When we transitioned to our new website a couple of years ago, we lost the myriads of reviews that were on product pages of the old site. This is where you, faithful Accordance user, could step in to help your fellow users.

Do you have a titles in your Accordance Library that you would consider favorites or ones you use on a near-daily basis? It only takes a couple of minutes to give the items you have experience with a one-to-five star selection and to write a sentence or two. Yes, a review doesn’t have to be long. I mean, it’s great if it is, but most potential purchasers probably want to know in an expedient manner whether or not other users have found a title helpful.

Now we love positive ratings, but that’s not required. Not everything in our Library catalog is for everyone. Write from your personal experience what you liked or didn’t like about a title.

So, how do you post a review? It’s easy: simply scroll down to the bottom of any product page. First, click on a star giving it the rating of your choice (1 to 5 stars), and then add at least a sentence or two in the “Your review” comment section.

What to put in a helpful review:

  • How the resource is beneficial to you. Is this a title you use every day? Was it essential for a particular task?
  • Recommendations. Would you recommend this title or not? Is it better suited for some users than others?
  • Constructive criticism. Do you disagree with some of the content? Do you wish a reference work included content left out by the author? Is there an interface suggestion for Accordance in how the material could be presented better?

A quick reminder of what is NOT helpful in a review:

  • Error correction reports. If you find an error in a title, simply pull up a contextual menu from it and choose “Report a Correction.”
  • Requests for help. Contact Tech support if you need help. Please don’t post, “How do I download my new Bible?”
  • Bug reports. We keep our developers locked in the basement so they can keep busy making Accordance better. Okay, not really! But still, odds are that developers won’t see your bug reports if you post them in a review. Instead, post bugs in our user forums.
  • Duplicate posts. Unfortunately, we get LOTS of spam reviews, so every review is manually approved. If you don’t see your review appear immediately, please don’t post it again. If a day or two passes and it doesn’t appear, feel free to reach out to me directly.
  • Theological Disputes. It’s okay to say something like, “I personally don’t agree with ____________’s theology.” But a review is not really the place to write an extended tirade against someone or a theological position.

The inspiration for the review system on our new website comes from similar and familiar shopping sites like Amazon.com. A combined total for star ratings will appear near the top of the page near the title. Reviews at the bottom will hopefully help others make better-informed decisions. We hope that one day every title in the Accordance Library will have at least a couple of reviews or even more.

One more request: if you have ever reviewed a title for us on your own website, feel free to rate the title on our product page and drop a link to your review or just copy and paste the content from your original post into a review.