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Forums - News / General

For General modelling or hobby-related topics that are not covered by any other specific forum. Please keep to topics concerning the hobby.
Topics  2987
Messages  22324
 Subject:  Re: Comments about reviewsList thread.  
  
 Date:  Aug 20, 2002
 From:  Kurt Laughlin 
"Andy Herbert" wrote in message

> I also remembered your barrel reviews as a good example of clearly stated
> review criteria. One potential problem is that setting criteria before
doing
> reviews can lead to giving "grades" that are too strict or too lenient. I
think
> you ran into that with your barrel reviews right?

Sort of, but I had planned ahead. Inasmuch as I stated outright that a $9
aluminum toothpick had damn well better be perfect in my mind, I didn't have
a problem with penalizing inaccuracies. The problem came with sorting the
poor from the awful as I didn't think it would help a buyer to have reviews
either be 5 or 0 with nothing in the middle. I had done a few exams before
writing the reviews so I had an idea as what sort of data scatter to expect.
The thinking came with deciding how to fairly represent the problems that
were forgivable, damaging, or lethal. Once I had worked the criteria out,
I've stuck with it. BTW, three companies have asked for my data after
seeing the series, but to my knowledge none of them have issued properly
contoured barrels.

I was lucky because I was dealing with a single piece and less than a
half-dozen dimensions. I had established through research and measurement
what an objective "reality" should be. You aren't going to be able to do
that with a full kit. For example, if A-Co made a T-55 with a perfect hull
but a lousy turret, would that be better than Z Corp's T-55 that had a
perfect turret and nice full interior inside of a ghastly hull?

> One thing Track-Link and Armorama offer us is reviews by users rather than
by
> site owners getting freebies. There's nothing wrong with those
descriptions of
> kits I read on certain other sites, it's just that I take them with a
grain of
> salt. I take a review more seriously from the guy/gal who spent the $25. A
> personal bias I guess; perhaps because I don't get free kits!!

There is one site in particular where most of the reviews are done by the
site owner. There are very, very, few negative - or even neutral -
comments, the "review" is little more than a listing of what's in the box,
and the attached pictures appear to be taken from the vendor's site or kit
boxtop rather than by the author. Altogether, this makes me deeply
suspicious as to whether the site owner has even seen the kits he reviews,
let alone opened the boxes. "Caveat Reader", I guess.

KL
 
Thread Listing 
  Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 17, 2002
. . . Re: Comments about reviews - Saul Garcia - Aug 17, 2002
. . . Re: Comments about reviews - MSW - Aug 18, 2002
. . . . . . Haha I can see I'm oot of review practice :) - MSW - Aug 18, 2002
. . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Ken Hartlen - Aug 18, 2002
. . . Re: Comments about reviews. - Christophe Jacquemont - Aug 18, 2002
. . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews. - Andy Herbert - Aug 18, 2002
. . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews. - Ken Hartlen - Aug 18, 2002
. . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 19, 2002
. . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 19, 2002
. . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 20, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Christophe Jacquemont - Aug 20, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 20, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 21, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: banned in Canada. - Christophe Jacquemont - Aug 21, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: banned in Canada. - Andy Herbert - Aug 21, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Steve Frost - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Paul Roberts - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Warrink - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Tim Streeter - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 27, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Paul Roberts - Aug 27, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 27, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Did you try? - Peter Ong - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Likely not related to anything that you said (did) - Mati Raudsepp - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Graeme - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Graeme - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Tim Streeter - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Graeme - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Tim Streeter - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Graeme - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 24, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Tim Streeter - Aug 24, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Graeme - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Steve Frost - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Christophe Jacquemont - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 23, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Graeme - Aug 23, 2002
. . . Re: Comments about reviews - Jerry Gustafson - Aug 19, 2002
. . . . . . Re: Comments about reviews - Andy Herbert - Aug 19, 2002
. . . It should be noted... - Peter Ong - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . Re: It should be noted... - Tim Streeter - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . Re: It should be noted... - Andy Herbert - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: It should be noted... - Saul Garcia - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: It should be noted... - Andy Herbert - Aug 22, 2002
. . . . . . . . . Re: It should be noted... - Peter Ong - Aug 22, 2002
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