reviews on mtbs?

[sharky]

hi guys! again your input is needed!

around a month ago i was suggesting something to neil, his answer was "check what the guys in the board want..." and here we go..
as you know mtbs does not make any kind of hardware reviews, but our members (including me) do. those reviews are all member to member reviews and totally indipendent from mtbs. (including mine) the author takes all the responsability about its content. right now we have many reviews on mtbs made by users, and the tend to be spread over some sections or difficult to find. would you like to have a "unofficial reviews" section, near the offtopic section on the forums where all the user reviews are collected? i think that the users who put work into it would get more attention that way, and who wants to find a review knows where to find it..

share your toughts..

[yuriythebest]

yes good sir I do

[cybereality]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

[sharky]

great! lets see if more voters join, but it looks quite clear to me..

do you think all reviews should be in the same category, or create subcategories? such as: Monitors, drivers, shutterglasses etc...

[yuriythebest]

great! lets see if more voters join, but it looks quite clear to me..

do you think all reviews should be in the same category, or create subcategories? such as: Monitors, drivers, shutterglasses etc...

frankly I despise subcategories, for instance

Board index » General Forums » General Stereoscopic 3D Discussion » MTBS Website Ideas

is one click too much if you ask me

[Kimber]

I personally like the idea of subcatagories for this section. I understand Yuri's concern for most catagories but I think hardware is special.

I assume this will primarily be to help people who know very little about the hardware. Without subcatagories it may be very difficult for a new person to learn what they want. Imagine a person new to S3D who just bought a S3D capable television and they want shutter glasses. Without the subcatagories they will have to open and read every post to find out if it pertains to their desire. They won't know if they should open "Review on Samsung SSG1000" or "Review on Samsung HL61A750" or the "Review of FuHzion" without opening each vague catagory and waisting time and patience.

[Freke1]

User reviews are teh best. They know bettar

[sharky]

great! lets see if more voters join, but it looks quite clear to me..

do you think all reviews should be in the same category, or create subcategories? such as: Monitors, drivers, shutterglasses etc...

frankly I despise subcategories, for instance

Board index » General Forums » General Stereoscopic 3D Discussion » MTBS Website Ideas

is one click too much if you ask me

hi yuri!

subcategories can be accessed directly! there is a tiny link to each subcategory in the main category listing..


personally i like it with categories more.. i would devide it in big categories. such as: 3d montiros, 3d tvs, shutterglasses, projection (passive and active), HMD, acessories (like anaglyph glasses, filter holders, etc..), software and driver.

i think this way everybody can find what he needs without any problem.


cya guys.

[yuriythebest]

great! lets see if more voters join, but it looks quite clear to me..

do you think all reviews should be in the same category, or create subcategories? such as: Monitors, drivers, shutterglasses etc...

frankly I despise subcategories, for instance

Board index » General Forums » General Stereoscopic 3D Discussion » MTBS Website Ideas

is one click too much if you ask me

hi yuri!

subcategories can be accessed directly! there is a tiny link to each subcategory in the main category listing..

I stand corrected, subcategories it is then

[UndeadD3vi1]

Yes, but only if all the reviews are of good standard and detailed (Pictures, etc)
I've seen other places where one review will be decent and the next will be one paragraph with copy and pasted specs + product picture from Google

[sharky]

since the reviews are user submitted we cant control them. the point is another, here we already have a load of reviews. they are just spread over the forum. the question is only if we put them toghether or leave them spread. regarding the content, if a review is very bad people will ignore it and it will slowly moveforward to the next pages since it wont have new answers. good reviews will have many answers and be at the first page allways. its somehow self balancing. (fortunately.. )

[OllyLuck]

yer i would like to see that , alot of users are not bound bye companies paying them money to write good reviews, the user of the products will say how it is and not how it should be , it will also be very easy to find the review your looking for in one section rather then trying to hunt it down for hours. I voted yes for this .

[sharky]

hey neil.. its your turn..

[Neil]

13 votes in either direction isn't exactly a clear victor!

Let me put some thought into this - it's an important decision.

Regards,
Neil

[sharky]

need more votes?

[Killigath]

I like the idea and voted for them. But I'd like to see some sort of filtering in place. Not just a strait post of reviews. Not censorship mind you. Good and bad reviews have their place. But we just don't need reviewers totally bashing (or fanboy praising) brands or anything of that nature. Maybe have a review team or just let Neil read over and approve them.

[Neil]

I can't be in a position of approving and disapproving reviews. However, this is one of the things that concerns me. Something like this could cause more harm than good. I have to think about this.

Regards,
Neil

[sharky]

i think that SUCH bad reviews that they have to be removed wont occour so often. and when they do then somebody just posts into it and the moderator will check it out.. since they are unofficial, not recognized by mtbs, and simple user-to-user reviews i think that there are no concerns about this. or maybe if youre worried you couldpost your worries and we could solve them all toghether. if somebody FOR EXAMPLE... (dont kill me) writes that your sponsor, such as iz3d is the worst thing you could buy, then it is a user saying it not mtbs. i dont see a problem with it. if he is right and well documented then the answers in the topic will support him and in this example, iz3d has a real problem because they have to do something. (but they need the real feedbayk, as also users need a real feedback before they buy... i think everybody needs feedback not advertising. if bad products are on the market and hte users aren't satisfied then the 3D market will crash even before it starts up). at the other hand, if the users writes a bad review just for anger, or because he works in another company then other users will post about it. i think that the only thing that admins have to check is if the things the user wrote (bad or good) are things he thinks and if the things are documented. if they are then a review is a review.. elsetomorrow i start selling sterescopic fried potatoes.. i totally understand that mtbs isnt doing official reviews. but i think that if the biggest stereoscopic community doesnt have at least a user reviews section then it is like having a car without lady-seat. (copassenger).

just my few cents... i would like to hear the users about thisand your concerns...


cu

igor

[Neil]

Hi Sharky!

People can post reviews in MTBS' forums. There has never been anything preventing that.

The issue is that when it is in an organized manner like this, whether or not it is MTBS' official position or not, MTBS is the tool that is being used to express these opinions.

Here is a more basic question: how many consumer products are there? iZ3D, NVIDIA, Zalman, Hyundai, and a handful of DLP sets. We are starting to see some new players, but the products are slow to appear, and expensive to purchase. In practice, the only products that are going to get reviewed are iZ3D, NVIDIA, and maybe a few DLP sets.

How many reviews of the same thing does the world really need? It suddenly becomes a battle of how many reviews a product gets in relation to sales more so than how many products get reviewed. Who loses? Everybody.

There are a million sites that do S-3D product reviews among other things. Better to be a watchdog to make sure they are doing things ethically, and let us focus on building the industry.

If we lived in a world where there were twenty or more products on the market, a generation or two of previous releases, and countless more on the way, then our first mission is accomplished. The reviews would make sense. We are nowhere near this point. Other review sites can get away with this because they review everything under the sun - we are too focused for that.

In comparison, video games and S-3D quality in video games is completely different. The review and certification process of video games is designed to encourage game developers to come out with better software. There are always more games around the bend, games can be patched and improved, we can teach users how to get the most out of their S-3D games, and our review and certification process will help build the industry.

We can't do this with hardware yet because the industry is too new, the cycles are too long, and we are still working on building the demand high enough to generate sales.

Whether or not users are submitting reviews in a categorized forum, I assure you that iZ3D, NVIDIA, and everybody else is reading these forums and gathering member feedback. Unofficial member reviews aren't going to add or take away from that.

I'm not saying no, but this isn't going to be a snapshot decision. There is a lot to consider. Can you describe the goal or benefit you are trying to achieve? Perhaps there is another way of accomplishing it.

Regards,
Neil

[sharky]

well, i see more things that can be reviewed...

as you said the monitors, then there are drivers, (not really hardware but still can be reviewed), then the stereoscopic cameras that are on the market, stereoscopic webcams that are coming out, mirrors to convert conventional cameras into 3D cameras (there are a load out there), polarizing filters, silverscreens (already done in this case but therea re many others anyway), 3D projectors, shuterglasses, polarized glases, anaglyph glasses (there have already been some reviews about 2/3 kinds of these), hmd, and many more....

i think you are seening the review to concentrated on 3 products.

what i am trying to accomplish is:

- to "reward" the users who make reviews by giving them more visibility
- to help newbies to find what they search
- to give people the means to find reviews made by competent people instead of running behind reviews that need to be corrected by a whole comunity because they just suck
- to have some hardware sellers of any kind getting a mail that says something like "i have seen your review at mtbs, i would like to have more informations... "
- to bring to light more sections of stereoscopy that exist, but are pretty unknown such as stereoscopic photography
- to be able to post on other reviews things like "hey, this is not correct.. here is a user made review, check it out... http://www...." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
- to have the forum more organized.
- to make other manufacteurs understand mtbs's role in the market and at least think about joining.

these are just some points, that come to my mind in a eraly thursday morning...

now its time to go to work.. cu

[sharky]

still waiting for an answer to my previous post..