Product Descriptions

Even though I participate in the Description Program, I had serious doubts about it at first. On the plus side, I think it takes some effort to get into the program, and is mostly made up of reviewers who are able to maintain a sense of objectivity. I've rated some products more highly on their merits than on the enjoyment I received from them. Of course, there will always be glitches; but, especially with new products, I think it gives consumers something more to go on than a list of specs and a manufacturer's propaganda.

I was the one who wrote that. I tried to be as objective as possible when describing the appearance of the toy, but when you get down to it, it's really hard to be completely objective without a little of the subjective in it. I honestly thought the toy was tacky (among other things) and therefore not worth the money, so that's why I wrote the review that way. =/ I'm sorry it bothered you so much, and I'll try to keep that in mind in the future.

I would also like to point out that the text of Backseat Boohoo's review used the word "tacky" a grand total of THREE TIMES.

When I joined the Description Review program, I was given a very descriptive set of guidelines to follow for writing the Description Reviews. The Description Review is supposed to be a guided tour of the product, from tip to tail so to speak. I believe Eden has a good idea here, given that most manufacturer "off the box" blurbs contain self promoting information and don't always fully describe everything about the product. That's not always the case, but personally I think its a good idea to get an actual user to describe everything from how the products feels, smells, looks, to the nitty-gritty of how a power dial might work. That is the intention. The program is new, so just like the regular review program, its going to take a lot of work to get things ironed out just right. I think Eden needs to be more selective in both the Description Review and the regular review program in order to get it right.

I don't think we need to attack each other to make it work the way it was intended. Perhaps the program manager should be more strict in not letting Description Reviews through that have too much of a subjective flavor. However, I think its unavoidable that some subjectiveness will seep through. The important thing is to let readers know that that particular thing is a matter of personal taste.

Sound like maybe the whole issue of whether Description Reviews are necessary at all is a matter of personal taste. Personally I think its a great idea, because of my experiences with manufacturer information, but not everyone will feel that way, obviously. Perhaps you'll feel different once Eden really gets the Description Review program running right.

Hmm. I can see both sides of this. While manufacturer's descriptions may be more hype than factual, Eden may be doing a disservice with description reviews which do not promote the product. I think it's hard to be fully objective and I think that could be problematic. It's virtually impossible that everyone will agree about a toy and I think that a negative product description isn't a good way to try to sell something. It seems to me that product descriptions should still focus on selling the toy so it doesn't make as much sense to use a review to do so.

Some people will hate a toy and some will love it. For example, the Passion Wave is highly rated. I personally loved it. LOVED. Others have nothing good to say about it. If one of those folks had done a description review, a lot of people might be likely to pass it over.

So, I think there are a lot of kinks to work out. Perhaps this program is really not effective. =/

I see the descriptive program as a work in progress. Better then just the manufactures hype but needs help. Does anyone read the "description" prior to them being posted? Some are long w/o any worthwhile information so I just look at the properties and make my decision from there. Curious if EF refuses to sell any product? Realize that sales are important but if people feel like they have been ripped off by inferior products they will go elsewhere in the future regardless of the price.

While I appreciate that some of you may just want to read a simple packaging description, you should realize that often toys do not have a manufacturer’s description. Surely you recall receiving items that had merely a graphic, a name and one or two tag lines about the toy…and that was it. In the interest of providing more information – PRACTICAL INFORMATION – we started the Description Review Program.

We have guidelines and as many of the participants can attest, when they submit a review that doesn’t follow the guidelines, I send their review back for ‘Revision Required’. I have only been here under two months, but in that time I have made strides with the Review Program in general. We do have the expectation that the Description Reviews will be objective…and there are reviews that were published on-site that are far too subjective for my taste. We decided last week that the reviews for those toys will replaced as the description after reassigning the toy and receiving a new and hopefully more objective review.

Some of you have said that allowing a negative review to be on-site doesn’t seem wise or may hurt Eden, but that’s the price of integrity. How many negative threads have we left up for all to see? Every single one. How many bad reviews for a toy were published? All of them. We do not censor because we’re about more than sales. We certainly do hope that, as the program grows, the reviews become better and more objective.

The bottom line for us isn’t just “the bottom line”; it’s being a trusted resource and a bastion of the sex-positive community. There are nuances to everything, understatements about how some toys just don’t work for some when they work for others – we trust that those things will be interpreted. We have faith in the intelligence of our readers. And we believe that providing the most accurate, honest information we can is more important than money – especially if it ends in a truly good match for a customer because of an informed purchase.

I have pasted the Description Review Program guidelines below for all to read. These are also in a related post from a month ago. Hopefully this will illuminate the process for those of you that are curious about the standards we require.

The Description Review Program Guidelines:

The Description Review Program was created out of our commitment to have better information available to our customers. We found that the product information on packaging was not sufficient with most toys and did not accurately portray a toy’s function to the buyer. We have our reviewers write the product descriptions from real experience. We only include reviewers who are reliable, write well, and can complete the reviews in a timely fashion.

One challenge is that these are often black box reviews – where you will receive an item that you cannot first view on the website. Like our other assignments, you can choose to decline an assigned description review. When we do have photos available, you will be able to see them.

Below is an outline of the process for participants.

PRODUCT INFO: Include all features/functions of vibes, types of
fasteners on harnesses, etc. Don't worry about technical details like
measurements, material, etc. We'll still be providing the toy properties as
we do now.

REVIEW: The main difference between these pieces and our other reviews is the level of objectivity on your part, given that these reviews will be in place of any other product description on individual product pages; you're really introducing viewers to the item as well as giving your own opinion.
A good way to think about this writing is as a personalized tour of the toy.

The review should still be an honest reflection of your opinion; however, you should refrain from general opinions and “buy” or “don’t buy” statements. Include your personal experience with the toy, but if you don't like things that are subjective (like, the size is too big/small for you), don’t allow that to be a determining factor in how you rate the toy.

As this review should be an objective product description, it is not acceptable to mention personal details like your blog etc – however, if you do a personal continuation of the review at your blog (not duplicate text to the Eden review), we will allow one discreet line - such as “to read more about my personal experience with this toy, go to www…”. You must be sure that you place a link to the Eden Fantasys review in your blog as well.

REVIEW SUMMARY: Your review summary will show up on the actual product page, so be mindful when you write it- these sentences will be the most highly viewed part of the review. The summary should be all about the product’s properties and functions, and should not include any personal details. Please don't copy/paste from the body of the review. Make sure that your review summary is very well written.

RATING: We'd like you to rate the toy if it worked for you. However,
if this toy was a mismatch and you have no personal use for it, let us know in your review and we'll indicate that on the site with a "not rated for personal reasons" box – and we’ll also have another contributor review the toy to give a second opinion which we will post on the site. This is the tricky area of the review, because we do want a rating that reflects your experience, but don't want to list very low ratings that have more to do with personal preference and anatomy than the actual toy quality. If you plan to rate a toy 3 stars or less, consider whether your reason is personal or if it is a matter of function. Rate the toy based on function performance and properties.

PREFERENCES: Please provide a list of any toy type you are absolutely
NOT willing to review, for whatever reason. For example: double dildos, bdsm gear, anal-specific toys, harnesses, certain types of lube, etc. Also list any materials that are absolutely off-limits for you - jelly, cyberskin, and so on. Keep in mind that since these are descriptions, we need to accommodate a wide range of materials. Unless you have a serious health concern about any specific item, we'll ask you to work around your preferences in this area (condoms are useful!) and be open to trying a variety of toys.

In order to better match items for review with writers, please also give some basic information about your sexual orientation/preference s. For example, it wouldn't be helpful for us or you to send a double dildo to someone who doesn't practice dual penetration with a partner, or a riding crop to a non-kinky person, etc. Furthermore, as far as toy types/shapes go, if there are any particulars about your anatomy, etc., that you'd like to share in order to reduce the likelihood of receiving toys that you think won't be a good match for you, please do so. Using the basic toy categories on the site will be helpful with this. We are looking for contributors who have their profiles filled out completely.

In The Pink, I appreciate you posting the guidelines. I still believe that a negative description review may be hard to interpret, especially when it may be the only review available. In this particular instance, I think it would be a good idea to post a review that might be more positive as well, to balance it out. (The rabbit vibrator in question actually had two that worked well to consider all the pros and cons). The unfortunate result of that means that no one else would be able to do a verified review of that product unless they buy it out.. =/

Personally I prefer honest info instead of fluffy hype. I feel a lot better trusting the new product descriptions than the old ones. Some of the old ones had bad or dangerous info in them, like stating a toy that's not safe for anal use can be used anally. They almost never listed anything negative about the toys, and often times there wasn't any real info about the product either. In my opinion the pros and cons and summary is almost always more useful to me when shopping than the old descriptions were. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't like being all hyped up by marketing lies just to end up disappointed with a smelly overpriced piece of garbage that breaks the second I try to use it.

I'm part of the description program and I can attest that In The Pink will more than willingly send a description back if it's too subjective or fluffy.

I personally think the description program's great - because you get a REAL description of the product, rather than the marketing hype.

I will take on board what people have said here regarding future descriptions I write, because I will admit that I sometimes have a superfluous preamble.

I'm part of the program too and yep - I've had a review sent back. Victoria's spot on and Eden's only trying to offer better customer service.

Every toy can be SOLD in fluffy language, Carrie Ann you showed that in your paragraph. But like In the Pink said that's the price of integrity. And personally I would rather buy from a site that warns me away from a bad toy and points me toward a better product.

Wow... I stay off the computer for a day...

I am very happy with the new product descriptions overall. I absolutely hated the ones we had before that were lots of fluffy, incorrect information, or just plain non-informative. At this point I must defer to Bulma's post.

As for the product Backseat Boohoo described:
I cannot imagine anyone would look a remote that says "Hi-Tech" on it and not find it tacky, cheap and just generally unappealing. I'm glad that was written because I didn't have to go further into reading about the product to know I didn't want it.

I think Pink is doing an excellent job of posting product descriptions that are objective and informative. I have yet to see one that was too subjective. It is important that we have HONEST & INFORMATIVE product descriptions and reviews because a new toy buyer may not look at anything else (like material safety information.)

I truly appreciate those of you who have mentioned here that you've received 'Revision Required' messages about your Description Reviews...and you've been really cool about it. You all seem to understand my reasoning and have been gracious in revising your content. It's helpful that you've shared those experiences on this thread and indicated how the process works for you. I also wanted to thank you all for your kind words about me. It made my day