Rant about Buy Sell section/review copy plz

butcher

butcher

Banned
Jul 22, 2008
1,137
6
0
UK
I dont know about anyone else but I'm pretty sick of seeing begging posts like "give me free review copy plz, I will give you a great review". How do you know the service will deserve a good review. The whole point of the reviews is for honest feedback of a product or service not so some cheapskate can bag a few free backlinks.

[/rant]

Until then Red Virus FTW
 


Yeah we've had this discussion before a few times. Review copies are good but it sucks when freeloaders take advantage of the merchants. Usually it works to give it to an established member, but not all the time. Maybe we should sticky a review copy black list.
 
Seems like every time someone posts something all those "established" members are on the hunt for freebies. Some worse than others.

Then don't say anything about the service.
 
It's always amusing watching a bunch of ostensible ballers beg for $5 dollars worth of shitty back links or a blogspot link wheel.
 
Seems like every time someone posts something all those "established" members are on the hunt for freebies.
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Some members have scripts set up I believe so they are altered right away for new offers.

I think it adds benefit when one of the more respected and established members who regularly reviews services provides a review. Especially if they have both good and bad reviews that they have done.

Once you find some members who you trust their opinion on it is a great way to find the better service providers by looking through some of the posts from those respected members who do a good job of providing reviews.
 
amateursurgeon said:
That should actually be a banning offense.
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it is. i usually give a 3-7 day ban if someone gets a review copy promises to review it and doesn't. That's like someone not paying for the product after they receive it in my mind.
But like turbolapp said, stick to giving the reviews to established members. The other buyers don't care what one post wonders say about the product anyways.
 
Deliguy said:
i usually give a 3-7 day ban if someone gets a review copy promises to review it and doesn't.
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I think it should be grounds for a perma-ban. I have learned that getting the reviews you were promised is a lot harder than doing the actual work for them.

This site is so unforgiving when people come here looking for info handouts. Why is service theft a lesser offense?

Personally, I don't like to take review copies, but I don't mind a service pricing sale at all. :p
 
BlueYonder said:
I think it should be grounds for a perma-ban. I have learned that getting the reviews you were promised is a lot harder than doing the actual work for them.

This site is so unforgiving when people come here looking for info handouts. Why is service theft a lesser offense?

Personally, I don't like to take review copies, but I don't mind a service pricing sale at all. :p
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Sometimes its difficult to trash on someones product and urge everyone not to buy when they were nice enough to give it to you for free. I've ran into it several times where i've gotten review copies of logos, content writing and site designs where it was complete garbage and unusable. I'm one of those positive side of things guys and don't enjoy being negative. I've also pm'd ppl saying hey you owe this person a review and they pm'd me back saying dude trust me he doesn't want the review. That's totally understandable. So there is circumstances that makes it so ppl shouldn't be FORCED to leave reviews honesty requested or not. Ultimately that's their decision.

We can be forceful about what someone posts but its not right to be forceful on what they didn't post. That's why we ban users with less than 10 posts who ask for review copies. It helps protect you sellers from ppl who grab up all the reviews and run. At least with senior members they're held a bit more accountable and are more likely to respond.
 
Lpdesigner said:
I hate people that get review copies and then never bothering to review the damn thing.
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Yeah...I should probably be banned for this. I realize that I'm horrid about reviewing products in a timely manner. So, I've stopped accepting offers for reviews.

To all the people that I've flaked out on, my apologies. :(
 
Deliguy said:
Sometimes its difficult to trash on someones product and urge everyone not to buy when they were nice enough to give it to you for free. I've ran into it several times where i've gotten review copies of logos, content writing and site designs where it was complete garbage and unusable. I'm one of those positive side of things guys and don't enjoy being negative. I've also pm'd ppl saying hey you owe this person a review and they pm'd me back saying dude trust me he doesn't want the review. That's totally understandable. So there is circumstances that makes it so ppl shouldn't be FORCED to leave reviews honesty requested or not. Ultimately that's their decision.

We can be forceful about what someone posts but its not right to be forceful on what they didn't post. That's why we ban users with less than 10 posts who ask for review copies. It helps protect you sellers from ppl who grab up all the reviews and run. At least with senior members they're held a bit more accountable and are more likely to respond.
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You definitely have a point. Thanks for clarifying, but I don't agree with your later post that a failure to comment means the work was bad necessarily. As SEO_Mike said, he often fails to leave the reviews he promised to give. People forget, they're indifferent, don't want to be bothered, etc.
 
yeah i deleted that post itw as directed at someone who isnt' even in this thread who was bitching a few days ago.
 
Honestly, I don't even care about getting the $20 worth of links for free - when I take a review copy for SEO services, I consider it doing a favor to the seller. I'm willing to put my name on it (if its good) as a little boost of approval, and if people value that, so be it. The only time I ever take review copies in the SEO services market is when I'm on the market to pay someone for SEO services...

I don't think I've ever missed a review. But being a vendor myself, there's been dozens of review copies I've given out and never got a review back. That's frustrating, especially early on in a product launch, when everyone is waiting for reviews.

That said, I don't think anything needs to be changed tbqh.
 
In the content section of SBT, I've always wondered why "review copies" aren't just posted in the seller's thread. To make it work, a seller would just say, "3 review copies. Post your topics. I'll write and post the content."

That would give the seller a chance to showcase her/his talent. It would also give potential buyers a chance to see the goods. If the requester doesn't post a review, who cares? Not a problem. Other potential buyers get to see the copy and form their own opinions on quality.

Instead, review copies are given out and followed by "good job," "brilliant," and "Victor Hugo would be jealous."

Really? Where's the sample?

Meanwhile, the iTrader system takes a heckuva beating because of all the sock puppets (guerilla's term) running around.

One last note about free reviews (more for any sellers reading this)...

A review from a person who has not paid for the product is worth far less than a review from a buyer (there are exceptions, but not many). If a friend told me his fridge is "awesome!" and then admitted he got it for free, his review would not motivate me to buy the same fridge. So too, with any product.

I'm not saying there should be rules against requesting free, privately-delivered reviews. Heck, if sellers want to provide 'em, go for it. Whatever works for your business. However, given the trust - or, lack thereof - other buyers may have in such reviews, it seems as if they're wasting time and shooting themselves in the foot.

And that's all I have to say about that. </forrest>
 
It's annoying seeing the same damn people asking for reviews all the time. They don't even seem like they are interested in buying the service, they just want something for free.

turbolapp said:
Review copies are good but it sucks when freeloaders take advantage of the merchants.
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^ This.
 
It's really REALLY difficult to moderate. For all the reasons mention above and more. Even some of the high post count members are irresponsible and inconsiderate when it comes to reviews. Hopefully, as merchants, you've given these guys the benefit of the doubt and said hey, you've had my product/service for a few weeks now, mind giving it a review and post the link for them. It might just be they got busy and temp forgot. Also every service/product is different. Some I can review right away like matt's proxy scraper installation->scrape have my results instantly. Some things like a full on link wheel build could take a month or two for the process and subsequent links to start rolling in....so Merchants: don't be afraid to let the reviewer know when the review is expected, otherwise you may get one too soon and it may not be that favorable.
 
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