I've not been around as much as most of the folks here - I think I've been here about 13 or 14 weeks at most. So I don't know much about the evolution of reviews.

But I've read a lot of reviews here and I have some thoughts on what I do and don't like and a ton of other stuff. So...here goes.

-Pictures
I've noticed a lot more reviews with pictures lately. I like them if they're comparison pictures to show how something is for size or some aspect of the design. I love them in lingerie reviews. I think they're helpful. If your pictures add to the review, I will almost always give an EU. However, if you don't add pictures but have a well written review - I'll still give you an "EU" if you did a good job describing the item.

-Videos
I love videos on reviews and wish I could do them on my lingerie reviews - of showing the product the way BadK1tty did on a couple of DreamGirl items where she showed the lace, etc. on the product as it was laying on the table. That was a help - I got both products and loved them.

-Voting
Sometimes I feel like "EU" is given for popularity - yes - I admit it. There have been some reviews where I knew I didn't deserve an "EU" and would be happy with "U" and I still got some EU votes. I appreciated it - don't get me wrong. But I knew in my heart that I didn't really deserve them. But in the three cases I can think of - they were items that had been already reviewed many many times and I had nothing new to add but was committed to doing the review.

I was going through some reviews today from other people and found myself voting "useful" and feeling bad for it. On one lingerie review, I wanted to vote lower but couldn't bring myself to do it. The person was talking about a red lingerie item I've been looking at for a while and their description was something like, "This comes down to my knees and I'm 5'2" so I don't know how it will fit you". I sat there going "how long would it have taken to use a tape measure and measure the skirt?" I have a tape measure sitting here at my desk for all my lingerie reviews and it takes less than 2 minutes to measure something (usually about 20 seconds).

Yes - I know that's me. But you're reviewing an item of clothing...we need to know measurements.

So as I've gotten more used to being around here- I look for actual measurements on lingerie (just like I did on vibrators when I started reading about them).

-Bath and Body products
I think we need an extended template for them. So many folks don't want to use a product with glycerin or parabens and it would help to have a prompt for that or even a little box that you check.

After saying all that - I will say that as a reviewer (and still fairly new at it) I find myself learning a lot about reviewing products (and I used to review products years ago for homeschooling). I think EF has probably any other site beat when it comes to getting informative, detailed reviews from the community and great interaction between members.

One of the hard things for me (and I'm gonna pick on Toy Time Tim here 'cause I adore him) is that sometimes I will read a review for a product I'd never use - like an anal toy. I can't "connect" with the reviewer or their experience - but I try to remember that I'm not voting on the toy - I'm voting on how the reviewer wrote the review to inform me about the toy. I deliberately try to read Tim's because I love his writing style - hence I mention him here. So even though I might not have a desire to use the product - I'd still give him an EU if I felt like he did a great job describing it.

Anyway - enough from me - after all - I'm a newbie still sorta!

I am semi-new too but I have noticed a lot more pictures in reviews. I put pictures in my reviews just because I know that they are always helpful to me when I am looking at reviews.
I honestly think it should be harder to reach advanced reviewer status because some of the newer reviewers just don't know their way around the site. It took me awhile to learn EF and I still get tons of help from my mentors. I know a lot of mentors are telling their students to not even apply for advanced status. Sorry to stray a bit off topic but I think this would help create better reviews for newbies : )

Things have changed a lot since I started. I got here right around the end of the era of "erotica reviews" where the reviews started being more clinical and talking about the product in addition to how well it worked. Since then, I've seen custom templates in the standard format come and go, and I've seen a lot of pictures cropping up in reviews. When I first started, I linked to pictures in reviews because I wasn't sure how to post the images. I do like the fact that there are a lot of photos in reviews now, but I hate how it almost feels like it's become a mandatory thing. I've gotten a few comments on older lingerie reviews asking why I didn't include pictures, lol. I've also seen what looks like a lot of vanity voting, for lack of better wording. I do think we give out EUs too easily, and that popularity has a lot to do with it as well. I had a review recently where I had the wrong sizing chart in, and 12 EU votes later, one person had messaged me to let me know.

Overall I do like how the review program has evolved, and I'm excited to see how it continues to evolve.

This is a really fascinating thread, great idea for a topic js250! I have some mentoring to do right now but when I finish that up I'm eager to come read what everyone has to say.

Thanks, Anitpova, I am trying to get as grasp on how the reviews have changed, positive and negative and maybe use this as a guide for further changes.

Sam, I agree that the photos are seeming to feel like a 'mandatory' requirement. I wish there was an easy solution for that, some of us have a very hard time getting pictures in the reviews!! I have also noticed a lot of deleted pictures on completed reviews, that is very frustrating as well.

Yeah I agree with Sam on the idea behind EU voting. Right now if you have pictures and are popular its expected that you will get voted an EU.

Maybe we could have a meeting or something to explain voting. I have seen some pretty terrible newbie reviews that are getting EU's because we all know they tried really hard and are new. That's nice and all but these reviews won't help a customer pick a product.

i agree