emphasizing reviewers who have been rated as helpful, the new ranking gives more weight to recent reviews and attempts to weed out friends who might be "stuffing the ballot box."
数百名的亚马逊顾客，对网站上超过1，000种的产品作出了评价（注意这里说的可是每个人哦）。同时，又有数百万的用户浏览并回复了这些评论。亚马逊拥有两套不同的10，000强用户名单：新旧两种排名方式每日都会更新。另外，为了强调用户评论的可用性，新的排名方法会更关注最近的评论，藉此消除某些用户邀请朋友灌水的情况。
Publishers recognize the value in this system. Klausner, Grossman wrote back in 2006, receives an average of 50 free titles every week from publishers hoping to get her attention -- and her review. After she entered the top 100 reviewers, Cholette started receiving so many requests for review -- several each day -- that she implemented a set of guidelines.
一些出版商逐渐意识到了这一体系的重要性。格罗斯曼回忆道，在2006年，为了吸引克劳斯娜的注意，获取她的评论，每周，众多的出版商都会发送大约50封空头邮件。同样，自从绍莱特跻身100强用户以来，每天都会收到大量的评论请求，为此，她设定并实施了一套“绍莱特准则”。
"With respect to books, I accept only official publisher's copies," she wrote. "Please do not offer me e-books, electronic manuscripts, PDF files, or pre-publication galleys (bound advanced reader edition copies are acceptable)." People do follow Cholette's guidelines, she told me. "If they don't, they receive an unceremonious refusal from me," she said.
“对于书籍，我只接受官方出版商的拷贝，”她这样写道，“请勿提供电子书，电子稿件，PDF 文件或者预售排版（束有封面的新书样本拷贝除外）。”她告诉我，人们大都会遵循准则。“如果他们不遵守的话，我会毫不客气的拒绝掉，”她说。
Sounds harsh, but she's a busy woman, writing reviews whenever she can find the time. "My husband probably curses buying me my own little netbook computer a year ago for my birthday," Cholette said. From home and from work -- when there's downtime -- Cholette has been writing for Amazon since 1998. Twelve years. That's longer than most websites have existed.
听起来有些过火，不过她确实是个忙碌的女人，只要稍有时间，就会坐下来打评论。“我的丈夫现在可能在骂自己，当初怎么就挑了个小巧的上网本作我的生日礼物了，”绍莱特笑道。自1998年起，不管是在家，还是在工作，只要闲下来，她就会为亚马逊写评论。如今，12年过去了，她还是在一如既往的奋笔耕耘，要知道，现如今甚至没有几家网站能够维持如此长的时间。
Artist representative and gallery owner Grady Harp, another twelve-year Amazon veteran, also receives galleys from new writers looking for an opinion on their work. And he's happy to provide it. "I happen to enjoy that -- being part of the creative process," he told me.
格雷迪·哈普（Grady Harp），是一名画廊的所有人和艺术家代理，同样，他还是一位亚马逊12年的“老笔杆”。生活中，他很乐于接受一些新作家的作品稿件，并根据他们的要求提出意见和建议。“我很享受这个过程，就好像创意的一部分。”他这样告诉我。
Harp is that rare reviewer who ranks high on both quantity and quality lists. With nearly 5,000 reviews to his name, Harp sets aside time to review -- or think about his next review -- every day. "I set aside some brain exercise time or review on a daily basis," he said. "Even if I'm too tired, I still think it makes by brain cells tick better."
在排名的榜单上，哈普是一位少有的质优高产的评论人。他的名下有大约5，000条评论。每天，哈普都会留出时间写评论或者思考下一条该如何去写。“我每天都要留出时间做些脑力运动，”他说，“即使有时候很累了，我仍会想，没准儿写写评论能让我的脑细胞更有活力。”
And it has paid off. Harp, who also writes poetry in his free time, has been approached about providing professional reviews for various publications. Harp has taken some of them up on the offer, putting thoughts to paper for Poets and Artists, The Art of Man and several other publications, both in print and online. But he doesn't get paid for his work, on Amazon or elsewhere. He does it because he feels like he owes it to the writers who approach him.
别说，还真见成效了。哈普赋闲在家时，会写写诗歌，这可没少让他为出版商的评论请求发愁。哈普，即为诗人和艺术家提供书面想法，也为其他出版商和艺术人士提供出版和线上的支持。但是，他从不索取报酬，无论是在亚马逊还是其他地方。他这样做，纯粹是读者的热情和请求让他无法拒绝。
"Writers and publishers send books to me to review and I always feel that if they went to that trouble the least I can do is read and review," he told me. "I just try to immediately sit down and write when I finish something, sort of completing the cycle of communicating with the writer."
“作者和出版商把书送到这儿来，希望我能作些评价。我总觉得他们如果注定要遇到这样或那样的麻烦，至少我能帮着看看内容，写写评论。”他这样告诉我，“料理完手头的事情，我就会马上坐下来写点东西，或者和作者交流一番。”
Harp would consider doing this line of work full-time, professionally. "But that might get old after a while," he said, because he'd then have to read and listen to things he doesn't enjoy. With Amazon, he can focus on art books and classical music, he can write about and promote the sort of work he enjoys. On the e-commerce site, he has built a large audience of fan voters -- more than 800 -- who share similar interests. He can help them decide what to purchase next.
哈普会考虑拿来做为专职的工作，更专业一些。“现在还不是时候，或许等到上了年纪吧，”他说，这会儿他不得不听到和看到一些不喜欢的东西。在亚马逊上，他可以一心扑在在画册和古典音乐上，他可以尽情讲述和享受他喜欢的工作。在电子商务网站上，他建立起了庞大的粉丝，有超过800名哈粉和他有着相同兴趣。他能帮助他们决定接下来要买什么。
Harriet Klausner may not be a self-promotion robot for publishers, but it seems they are benefiting from the system. Send book to Beth Cholette, get review, sell more books. It's a win-win-win, for publisher, for user and even for Cholette. "If I'm going to buy a new product the first thing I do is check out the reviews on Amazon, and so writing reviews is my way of returning the favor," she said. "I guess it's the same reason I became a psychologist -- to help people."
哈里特·克劳斯娜（Harriet Klausner ）或许并不是出版商的促销机器人，但是这些商人确实在从中受益。把书寄给贝丝·绍莱特（Beth Cholette）这样的评论控，拿到评论，卖出更多的书。于出版商，于读者，甚至于绍莱特本身，都是一件三赢的事情。“假如我是第一次在亚马逊买东西，我首先要做的就是查看评论，可以说，写评论是我对帮助本身的一种回报，”她说道，“我猜这也是我成为一名心理学家的原因 - 帮助他人的情结。”
