Amazon.comI started reviewing books on amazon back in 2001. At the time, I was running the book review department for JavaRanch and received many free books from the various book publishers. The ranking in amazon is based on a formula that uses the number of helpful votes a review receives as its basis. For some reason, computer books accumulate votes much quicker than regular books so it didn’t take long before I reached the pinacle of amazon reviewer-dom and recieved a Top 1000 badge. In fact, I came close to a Top 500 badge.

In the middle of 2005, I gave up reviewing. There were various reasons for this, mostly because I had enough of JavaRanch and wanted to spend more time on my own site. With the end of my relationship with JavaRanch came the end of my source of free books and the end of my reviewing. Slowly my position dropped until I was in the 900′s.

At the end of 2006, I decided to start reviewing again, but this time it would be only books I read for pleasure. My ranking continued to worsen as the books I reviewed generated many less helpful votes than the old technical books. Finally, a couple of days ago I dropped out of the top 1000 ranking group and lost my badge.

But I really have no regrets. I have always reviewed because I enjoyed reviewing, not for some arbitrary rank.

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Note: The amazon ranking system is sort of mysterious but the general theory is that it works like this: Points are assigned based on the number of helpful votes a review accrues. Two points are awarded when a review reaches 3 helpful votes and another two points are awarded if the review reaches 10 helpful votes. Two points are removed if you have 5 more unhelpful votes than helpful votes. There are limits to how many times per day that a person can vote and have their vote count. And there are limits to how many times per day a person can vote for the same reviewer and have their vote count.