I think it might be helpful to have a dedicated section of the site for “reviews”. Regardless of whether they are gun or gear, any thread that starts with a review would go in this dedicated area.
Even without this section, it seems to me that we could use some review guidelines, perhaps in the form of questions, for those that wish to review an item. I’d like to hear what others think of the idea, as well as if there are certain questions that you’d like to see all reviewers include. Some suggestions:
[ol]
[li]Link to company website.[/li][li]Link to item in questions.[/li][li]Connection, if any, to company[/li][li]Was the item in question bought/loaned/given?[/li][li]application? (competition, training, HD, professional, etc.)[/li][li]Price?[/li][li]Availability? (prototype, pre-production, production, etc.)[/li][li]How much have you used it? (round count, number of classes, number of deployments, etc.)[/li][li]What is your prior experience with this type of product?[/li][li]What was your interaction like with the company? Quick to answer emails and calls?[/li][/ol]
feel free to add to the list and I’ll update this post.
Do you have any sort of general experience with this type of product?
Nothing harsh, just give a good sense of where you’re coming from. Dedicated amateurs, prolific technical expertise, professional end user, all opinions have their place.
Just an opinion but having the search function available and not having to pay to use it is one of the great things about this forum.
How about dropping a line or two concerning the reviewer’s experience in dealing with the manufacturer or dealer with regards to product questions (if applicable), ordering process, wait time, and customer service (again, if applicable).
I guess I’m interpreting the above in a different manner (and assuming the comments are related). I think the reviewer should mention and/or briefly compare the product with other comparable products, provided they have experience with those products. For example, “this scope is the best one I’ve used…but it is also the only one I’ve used” vs “I have used Scope X, Y and Z and this one is lighter, blah, blah”. Certainly the later situation seems to carry more weight.
My biggest review pet-peeves are when the reviewer merely does an “out of the box” review or gives a product a bad review without suggesting other substitute products with superior performance (based on their experience and not based on something they touched at the gun shop). If you must do an “out of the box” review, you should at least mention when you will plan to post a review of the actual use of the product. Certainly wouldn’t hurt the reader to wait on posting the “out of the box” if you can’t get to the range to actual use the product.
That was my intention with this question in the first post
“What is your prior experience with this type of product?”
I think “out of the box” is ok if it’s done right. Take my NGA X7 thread as an example. I took it out, photographed it, discusses some of the finer points, and opened up the floor to discussion. I shoot it when I can, and I come back and update the thread. Bonus is that we actually have the manufacturer participating in our discussions as well. I will admit, however, that in some ways I do wish I had waited to post until I had more trigger time, but I think things are progressing nicely in that thread.