What's with all the "REVIEW" threads?

Submitted: Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 09:05
ThreadID: 91757 Views:2450 Replies:4 FollowUps:13
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Just wondering why lately there are so many new threads appearing that seem to be blatantly promoting items for sale through the forum? Has the use of the forum dropped off that much that the organisers feel the need to keep the front page turning over? Just an observation not a criticism.
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Reply By: Member - DAZA (QLD) - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 09:20

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 09:20
I noticed the same thing.

It's a product promotion of what is in the Exploroz Shop.

In some ways it's not a bad thing.

Depends which way you look at it.


Cheers

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Follow Up By: Bruce M - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 09:54

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 09:54
The "reviews" would be a lot more useful if they were real reviews. I look for the scope and quality of the product, and what's bad as well as what's good. For me, there is simply too little of value in one or two sentences for these "reviews" to have any value.

Bruce M
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Follow Up By: olcoolone - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:55

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:55
Yes agree they would be more useful if they didn't have comments like " good product", "arrived quickly", "easy to deal with".

If there was information regarding the product itself like "better then previous version", "easy to use", "very useful tool X is"

Google loves reviews and indexes (page ranks) sites that use reviews higher then those not..... the next lot of Google algorithms hopefully will filter out poorly written non relevant reviews.




Mr EO team don't take it as; me and other are canning your site, take it a advice PLEASE.

The reviews could be very good if the junk was filted out.
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 11:26

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 11:26
Yep - we agree and we are trying to work out a way to prompt response from the reviewer. Some are excellent and some alas are as you say less than useful. If I could wave a wand and fix this I certainly would and we are working on it all the time - any ideas you may have are most welcome.

We are thinking of adding a few sentences to explain how to write a good review and putting this on the review entry page. This may help a little we are hoping to install this today/tomorrow.

The reason we have just had so many reviews is that the auto system that sends the review emails was not working for a couple of days and when I found this yesterday we sent out 4 days worth of review emails and this was over 120 emails. I was worried about how many this would generate but it was determined that it was better to send them than not.

David
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Follow Up By: equinox - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 12:01

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 12:01
Yes some of the reviews are works of art hey?

How about setting a minimum length of review, say 35 words or 150 characters. It may make some people think a bit more about it...

Cheers
Alan

Looking for adventure.
In whatever comes our way.



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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 12:37

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 12:37
Alan,
Thanks for that I have added this to the solutions options. I have Michelle working on some wordings for the page and we will look at the length when we are installing. Good idea thanks.
David
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 14:56

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 14:56
Guys as a followup. We have installed one series of mods and now there is a min length of 100 chars plus all Reviews of shop products will be moderated/approved before they are displayed. They will all be displayed on the shop but only manually approved Reviews will be displayed in the forum system.

That should reduce the level a little and you will only then see approved reviews that are not one line boring statements. Still working on the help text for the entry page but the first round of rules has now been installed.

David
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Reply By: Member - John and Val - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:02

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:02
Hi Chris,

If you are a member you have the option to turn off the reviews. Another way to improve things a bit is to sort the threads by response time in the "Display Options"box at the top LH side of the main forum page.

Cheers,

Val
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Follow Up By: Member - Niss42 - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:18

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:18
Hi Val.
No "Display Options"box at the top LH side of the main forum page. that I can find.
Cheers,
Barry
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Follow Up By: Member - John and Val - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:33

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 10:33
Hi Barry

By selecting the "Response Time" option rather than "Thread ID", the posts are displayed in order of most recent responses. Since the reviews get few responses they soon drop down the screen out of sight.

As a member you can also tick the "Suppress reviews..." box.

Image Could Not Be Found

Cheers

John
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Follow Up By: Member - Oldbaz. NSW. - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 11:29

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 11:29
Good stuff. I wasnt smart enough to know I could turn them off. Becoming a tad
tedious I thought, although I understand some reward for giving a review may have
resulted in the glut. cheers....oldbaz.
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Follow Up By: Member - Niss42 - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 12:39

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 12:39
Thanks Val, all fixed.
Regards,
Barry.
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Follow Up By: Crackles - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 20:24

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 20:24
"Since the reviews get few responses they soon drop down the screen out of sight. As a member you can also tick the "Suppress reviews..." box."
The question has to asked if the majority are trying to "suppress" the reviews or if they drop off the page because they get few if any responses then do they really needed to be cut & pasted on the Forum at all?
Cheers Craig............

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Reply By: Member - Joe n Mel n kids (FNQ - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 14:36

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 14:36
at last someone has put this up, i hardly use this now, well compaired to what i used to do, there are 2 reasons, the awful BLUE colour, i simply cant get used to it and i have tried but sorry i cant ......... and the "ask a question (forum)" is now bulk "reviews" and yes that is fine but at the end of the day everything is customer driven so we make money, one case is to place them in the "forum" so they are in the customers face and they "may" be enticed to buy the product ......... but that also can backfire as the forum is now cluttered up with "reviews" that are to be honest most really dont care about and it is so much harder to find a post ........
Why not have the "reviews" on the same page as the product so when we go to the "shop" and open a product page we also will see a rewiew that relates to the "product" ...............
Again just an observation and a "construtive" criticism ..... :-)
Cheers
Joe
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Follow Up By: Mick O - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 21:56

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 21:56
Joe,

see John and Val's thread above. Simple tick box and as a member you can cull them out. Works a treat.

Cheers Mick
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trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
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Follow Up By: Member - Joe n Mel n kids (FNQ - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 23:39

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 23:39
thanks Mick, i knew about the "responce time" but not the "suppress" ... that is excellent ........ now where is that button to change the colours hahahaha
Cheers and thanks
Joe
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Reply By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 14:58

Thursday, Feb 09, 2012 at 14:58
I posted this above but will also include it in the main thread:

Guys as a followup. We have installed one series of mods and now there is a min length of 100 chars plus all Reviews of shop products will be moderated/approved before they are displayed. They will all be displayed on the shop but only manually approved Reviews will be displayed in the forum system.

That should reduce the level a little and you will only then see approved reviews that are not one line boring statements. Still working on the help text for the entry page but the first round of rules has now been installed.

David
David (DM) & Michelle (MM)
---------------------------------
Always working not enough travelling!

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Moderator

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