Sapling's ratings & reviews

Our star ratings
Our reviews
Sapling Commendations
Site of the Month awards
Updating reviews

Our star ratings

Rating criteria
Before any site is added to Sapling, we check that it is suitable for inclusion - this weeds out about 80% of the sites submitted to Sapling, many of which are spam or have nothing to do with Sapling's themes. Where a site is suitable, we visit, rate and review it, awarding all sites a 'star rating' out of ten, where 1 is very poor and 10 is outstanding.

As an information gateway, we rate sites on the basis of how effective and useful they are as a source of information in their field.

To ensure some consistency, Sapling bases its star ratings on five important criteria:

CONTENT
Does the site contain (much) useful information, and is this information well written/illustrated and easy to understand? Is the information available to access free of charge?

UPDATEDNESS
How up to date is the site (particularly sections such as news and events listings), and is it updated on a regular basis?

USABILITY
Is the site clearly organised, and easy to get around? Where Flash or other multimedia are used, is a plain HTML version also provided? Does the Flash add anything worthwhile, or is its use just gratuitous?

DESIGN
Is the site attractively and professionally designed, with a consistent 'look' throughout? Are fonts, colours and images well chosen?

ORIGINALITY
In terms of content, usability or design, does the site offer features which are particularly original or innovative?

Criteria weightings
The relative importance of each criterion varies, depending on the individual site. CONTENT is obviously one of the most important factors; but we recognise that to meet its full potential, brilliant content needs to be within a site which is well DESIGNED, and easy to USE.

The importance of a site being UP TO DATE is dependent on what it is trying to achieve. Where sites have little time-sensitive content, this is not so much of an issue. In contrast, sites featuring news or events start to become outdated very quickly. In short, if the fact that a site is out of date takes away from its value as a resource, our star rating reflects this.

Finally, we consider ORIGINALITY, because we like to reward sites that try to do something in a unique or innovative way. It's possible to get a high star rating without being original; but if a site is something new, different or fun, we're likely to reward it with a higher rating than it might otherwise deserve.

Rating commercial sites
Unlike many other gateways, Sapling does not exclude commercial sites. Though business sites are primarily concerned with marketing products or services, we recognise that many are also important resources.

When rating commercial sites we reward those which have useful content, such as project portfolios, technical information or links. These tend to be more useful as resources than sites which are just online advertisements or mail order catalogues. Needless to say, our star ratings and reviews - whether good or bad - do not represent any endorsement or criticism by Sapling of the products or services offered by a given firm. However, we will not knowingly list any business that engages in illegal or immoral activity of any kind.

Rating subscription sites
Sapling believes that wherever possible access to web-based information should be free of charge and available to all. Of course, there is a difference between a site like RUDI (which is nearly all subscription only) compared to SAVE Britain's Heritage, where the 'Buildings at Risk' register is a single subscription-only feature within a site which is otherwise free to access.

If all or most of a site is only accessible to those paying a subscription, this is likely to be reflected in a lower star rating than would otherwise be the case.

The benefits of a high star rating
Getting a high star rating from Sapling brings benefits! The star rating of each site is prominently displayed as part of each entry in Sapling, and our statistics suggest that sites with a higher rating often record more clickthroughs from Sapling visitors.

Equally, when visitors search our reviews database, relevant results are displayed with the highest-rated sites first.

A high star rating also brings the benefit of a Sapling Commendation and the opportunity to be considered for our prestigious Site of the Month award.

Our reviews

While star ratings are useful, they do not necessarily give a full representation of what a site is like. This is why we supplement our star ratings with a more qualitative, written review of each site. By offering some insights into what we like or dislike about a site, our reviews are also important in making Sapling distinctive and giving it its personality.

The review accompanying each entry in Sapling usually lifts a brief introduction directly from the website, or from the information submitted by its webmaster. This is supplemented by a more detailed description of the content and appearance of the site, highlighting what the reviewer sees as any particular strengths and weaknesses, as judged against our five rating criteria.

Sometimes we are quite critical, but where we think there are particular omissions or problems we will always try to suggest specific opportunities for improvement. So far, touch wood, we have never had a complaint about one of our reviews; in fact, many webmasters have taken our comments on board, and made the improvements we suggested.

Sapling Commendations

Whenever you see the 'Commended' symbol next to an entry in Sapling, it means that the featured site is specially recommended, and has been awarded a Sapling Commendation.

Sites awarded a star rating of 8/10 or higher automatically receive a Sapling Commendation; sites awarded 7/10, which may not have the all round excellence required for a higher star rating, can also be awarded a Sapling Commendation at the Editor's discretion. There is no limit to the number of Sapling Commendations we can award - it is based entirely on the merits of each particular site. In practice, about 15% of the sites currently listed in Sapling have been Commended.

If you are the webmaster of a site which has been awarded a Sapling Commendation, we encourage you to display the 'Commended' logo on your website. All our graphics, together with the code you need to paste onto your page, are available from the 'Link to Sapling' page of this Help section.

Site of the Month awards

Each month, one Commended sites receives the additional accolade of being named Sapling Site of the Month. The 'Site of the Month' symbol is displayed next to all relevant entries, and you can view a full list of previous monthly winners in our Site of the Month section.

If you are the webmaster of a site which has been named Sapling Site of the Month, we encourage you to display the 'Site of the Month' logo on your website. All our graphics, together with the code you need to paste onto your page, are available from the 'Link to Sapling' page of this Help section.

Updating reviews

On a daily basis, websites can disappear, undergo major revamps or be left to get out of date. To place Sapling's ratings and reviews in context, we always show the date that a site was last visited and reviewed.

After a site is listed in Sapling, we aim to revisit it approximately once a year, or more often if we are notified that particular changes have been made. At present (July 2006), every site in Sapling has been visited and reviewed since October 2004.

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