What is the best approach for a user-driven review site.

[tinonetic]

What is the best approach for a user-driven review site?

Some good examples are restaurant and wine review sites.

My major concern is allowing people to post their own comments or reviews without exposing the service providers to undue criticism with maybe even competitors bringing each other down.

Would moderation be advisable where you also want to encourage some form of transparency and honesty?

How do you tell that this is genuine, and this is just "hurtfulness" (in a business sense)?

I have come across sites with dedicated "reviewers". If the website is a business, I assume it would obviously mean salaries/pay for those people...for the best and most balanced reviews. How feasible is this and how have any of you approached this aspect? I am also thinking that giving a chunk of the business would be a good incentive for the reviewer(s) to be motivated by having ownership.

My "very lastest" question is, How easy is it to start a site which reviews say Wine Tasting( or Restaurants) when one is not experienced as a wine taster. Is it advisable? Would you rather hire professionals or go for a course or even just google?

hope to get your feedback!

thanks for your time...

p.s.
too bad weekend's almost over,hey?....(sighhhhh)

[Dakota G]

If you are regarding the accuracy, validity, and appropriateness of your user-driven content, then just be mindful of your audience.

What I mean is that:

Take YouTube for example. You can see hundreds of comments on videos that are outright disrespectful spam. You can also see intelligent and well-thought-out comments.

Or Wikipedia: Many people question the validity of the user-driven content on wikis. I have very rarely encountered misinformation on that website.

What I'm trying to say is that you should be mindful of the type of people that will be going on a website that involves wine tasting. You are going to miss the groups of spammers and hackers that have no real intention of doing malicious things on a wine tasting website.

Also, as to the validity of the information, wikipedia has remarkably few errors considering the amount of people that contribute to it, and the sheer volume of articles. You are going to have to assume that people are giving you legitimate information, and you never know, you might be surprised as to how accurate the information is.

[tinonetic]

If you are regarding the accuracy, validity, and appropriateness of your user-driven content, then just be mindful of your audience.

What I mean is that:

Take YouTube for example. You can see hundreds of comments on videos that are outright disrespectful spam. You can also see intelligent and well-thought-out comments.

Or Wikipedia: Many people question the validity of the user-driven content on wikis. I have very rarely encountered misinformation on that website.

What I'm trying to say is that you should be mindful of the type of people that will be going on a website that involves wine tasting. You are going to miss the groups of spammers and hackers that have no real intention of doing malicious things on a wine tasting website.

Also, as to the validity of the information, wikipedia has remarkably few errors considering the amount of people that contribute to it, and the sheer volume of articles. You are going to have to assume that people are giving you legitimate information, and you never know, you might be surprised as to how accurate the information is.

Thank-you,Dakota for your feedback!