Reviews section?

**Rich Z** · 05-19-2006, 09:19 PM

I'm thinking of adding a review section here and want to get some feedback from you all. This would be to review products as well as vendors. I know when I was looking for mods for my Z, I felt kind of in the dark about which products were highly rated by the people who had already tried them. Sure, I can browse the message boards using keywords, but that gets kind of tedious. Took browsing through MANY threads to get any appreciable feedback that was of any use.

Bear in mind this will be kind of "no holds barred". If someone sells a bad product or has just plain awful customer service, well I would want to know about that as well as the good stuff posted. There may very well be paying sponsors on this site at some time in the future, but I want to lay out the ground rules right here and now. There will be NO sacred cows on this site. Just because someone may be paying for advertising is not going to influence me to try to protect them from themselves. Call a "spade" a "spade" and let those cards lay on the table that were dealt you. So what I am saying is that YOU will be able to freely post your opinions and facts without restriction or inhibition. Of course, this could be subject to abuse, but it has been my experience that abuse will show itself for what it really is when all of the cards are displayed.

So what do you all think? Is this something you would find useful? The script I have in mind isn't very expensive, and from what I have seen of it, I think it may prove invaluable over time with enough participation.

So let me know, please.........

pewter99 · 06-03-2006, 04:22 PM

I started a similar type thread on another forum and it seems to be going well...listing of local businesses etc. location, type of service etc. kinda like a referral for people who do good work that everyone may not know about

Rich427 · 06-03-2006, 05:09 PM

Sounds ok to me!

**Rich Z** · 06-04-2006, 02:21 AM

I really haven't had time to mess with it on my other site. Been busy with some other stuff. I actually set up an entire site for people to post business dealings and stuff, but never really promoted it any. http://www.BoardOfInquiry.com. I based this off of a really successful BOI forum I have on my animal site. I just REALLY hate seeing people ripped off by someone else. And there is a lot of it going on.

MADN3SS · 06-04-2006, 08:01 AM

I think it is a good idea Rich. I wish I would have had the outlet to do research on many of the things I already bought for my Z. I already have some opinions ready!

pewter99 · 06-06-2006, 11:08 PM

I have a list ready to go....

**Rich Z** · 06-07-2006, 12:19 AM

Well one thing that may be a stumbling block with this review program is that it needs to be used in two parts. The first part is that someone has to enter in the product info, then the second part is that people will actually then be able to enter reviews to this product. The thing that worries me is will it become a management nightmare because some people will not realize this two step process and review the product at the same time they are entering it? I think it could get messy.

One solution would be for me or someone else to actually enter the product info, so this issue would not arise. I actually started doing this over on my other site where I am testing out this program, and I could see that it could possibly be a dauting task. So I guess I am waiting for some sort of divine revelation on how to actually implement this without either giving my self yet another work load, or two give myself another headache in trying to keep the data straight.

Shadow · 06-07-2006, 08:04 AM

It sounds like a great idea to me

as long as the input remains factual and not biased or full of innuendo and supposition.

ie: I bought "X", had installation problems. Called C/S, spoke with "B" who kept hanging up on me. Never got a call back and no response to me e-mails!! It's now been 2 weeks with no response and a car thats up on jacks!!

I looked at the other BOI and it doesn't seem that difficult to manage. I'm sure there are folks on board that will assist in that regard.

If you ever get paid supporting vendors, are you going to allow pros/cons on non-vendor items as well?

I know some sites will only allow feedback on supporting vendors items and they sometimes censor that to a degree.

Overall, I think it's a good idea

**Rich Z** · 06-07-2006, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow

It sounds like a great idea to me

as long as the input remains factual and not biased or full of innuendo and supposition.

ie: I bought "X", had installation problems. Called C/S, spoke with "B" who kept hanging up on me. Never got a call back and no response to me e-mails!! It's now been 2 weeks with no response and a car thats up on jacks!!

I looked at the other BOI and it doesn't seem that difficult to manage. I'm sure there are folks on board that will assist in that regard.

If you ever get paid supporting vendors, are you going to allow pros/cons on non-vendor items as well?

I know some sites will only allow feedback on supporting vendors items and they sometimes censor that to a degree.

Overall, I think it's a good idea

You bring up an interesting point.

First off, no, I will not "protect" someone simply because they may be a vendor here. I know this may be stupid on my part, but I just don't believe that the truth should be filtered by the consideration of who spends money on advertising. And who am I to take sides, especially when the only perspective I may have to offer is the one from my wallet? Is that fair?

The advertising I may allow here will be without strings attached. Vendors will have the option to pay for their banners to be advertised here, but it does not extend to being a "get out of jail free" card on this site. The playing field in the forums themselves will be level. This site is for the members here, NOT to be a money making enterprise where I need to protect that interest to their detriment. If a vendor offers inferior products or service, then that is their problem that they need to address and fix. Not have me sweep under the carpet for them. I know as a potential customer, I would want to know about such things, so I am certainly not going to suppress that sort of info from the members here.

So in short, no, I will NOT censor such posting on this site. Yeah, there can be instances of garbage being posted, but it has been my experience that given enough feedback and opportunity, the truth WILL come out.

Yeah, I know this sort of policy will reduce the incentive for vendors to pay for advertising, but that's the breaks, I guess. I can't be bought for the price of advertising. HOWEVER, if I found a brand new shiny C6 Z06 sitting in my driveway some day with a note on it to delete some thread about a vendor, well, I may be hard headed, but I am not insane.

Shadow · 06-08-2006, 06:14 AM

Rich,

Sounds like a great ideacool