Website idea - review comparisons with your own

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 10/27/08 at 10:55am

I don't have the capacity to implement this idea, but I think it has potential:

There's a decent number of websites that compile Broadway reviews. How about a feature that allows you to find the reviewers with the most similar tastes to yours, and use that to make suggestions of other shows you might like or dislike?

For example, you'd have an option to rate every show you've seen from 1 to 5 (or just "liked," "neutral," "disliked"). The website could compare the correlation of your answers to a database of reviewers to find the reviewers whose taste is most highly correlated with yours. From there, it could pick the top 5 reviewers, see their opinions of shows you haven't seen, and suggest whether you would like or dislike those shows. Or, the program could find the sum-product of the ratings of shows you haven't seen with the correlation of your opinions with theirs, to find your own customized review rating.

I mean, we all place more weight on the reviews of highly regarded reviewers. What if our tastes are actually more similar to those a small, local reviewer than to Brantley's? Wouldn't it be useful to see what the small-time reviewer thought of the show?

Participants could also have their answers added to the database, increasing the amount of possible matches. We all start to realize the posters on here with whom we share a lot of opinions, and those with whom we don't. This will help us realize that.

Anyway, wanted to share that idea. Maybe someone will implement it someday.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/27/08 at 2:45pm

That idea sounds like a theatre version of Rotten Tomatoes mixed with Yelp.

[rich.hanson59]

Posted: 10/27/08 at 3:13pm

That is a very interesting idea. SHould a weebsite like this happen, I would definately join. Or maybe BWW could add a similar feature?? Regardless it's a good idea. :)