From: jeremy@... (Jeremy Henty) Date: 2001-02-25T18:40:04+09:00 Subject: [ruby-talk:11524] Re: Negative Reviews for Ruby and Programming Ruby In article <01022420381100.28356@starcrusher>, "W. Kent Starr" writes: >On Saturday 24 February 2001 20:10, -kn wrote: >> >>>>> "Jim" == Jim Freeze writes: >> >> ..- >> >> | Hi all: I was just at Amazon looking at the reviews for Programming Ruby, >> | and frankly, they suck. To be more accurate, they are more negative about >> | Ruby than about the book. >> (...) >> >> ... if those people took the time to >> fill a negative review / opinion on amazon.com probably is there something >> in the way ruby is perceived that triggers those reactions. It would be >> interesting to investigate that. >> > ... Frequently, the negatives on anything show up first (I've >attended a _ton_ of project meetings too!) to be followed by more >reasoned analyses of the pros and cons. That may be true of project meetings but it's not IMHO true of Amazon. My experience is that almost everything gets rave reviews, even when it's clearly drivel. Bad reviews are rare. Almost uniformly bad reviews are *very* rare. (I mostly surf science books, maybe it's different for programming.) >Frankly, I don't put too much stock in reviews by non-professionals >(and even with them have to consider how they are paid, and who pays >their bosses) but most of them _do_ try to provide some justification >for their conclusions and in the context of greater issues beyond the >subject at hand. I'm more likely to be influenced by DDJ, Linux >Journal or the IBM publications regarding computers and technology >than by anything I might see at Amazon's site. That's very wise of you. I just hope that the people who will make a difference to Ruby are similarly wise. Cheers, Jeremy Henty