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Porn Users Forum » Re-Review Dilemma, opinions? |
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02-14-09 10:39pm - 5789 days | Original Post - #1 | |
exotics4me (0)
Active User Posts: 664 Registered: Jan 12, '07 Location: USA |
Re-Review Dilemma, opinions? Hey PUs, I really haven't joined many sites lately that I hadn't joined and reviewed before. I'm finding the new models in my preferred niche, glam/solo/Euro just don't interest me near as much as the models that made me a fan of that niche. So, I bought myself a new pair of 1 TB external hard drives and have been going back through my favorite sites and re-downloading all of the content of my top 10 favorite models and storing it on the new HDs. What I'm running into on the re-reviews is that I seem to be a different reviewer than I was two years ago ha ha. I got review implants. I'm thinking with most of the world having economic problems that I'm leaning more towards joining the sites that give me the most bang for my buck, but if I do join a site that doesn't have a lot of content that I plan to keep, it better be very high quality. Here comes the dilemma, I joined Met-Art a few weeks ago, and though I'm still not really into artsy porn, my respect for the site is much higher now because of the high quality content and the high amount of quantity. There are many models on the site that I like, but I've seen much more exposing sets of them. This is the dilemma, I find myself wanting to grade a site not just based on my liking it or not, because my thinking now is that we all have different tastes in models and what style of porn we like, hardcore/softcore/lesbian etc.. So, just looking at the technical aspects of the site, the value it could be a very high score even though it isn't really my preferred niche or maybe doesn't have a lot of content of my favorite models. The other side of this is the sites that have a lot of content of my favorite niche and favorite models, but might have lower quality content. By scoring the higher quality site higher that would let the potential customer look at a site and decide if they liked the models, while knowing the quality was very high, but if I do that am I taking the personality out of my reviews? I've had a couple of PUs over the years email me from here and tell me they really like my taste in models and join most of the sites that I score high since my reviews were higher scored if those sites had the models I prefer, not so much based on quality or quantity. As an example, my highest rated site is Twistys, not so much for the quality of the content, as it is that I get twistys, one of the biggest and best, mostly glam sites on the internet and includes access to two very good solo sites, Anette Dawn and Nicole Graves, plus the added bonus of a very good glam/softcore site Blue Fantasies for $20. The downfalls are in the quality section, with average at best picture size and slightly above average video quality. And those are offset in my reviews by the amount of content of my favorite models, which is very high. The thing is, how helpful is my review if the person reading it doesn't have the same favorite models that I have and they see a 98 score and end up on a site that is high on content, but only above average in quality. Probably should have taken self-therapy for my OCDC! This came up after going through the frustration of 1byday trying to switch formats of their site in the middle of my membership. Their newer content is certainly higher quality than Twistys, and with the archives back in place as part of a regular membership, their quantity matches Twistys. Their model selection is also similar to Twistys. This dilemma was compounded when I joined zoliboy to get in on the the new, finally understandable 21st Sextury network, where you join one site and get around 30 bonus sites. While some of those bonus sites are just filled with content that was once on Club Sandy and Pix and Video, some of them are 100% exclusive, I've also noticed that Playful Hands is getting many of the new Club Sandy updates too, which saves me $30 on joining Club Sandy. I made a comment about the zoli bonus sites and it really is impressive, Sweet Sophie Moone, Open Air Pleasures, Playful Hands, Lezbo Honeys and a site that has many of those "missing" hardcore clips that used to be on Club Sandy, Euro Porn Sluts, including one of the few hardcore Eve Angel clips, Aneta Keys hardcore, Sophie Moone in an almost b/g clip, it is b/g/g. As a collector, that site alone has enough clips for me to have joined for the full price, but I now get those other listed ones and around 30 more. They also are releasing new updates in HD and re-releasing old clips in HD on most of those sites. Onto the questions, do you prefer the reviews/bottom lines that are more of an opinion or more of just the facts type reviews? Do you think we lose our PU review personalities if we don't grade sites higher that have our favorite models on them? While I do try to be as unbiased as possible, I still think it is impossible for non-professional reviewers to be completely unbiased since we are paying for the memberships and would generally think that we join a site because we already like something about it before throwing the money down to join. Thoughts? Opinions? Thanks PUs. My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich. - Chuck Palahniuk | |
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02-14-09 11:21pm - 5789 days | #2 | |
badandy400 (0)
Active User Posts: 869 Registered: Mar 02, '08 Location: ohio |
Exotics. Any site that features a few scenes with Amy Reid will have that reflected in their review, but only as that. I will mention that I was excited to see some of her stuff, or some other major favorite. How many videos of Amy the site has is independent of quality of the videos. Matts Models has one of the first videos of her that I know of, but that does not mean the videos is good quality or that the site is great. Opinion or fact? Well that would depend. If someone reads one of my reviews they can usually expect to see technical facts. Other reviews place more emphasis on opinion. Last time you tried to make an educated decision on joining a site did you onlu read one a review, or did you read a handful. Hopefully most people read a few reviews to get a more rounded view of the site. How you review sites is up to you, same as how I review them is up to me. None of us review the same way. We each have our own little set of important topics to go over and if two people have the same list than there is no sense in them both doing the review since it would be about the same. I frequently say that a site has X GB of videos and Y GB of photos. That is just one of they things, call it a signature part of my reviews if you wish. If I say a site has 200 GB today, in six months you can usually assume it is at least 200 and hopefully a good bit more. I believe it is useful information and can be used by many people. Of course, not everyone cares about the size of a site so much. Perhaps they have a small monthly bandwidth cap. In which case my review might not be as meaningful. By an opinion laden review might tell them if this is a site they are interested in. Must also consider that simply because a site has hundreds of GB of content does not mean the content is any good or what someone is looking for. I do not care if the video quality is extremely high and there are thousands of videos if the camera work sucks and the women are butt ugly. Those are all opinions, but need to be mentioned as well. I think I strayed a bit from your exact topic. To answer your question. Review exactly how you feel you should. Times change and review style may need to as well. If we sat down and came up with a standard review style there would be no need for this site. The point is to catch different styles and opinions. Personality need to be maintained in the reviews. Without it they would get pretty boring. If you had any biases simply say what they are. I do that all the time. When I reviewed Abby Winters I did not knock them for having a lot of girls with body hair. It certainly is not my thing, I prefer Nair everywhere, but I understand others might like that. If a reviewer lets their personal tastes show in a review and someone that find they share tastes it can be very helpful to that person. They may say to themselves "hey, this guy seems to like about the same stuff I and they liked this site, it may be safe to assume I will too." In this case the certain biases show to be beneficial. Simple answer: say what is on your time. That is why the reviews themselves get reviewed by the PU staff. "For example, badandy400 has taken it upon himself to become the one man Library of Congress for porn with a collection that surely will be in Guinness Book of World Records some day." ~Toadsith~ PU Interview | |
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02-15-09 03:47am - 5789 days | #3 | |
lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Reviews should be a mixture of technical facts and personal opinions. The personal opinions are what give the review its flavor. I'm not big on technical details. A lot of PU members want a bunch of tech details included in every review. So, it's a nice idea to give at least a few tech details in a review. But I'm much more interested in the personal opinion of what the reviewer likes/dislikes. As far as quality, quantity, site ease of use, and price, which are the basic factors in the score of a site as far as I am concerned, I would much rather read a review by someone that clearly shows why he/she likes or dislikes a site, rather than read a so-called "unbiased, professional" review. If you like the models on a site, say so, and maybe mention 2 or 3 that you really like, so the reader can see what you go for, if there are only a limited number of attractive models on that site. But for a mega-site like Met-art, there are over 100+ gorgeous models on that site, so if you are into softcore teen glamor, there's something for almost everyone. So picking out 2 or 3 models from that range is far less meaningful or useful. I don't really care to read boring reviews. A little humor can be nice, and Drooler writes reviews that can be informative and enjoyable. Most of us read the reviews to get an idea of sites we might like to join. Personally, I think it's more helpful/useful/meaningful if you give higher grades to the sites you personally like, rather than trying to give an "artificially" high score to some site that you think merits a high score due to some sort of technical excellence or technical quality or whatever, but that same site doesn't really turn you on that much. Porn is a personal taste. Not everyone enjoys the same diet. But if you show your opinions in your reviews, that is the real contribution. Along with pointing out any major pluses or faults a site may have. I think I've been infected by your rambling style of writing. Lol. | |
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02-15-09 09:03am - 5789 days | #4 | |
pat362 (0)
Active User Posts: 3,575 Registered: Jan 23, '07 Location: canada |
I was not a very good reviewer when I first joined. I couldn't find a way to put mu ideas and opinions down. I stole most of my style from you guys. Now the way I break down my reviews is all the tech stuff is in the pros and cons, and then I reserve my opinion for the bottom line. I have no problem with someone revisiting a review and now having a different opinion. We are human afterall and it's in our nature to grow and as we grow are taste change. I think it would be worst if you thought differently and didn't comment about it. Long live the Brown Coats. | |
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02-15-09 10:21am - 5789 days | #5 | |
PinkPanther (0)
Active User Posts: 1,136 Registered: Jan 08, '07 Location: Oakland, CA |
I agree that the best reviews take into account both objective and subjective factors. Important things like rate of updates and quality of material presented are important to include, however it's also important to note if they are presenting frequent updates and good size pics and vids of boring material. Then a key thing to include is the Enjoyment Factor. Did you like being a member? Would you recommend it? I like the reviews that include things like "This site is probably worth a one-month join because..." That's what I aim for in my reviews, successfully or not, and what I most respect in other people's reviews. As to your current reviews being different than your earlier ones, that sounds like a good thing - kind of like a Stagnation Test - you passed. | |
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02-15-09 01:52pm - 5789 days | #6 | |
Drooler (0)
Disabled User Posts: 1,831 Registered: Mar 11, '07 Location: USA |
"While I do try to be as unbiased as possible, I still think it is impossible for non-professional reviewers to be completely unbiased since we are paying for the memberships and would generally think that we join a site because we already like something about it before throwing the money down to join." Well, the "professional" reviewers are usually the ones to watch out for. You won't find any of us saying things like "A Triumph!" and "The Best Anal Creampie Site of the Year" and stuff like that. And that's to say nothing of the ones that actually review porn. I've found my own "pornsonality" (hey, I just made that up!) to have evolved/devolved/avolved, whatever. And I think it's because of all of those reviews that I wrote. These days, I really know exactly what I want, and if I'm not getting it, then whatever I'm looking at, as far as I'm concerned, it's just crap. That has made it harder for me to write reviews now because I have to try to think like a general user, just to be fair about it. And that sucks. I'm much happier just being horny old ass-crazy Drooler. That isn't to say that my reviews are excessively biased. ;) But it does help explain why I put so much factual information in them. Factual support is essential for good writing and opining, of course, but it's also about all I've got when I review a site that doesn't feature delectable female butt cheeks served up the way I like 'em. I wanted something new, so I left England for New England. Edited on Feb 15, 2009, 02:00pm | |
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02-15-09 03:59pm - 5789 days | #7 | |
Tree Rodent (0)
Active User Posts: 708 Registered: Oct 29, '08 Location: UK |
That you are even asking these questions, makes you a good reviewer IMO. Personally I like to see a good mixture of objectivity and subjectivity, but the best reviews come from those who really CARE. There are a few on here whose reviews I really take notice of. I am very wary if those who give very high marks all the time, or those who seem to review about 10 a day. The best reviews seem to come from those who have experience of writing reviews, and those who stay long enough on a site to give a genuine review, which means just an occasional one. I far prefer quality to quantity. Some may be able to do both, but the best ones come from those who really care about what they write. | |
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02-16-09 06:52am - 5788 days | #8 | |
turboshaft (0)
Active User Posts: 1,958 Registered: Apr 01, '08 |
"The Best Anal Creampie Site of the Year" -- that has a nice ring to it! Sure beats the same old lines about Hollywood films and their various awards and nominations. Seriously though, I think reviews should accurately reflect the reviewer as much as what he or she is reviewing. Don't expect high marks on a lesbo site if the reviewer is not into that, but don't be surprised at enthusiastic cheers from, say, a butt fan about a site with a lot of ass either (cheers for cheeks?). "It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hardcore Commie works." - Gen. Jack D. Rippper, Dr. Stranglove | |
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02-16-09 11:50am - 5788 days | #9 | |
Wittyguy (0)
Active User Posts: 1,138 Registered: Feb 04, '08 Location: Left Coast, USA |
Those of you who read my crap probably know that I toss out a lot of objective and statistical info. My basic approach, which has evolved over time like must of us here, is that I join the sites that I think I'll like but I try to review them in a way that provides the most info to the undecided soccer mom demographic. Whether or not someone liked a particular scene or model doesn't seem that important to me unless it's a solo model site. What is important to me is pic sizes, vid sizes and general quality. The "quality" aspect is definitely more of a "I know it when it see it" subjective take but I go with the notion that if the site is producing high quality pics and vids, has regular updates, has some volume of content, has good and reasonably speedy zips and downloads, and has a good layout/navigation/customer support that most people will probably find that they enjoy the site unless they're just not into the site's content. I also find that the more positive objectives the higher the score and I think we all find the sites that have good statitistics also tend to score the highest here at PU and TBP. Also, those PU'ers with lots of reviews also know a thing or two about quality so I'm more likely to trust their opinions on that matter. My advice to Exotics on the conundrum of reworking a review is to go back and read and what you said earlier. If you're opinion has changed then go ahead and redo the review. There's lots of space now in the BL section so maybe tell us why your opinion changed. I've tended to become more objective and recently redid a review on the Brazzers because I felt I was too biased towards my personal likes when I did my first review which happened to be one of my first reviews here. I know some people here are into certain models but I certainly don't expect them to keep updating reviews on sites that might have that model; there's just to damn many sites and chances are that most of us don't share the same level of glee with that model as you might so we're not really losing out that much. It's also more of a random thing about your favorite model appearing on certain sites. To give a site a higher score because one of your favs is on it doesn't really help us. For example, if the site is not regularly updating or site mostly has nonexclusive content, then it should not get a higher score simply becuase there's a few shots of your personal "10" on it. If you want, gush about your beauty in the BL but probably don't be unnecessarily jacking the score because you found a needle in your personal porn haystack that many of us may not find overly appealling. | |
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02-16-09 04:45pm - 5788 days | #10 | |
Drooler (0)
Disabled User Posts: 1,831 Registered: Mar 11, '07 Location: USA |
As for me, so far I haven't redone a single review. It's nice to have the option and I don't mind at all that some other people do it but, and I suppose it's just a matter of temperament, I don't care to go back over the old things I've done already and fix them up again for the present moment. Which will soon enough again become the past. There are enough forces at work in the world that try to keep me at Square One that frankly, I'm not interested in volunteering for the project. I just feel that I was as right as I could be about a site then and there, and that's enough. I wanted something new, so I left England for New England. | |
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02-16-09 07:01pm - 5788 days | #11 | |
jd1961 (0)
Active User Posts: 296 Registered: Jun 07, '07 |
I try to account for what other people might like about a site that I may not find very appealing. On the other hand, I think I make it clear what I like about sites. So, added with technical information, hopefully people will have a bit of an understanding of what's in the site irregardless of my score. I try to do that anyway! | |
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02-16-09 07:55pm - 5788 days | #12 | |
badandy400 (0)
Active User Posts: 869 Registered: Mar 02, '08 Location: ohio |
Drooler. The only problem with not updating reviews is that the site can changed dramatically since the last time it was reviewed. Obviously if you never go back you should not do much to a review. But, if you return to a site I believe it is a good idea to at least mention that you rejoined and found most thing the same or different. Point being that you 2 year old review is just as useful and trustworthy as a review you may have submitted yesterday if you update it by only saying that the review is still accurate here in February of 2009. On to other comments here. We all have our tastes as many have said. The trick is to make sure readers understand that we have these tastes when they influence a review. At the beginning and end of the BL in most of my reviews I spell out which biases might play in the review and if a which tastes the site would appeal to. This way everyone knows. Exotics, and option you may wish to entertain is to simply add onto the review. If I am not mistaken the space in the BL has grown, so there should be room for extra comments and insights into your changing views even though you may have maxed out on space before. "For example, badandy400 has taken it upon himself to become the one man Library of Congress for porn with a collection that surely will be in Guinness Book of World Records some day." ~Toadsith~ PU Interview | |
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02-16-09 11:21pm - 5787 days | #13 | |
exotics4me (0)
Active User Posts: 664 Registered: Jan 12, '07 Location: USA |
Hey guys, thanks for the opinions on this. I was giving the thread a day or so before coming back to check, when lk2fireone made a reply to my newest review and was surprised at my split personality, going from my OCDC rambling post here to an excellent review. We have some newer members that I would like to mention this to about me, English isn't my first language, so I do run into problems with finding the right words when typing out my thoughts. Drooler could have saved me a lot of time and typing with this comment from above, "These days, I really know exactly what I want, and if I'm not getting it, then whatever I'm looking at, as far as I'm concerned, it's just crap. That has made it harder for me to write reviews now because I have to try to think like a general user, just to be fair about it. And that sucks. I'm much happier just being horny old ass-crazy Drooler." Those were my exact feelings. I run into the dilemma that a site may have blown me away last year, but since then has been passed by others. Which brings in the other part, some of my reviews date back to early 2007, so those are going on two years old. Since then, we've seen the peak of the Euro Eight, as I like to call them, Eve, Sophie, Sandra, Aneta, Mia, Susana and Sandy, and now we are seeing them slowly, with butts facing us as they fade away. I don't want my reviews to become that biased that if a site can get a new set of them, I score it high. But like Drooler said and applies to me too, I know what I want and that want centers around those models. I really like the one new British model Sasha, but the newest models are bordering on looking too young to me. So, this really wasn't a thread where I am questioning my own reviews, as much as I was just looking for what the average reader of the reviews likes to see in the reviews since I don't want my reviews to be too biased sounding. lk2fireone mentioned in a joking way about the OCDC. My OCDC is funny too, for one, I'm a Psychologist, so imagine when the 17th straight patient comes in with the same problem as the previous 16! I'm thinking, "Can't someone today at least be suicidal instead of depressed?" The OCDC causes me to get quickly frustrated with sites for example, no zips for pictures or movie scenes in parts. The rambling style writing comes from some problems with writing English, so I keep trying to say the right thing. Oddly enough, I've lived in America most of my life, but I get a strange blend of languages from my parents and I spend half of my time in California, where everyone speaks good basic English and the other half in the southern United States where everyone speaks in southern slang accents. Most of what I was looking for though, was in these posts. When I write a review, the site is usually fresh in my mind or I even sign in on the site to make sure on the facts, so that is probably why my reviews are more straight-forward than these rambling posts where I am trying to think of what to say. Badandy, I had thought about doing an update, but most of my top site reviews by score were in 2007, and all will still be approaching the two year cutoff on them, oh and in general, this is my time of the year to join multiple sites and I have much more time now than I will once summer gets here. So, I figure it is better to go ahead and do a full re-review. Thanks everybody My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich. - Chuck Palahniuk | |
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