New Presentation of Reviews on Product Pages? Like It or No?

Contributor: MeliPixie MeliPixie
Hi everyone, is it just me or do some toys have a new way of presenting the reviews on their pages? Like, it used to be just a list of reviews, but just today I have noticed on the product pages there is now a chart-type thing displaying what is claimed to be the "most useful" of the positive and negative reviews. What do you all think?
Answers (private voting - your screen name will NOT appear in the results):
I like it.
32  (36%)
I don't like it.
56  (64%)
Total votes: 88
Poll is closed
05/18/2011
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Contributor: Maeby Maeby
I like it, but I haven't been on here very long, so I wasn't too attached to the old system. It's very similar to Amazon, with the most helpful positive and critical reviews.
05/18/2011
Contributor: toxie m toxie m
I like it, but I'm wondering whether people will only read those featured reviews and not delve any deeper to the other ones. And because it only showcases positive and negative reviews, doesn't that mean that very helpful reviews that talk about both pros and cons and end up rating a toy as middle-of-the-pack will never be showcased? I do grant that it does make sense to highlight both ends of the spectrum, but I hope it doesn't mean that the other reviews get lost in the shuffle.
05/18/2011
Contributor: Ajax Ajax
I really don't like it. I liked the old list so I could see how many reviews there were, read what everyone though were pros and cons and pick which reviews I wanted to read from there. What's helpful for someone else is not always helpful for me.

I DO like the little chart with the overall star ratings, just not how the reviews are showcased.
05/18/2011
Contributor: Petite Valentine Petite Valentine
Quote:
Originally posted by Ajax
I really don't like it. I liked the old list so I could see how many reviews there were, read what everyone though were pros and cons and pick which reviews I wanted to read from there. What's helpful for someone else is not always helpful ... more
I agree with Alyjazz about the old list style.

Also, I think it's rather funny when a 4-star review is listed as the "most helpful critical review." 4-stars is critical? Really?
05/18/2011
Contributor: MeliPixie MeliPixie
It was also my fear that several highly-rated and useful reviews would get lost in the shuffle. It is not as easy to get to the other reviews, and people might miss some vital information they would otherwise have had if all the reviews were still on the same page. Perhaps the histogram showing the number of ratings could stay, but the showing of only two reviews is not the best plan in order to keep people making healthy decisions about their toys....
05/18/2011
Contributor: Red Vinyl Kitty Red Vinyl Kitty
Quote:
Originally posted by Ajax
I really don't like it. I liked the old list so I could see how many reviews there were, read what everyone though were pros and cons and pick which reviews I wanted to read from there. What's helpful for someone else is not always helpful ... more
I agree with this, also, there are some reviewers who I prefer to read if I see they've reviewed a toy because I trust their opinion and/or their body is similar to mine. This new system makes it harder to find the reviews by the reviewers I want to read.
05/18/2011
Contributor: sbon sbon
Could someone link to a product that has the reviews organized in this new way? I can't find any that do.
05/18/2011
Contributor: toxie m toxie m
Another thing I just noticed - when you expand out the list of reviews to see them all, it no longer says which are verified and which aren't. When I'm searching for products to review I always scan through to see how many verified reviews a product has so I know if it's still a potential option, but now I can't imagine how I'm going to do that - click on every review to scroll to the bottom and see if it was verified? Holy time consuming. Maybe I don't like this new presentation after all, hah.
05/18/2011
Contributor: toxie m toxie m
Quote:
Originally posted by sbon
Could someone link to a product that has the reviews organized in this new way? I can't find any that do.
Every product I've looked at so far seems to have the new layout. I just looked up the LELO Bob, the Tantus Ripple and the Evolved Symphony Interlude to name a few.
05/18/2011
Contributor: MaryExy MaryExy
Quote:
Originally posted by sbon
Could someone link to a product that has the reviews organized in this new way? I can't find any that do.
This is formatted in the new way.

I like the idea of it. It gives a good look at how good the ratings get, and how bad the ratings get. The old format didn't showcase that well. Many people would still look through the other reviews, I think. And you can click one of the star rating bars to see all the reviews that gave that rating; I find that extremely helpful.

Overall I think it gives a neater look to the product page and makes it a little easier to get the grand view of a product, or do more fine-tuned research. For example, you can see when a product has fifty 5-star reviews and just one 1-star review, and then quickly find and click the 1-star review to see why this person thought so differently.
05/18/2011
Contributor: MeliPixie MeliPixie
i'm not sure I know what you mean by being able to tell if it was verified. I mean, I remember after a comment on something, a user's name will have "(verified)" after it, but if you mean whether it was approved by Eden or just done of the reviewer's own will, that was always at the bottom of the review, wasn't it...? It's been that way as long as I've been here.
05/18/2011
Contributor: liilii080 liilii080
I don't like it yet but I think maybe it will grow on me? I liked that in the old view you could see all the reviews. I think boiling the reviews down that much might not help me make the best decisions before I buy.
05/18/2011
Contributor: Sex'и'Violence Sex'и'Violence
I like it but I am unfamiliar with the old system.
05/18/2011
Contributor: ZenaidaMacroura ZenaidaMacroura
Quote:
Originally posted by MeliPixie
i'm not sure I know what you mean by being able to tell if it was verified. I mean, I remember after a comment on something, a user's name will have "(verified)" after it, but if you mean whether it was approved by Eden or just done ... more
It has always been at the bottom, yes, but it used to also be listed right next to the review on the product page. So now it will be much harder and time consuming to figure out what can be assigned and what can't.

I really don't like the new setup. It will make finding products to review more difficult, and I worry that most people will only read the most useful positive and negative review, and none of the others. I like to look at several reviews when I buy an item. I also trust some reviewers opinions more than others. I think a lot of people will feel the same way.
05/18/2011
Contributor: null null
I don't like it, but that's probably just because I'm used to the old way. Eventually I'll get used to the new way...
05/18/2011
Contributor: toxie m toxie m
Quote:
Originally posted by ZenaidaMacroura
It has always been at the bottom, yes, but it used to also be listed right next to the review on the product page. So now it will be much harder and time consuming to figure out what can be assigned and what can't.

I really don't like ... more
Yes, exactly. I used to just scan the product page to see if the reviews that had been done where Eden-assigned or not.
05/18/2011
Contributor: The Curious Couple The Curious Couple
I really like the new way!
05/18/2011
Contributor: alliegator alliegator
I like the charts at the top of review by stars, but I prefer the old list format to the new favorable vs critical format. The new look sets it up as if there must be a 'positive' and 'negative' review, when I don't think there does. Plus, "critical" can also mean detailed and analytical and not have to be negative review.
05/18/2011
Contributor: K101 K101
Not sure, haven't noticed yet. Lol. I typically don't notice changes unless my comp is running terribly slow or if it's really different or extremely helpful then, I care. If it's just things like changing the way the pages looks and little things like that, I could care less, but I can see how this one may be useful
05/19/2011
Contributor: ToyGurl ToyGurl
I noticed it as well, but I saw it last night before I got offline. I actually like this feature. It helps because sometimes it is really hard to sort through the junk. I have noticed that people on EF have been basically copying and re-writing other reviews for the points. When they do this, they definitely do a horrible job of it and you can tell by how people comment and react. When I see the most useful rating, I know it was someone who knew the toy well, did a great job at explaining all of its features, and put some time and effort into their review.

I also like how I can immediately find someone who hated/extremely disliked the toy, and quickly read the things that they didn't like. No searching for 30 minutes.
05/19/2011
Contributor: MeliPixie MeliPixie
Wow, you guys have made a lot of good points since yesterday morning! I hope if someone in charge reads this thread, they see their new way is not best and possibly make it easier for everyone. Which of course doesn't have to mean changing it back! Just something happy-medium-ish.
05/19/2011
Contributor: MeliPixie MeliPixie
Here is my proposition! it doesn't have to be exactly like this, but how do you guys feel about my happy medium? (Sorry about the size, no matter what I did, the site I uploaded it to resized it. Put on your reading glasses, y'all!) The red text is my suggestions.

05/19/2011
Contributor: Bunnycups Bunnycups
Quote:
Originally posted by Red Vinyl Kitty
I agree with this, also, there are some reviewers who I prefer to read if I see they've reviewed a toy because I trust their opinion and/or their body is similar to mine. This new system makes it harder to find the reviews by the reviewers I ... more
I also agree with Alyjazz. I don't like how the reviews are showcased. It is harder to find reviews your looking for. I also liked having a basic rundown of all the reviews on one page.

And I'm with Petite Valentine. 4 stars is NOT critical.
05/19/2011
Contributor: A Closet Slut (aka nipplepeople) A Closet Slut (aka nipplepeople)
I don't mind the way it looks now, but reviews now take very long to load for me. It's uncomfortable.
05/20/2011
Contributor: Adriana Ravenlust Adriana Ravenlust
I prefer this to the system that's been in place but the style before that was still more useful.
05/20/2011
Contributor: Kindred Kindred
Now that I've lived with the new format for a few days, I have a few criticisms:

1. The headings "Most helpful favorable" and "Most favorable critical" review are misleading. The criteria used to select this review seems misleading. First, it is always the highest or lowest ranked review for that particular product. So while a 4 star review with more extremely useful votes may exist, a 5 star review with potentially fewer votes will be featured.

2. A vote of "Useful" seems to actually act as a negative. In several products I looked at, the "Most helpful favorable" review was a review that was 5 stars with only "Extremely Useful" votes. I found other reviews that had overall more "Extremely Useful" votes, but also had at least one "Useful" vote which seemed to negatively impact whether that review would be featured.

And I agree with some of the comments above. I prefer to read reviews from reviewers I know and trust first. In the current format, that is not as easy.

Although it was not as clean a look, the old format listed reviews in order of overall rating. So basically, the review that got the highest overall usefulness vote was at the top.
05/21/2011
Contributor: Selective Sensualist Selective Sensualist
Quote:
Originally posted by Kindred
Now that I've lived with the new format for a few days, I have a few criticisms:

1. The headings "Most helpful favorable" and "Most favorable critical" review are misleading. The criteria used to select this review ... more
I've noticed this, too.

For example, on one product page, the featured "critical" review rated the product as 4 stars, and this review has 11 Extremely Useful votes. But there is another review that also rated the product 4 stars, and this review has 31 Extremely Useful votes and 5 Useful votes. So, despite having many more Extremely Useful votes, it seems as though Useful votes decrease a review's rating (though we'd been told that useful ratings are not down-votes . . . but, in this case, they are).

Also, why would the "most useful" critical review be determined by who ranks the product the lowest? A review that rates a product as 3 stars can often be much more informative than a review that rates the product as 1 or 2 stars if the pros and cons are thoroughly detailed. As another example on another product page, the most helpful critical review was a review that rated the product as 2 stars; this review had 13 Extremely Useful votes and 4 Useful votes. However, there were several other reviews on this product that had many more Extremely Useful votes than just 13. One review rated the product as 3 stars and had 40 Extremely Useful votes and 4 Useful votes. Why would the 2-star review be considered to be a more useful critical review than the 3-star reviews?

The same goes for "most useful" positive reviews: why would a 5-star review be considered the only positive rating? It is still extremely positive to rate a product 4 stars. As an example of this, a product page lists the most useful positive review as one with 11 Useful votes and 3 Somewhat Useful votes, yet there are a couple of other reviews that rated the product as 4 stars and both have better ratings. One of the 4-star reviews has over 40 Extremely Useful votes and 1 Useful vote (again, compared to the featured 5-star review's 11 Useful votes and 3 Somewhat Useful votes).

I hope this new system does not skew how a lot of people rate products in order to be the "featured reviewer" on the product page. If someone rates a product as 1 star on a decent (but not stellar) product, his or her review will be featured on the product page. Likewise, they could choose to rate a so-so product as 5 stars. If any other rating is given to a product on a review, then the review is pretty much guaranteed to be buried as soon as other reviews pour in.

In a nutshell, I dislike a system that features reviews based solely on how many stars the contributor rated the product. Regarding how useful a review is, there is so much more to consider than that.

I also liked the old system of being able to see at a glance who wrote the review. As someone else mentioned, I sometimes prefer to read reviews by certain reviewers because I know how useful their reviews are to me specifically.


As with anything new, I realize there are glitches to be worked out. The above is given in the spirit of feedback and is not meant to be an attack. I know the tech team works hard; therefore, I wanted to also give feedback on the nice, neat appearance of the new product page. I am just hoping that some of the good features about the older system could somehow be incorporated with the new.
05/21/2011
Contributor: P'Gell P'Gell
Quote:
Originally posted by Red Vinyl Kitty
I agree with this, also, there are some reviewers who I prefer to read if I see they've reviewed a toy because I trust their opinion and/or their body is similar to mine. This new system makes it harder to find the reviews by the reviewers I ... more
I feel this way, too. There are people on the site who have sex lives and sexual responses similar to mine and also people whose opinions I really trust. I like to read their reviews in addition to any new ones when I'm looking at a toy.
05/21/2011
Contributor: P'Gell P'Gell
Quote:
Originally posted by toxie m
Every product I've looked at so far seems to have the new layout. I just looked up the LELO Bob, the Tantus Ripple and the Evolved Symphony Interlude to name a few.
The new system, with the spotlight reviews is only being used on toys, so far. I have looked at lubes and lingerie and other things and they do not have this being used on them.
05/21/2011