Reviews

Reviews lets visitors and members rate your site with one to five stars and a few words. A public page shows the average, how the stars are spread and the reviews; the home page can show the best ones. Reviews wait for your approval, you can answer them, and the form is guarded against bots. The plugin is free and works with every licence.

Switching it on

A new installation switches it on once; after that you decide with Admin → Plugins → Reviews → Enable or Disable. It keeps the reviews in the table site_reviews. Its screens are in the admin menu under Plugins: Reviews and Reviews settings.

The public page

/en/reviews (and the same in every language of the site) is called Reviews, with the introduction "What people say about your site name. Tell us how it works for you." A link to it stands in the footer.

• The summary: the average with one decimal and its stars (half stars too), the number of reviews, and a bar for five, four, three, two and one star with how many gave it. Only reviews that are shown count.
• The list: the shown reviews, newest first, Reviews per page at a time. Each has the first letter of the name in a circle, the name (or "A visitor"), the stars, the date, the title, the text and, when you answered, your answer under "Answer from your site name".
• The form, beside the list.

Writing a review

Write a review asks for Your rating (a click on the stars), Your name (guests only; a member writes under the account name), Title (optional) and Your review, then Send review. With approval on, it says "Reviews are shown after a short check."

A review is refused when it has no stars, is shorter than Shortest review (letters) ("Please write a little more (at least 10 letters)."), has a web address in the text, title or name ("Please write without web addresses."), or is one new review too many from the same internet address today ("That is enough reviews from here for today.").

One review each. A member is known by the account, a guest by a cookie (aiod_voter, kept for a year). Coming back, they find Your review filled with their text and Save changes: sending it again changes the review instead of adding one. While it waits, they read "Your review is waiting for a short check. You can still change it."

The guard against bots

The form asks no puzzle. It carries a field only bots fill in, a task signed by your installation that works once within two hours, and a small calculation the browser does in a blink. A form sent in under four seconds is refused, and one address may send five an hour. A visitor who fails reads "The form could not be checked. Please try again."; the log gets "review refused" with the reason. The form needs JavaScript.

Approval and the bell

A review waits for my approval is on from the start. Every new or changed review sends a notice to the bell, for example "New review: 4 of 5 stars" or "A review was changed: 2 of 5 stars", in warning colours for one or two stars. The menu entry Reviews shows a red number for the reviews that wait.

With approval on, a changed review waits again, even one you had approved. Reviews you write while signed in to the admin panel are shown at once and skip the daily limit.

The Reviews screen

On top: All, Waiting for approval, Shown and Hidden, each with its number; the line "On the site: 4.7 of 5 from 23 reviews"; and The page. Up to 300 reviews are listed, the waiting ones first, then the newest.

Each review shows its stars, the name, its status, a Home page badge when you chose it, the title and the text, then "Member #12" or "Visitor", the internet address, the language it was written in and the time. Below:

• Your answer, shown under the review (optional) and Save the answer. Saving an empty box removes the answer.
• Approve (for a waiting review) or Show (for a hidden one), and Hide.
• Show on the home page or Not on the home page.
• The bin deletes the review, after you confirm.

Reviews on the home page

With Show reviews on the home page on, the end of the home page gets a block What people say: the average and the number of reviews, the buttons All reviews and Write a review, and up to How many reviews. First come the ones you chose with Show on the home page, then the newest shown reviews with four or five stars. Only shown reviews with text appear, cut after about 220 letters. When none qualifies, the block stays away.

Reviews settings

Writing a review:

Without member accounts (Settings → Users), "Members only" counts as "Everyone".

Where visitors see them:

Search engines decide for themselves whether they show stars in their results.

Tips

• Keep approval on: one click per review keeps insults and advertising off your page.
• Answer critical reviews calmly; the answer stands under the review for every visitor.
• Choose three strong reviews with Show on the home page; they come before any newer ones.
• Hide keeps a review you may want back later. With approval off, though, its writer can show it again by sending the form once more, so keep approval on when you hide reviews.
• Never write reviews in your visitors' names: search engines treat made-up ratings as spam.
• To change a text of the page, use New translation on Settings → Translations with its key from the plugin's languages/en.php (see Languages and translations).