Me and Sandy have been talking recently about a possible review section in the forums for twisty puzzles and were wondering if anyone would actually post there. i made a 7 day poll to see if anyone would use it.

Looks like people would use it. .

This section would be an excellent resource for the forum and its members.

What sorts of things would be posted there? Reviews of puzzles? If so, I'm all for it.

reviews of puzzles, molding materials, casting materials, different 3-d printing types, etc...

I would love to see a place where people could comment honestly about custom puzzles that they recieve from a builder's standpoint.

Why don't we use the "Puzzle Collecting" subforum (after appropriate renaming and with a new description) for that purpose?

The puzzle collecting subforum already has a purpose...

Ya, it seems like these kinds of threads usually end up in General Puzzle Topics or Puzzle Building and Modding. It seems like something that would have a large enough purpose to break off of the General Puzzle Category. It'd serve as a great resource for collectors, builders and solvers. It sounds like a great idea to me.

There are one or two new posts per day in "Puzzle Collecting". I am afraid that a review subforum would share this fate. Moving the reviews to "puzzle collecting + reviews" would upvalue that subforum, too.
And some months ago it was received opinion that we don't want another subforum. Has that changed?

Long long ago in a puzzle forum far far a way there was a post about just this thing!

Why do we need another subforum? Why not just stick with the plan and start updating the website like we are supposed to? [massive chastisement heading out to all moderators=get off the stick and get your buts in gear-self included ]

Thanks for taking the initiative, zevipa. Sorry that I'm a little late to this dialogue, especially in light of what I'm about to say.

24 out of 29 people said they would... what? Post reviews regularly? Maybe post one review... someday? Comment on reviews someone else posted? Read reviews? My vote goes for wording the question more clearly next time! Thus ends the portion of my response that is "constructive commentary", also known as "destructive sarcasm". (Pointing out sarcasm and making a joke about it makes it acceptable, right?)

Personally, I would prefer it if some really passionate people showed up and took reviews seriously enough to write fully-fledged articles that, for example, made comparisons of ALL puzzles in a certain limited category (eg. 4x4x4) sort of like this, or evaluated each new mass-produced puzzle from various perspectives (availability, cost, construction material quality, collectability, longevity, challenge rating, or whatever). If anyone wants to do THAT, this "reviews forum" idea goes right out the window. Of course, if no one wants to do that (which does seem to be the case thus far), this idea might be an improvement. Whether we create a new forum, or simply merge it into the Puzzle Collecting forum is a decision that should be made only once we've confirmed (again) that there are no passionate review article writers among us.

Sandy

I have just posted 'yes' now. I'm going to expand on that though . I would post reviews but I don't get puzzles that often and they tend to be mass-produced puzzles that people would have already reviewed. I would read reviews posted by others but not all.

Alex

Review sections can be a good and bad thing.

Other forums I'm a member of have review sections but I find them to be flawed. Firstly you have inexperienced people posting a review.

IE: this is my first time using a product in this category so my experienced is limited however i don't like it
well thought out and constructive reviews come from users whose experience encompasses a wide range of similiar products and can post an impartial review highlighting the good and bad points of each item. Therefore the review section should be closed to only a few more experienced people who have a reputation and background in each area to be reviewed. usually pictures and specific breakdowns are usefull, not generic "I like this item" comments

Another area in a review section is an over all score. usually different points with an out of 10 for each point.
IE price x/10
quality x/10 etc.
The overall score of the item is the average of the review points, the problem with this is you'll see a low average score because of a high price, so people assume the product sucks because someone gave it a 1/10 for price, but 9/10 for quality and without reading the entire breakdown you'd assume the product gets a 5/10 so its a "meh" product.

Just some input I see with review sections.

well i think its obvious that if sandy is to post a "review section"

there will be a criteria to meet

-availability
-cost
-construction material quality
-collectability
-longevity
-challenge rating

if all question are answered then you are more like to give a solid review.


though i do like the idea of a review section, i do think it could be handled
through "puzzle collecting"