User reviews are pointless ......

[wmiller]

"User reviews are pointless......"

Yup, so are opinions (including this one). But expressing one's opinion, and reading others is what these forums are about.

Your point?

[iacas]

To anyone who thinks that this thread is silly, just consider that this is a "user review" of "user reviews."

Originally Posted by wmiller

"User reviews are pointless......"

Yup, so are opinions (including this one). But expressing one's opinion, and reading others is what these forums are about.

Your point?

[ghalfaire]

I think the point is well taken.  In general people who take the time to write "user reviews" are either very happy or very unhappy with the product. But while a "grain of salt" is advised when reading these "reviews" there can be useful information in them.   Maybe we can get Consumer Reports to do more golf equipment testing.  I believe they are about as unbiased as any source of consumer information but they don't do golf as a rule.

Originally Posted by Gerald

I see so many user reviews that are pointless about how perfect the "thing" is ......

If you are enthousiast about your new driver and you decide to write a user report, review or test ...... the outcome is very predictable :

[wmiller]

Oh I agree, and I believe it to be commonly held that opinions are just that. I was just asking Gerald where he was going with this. :)

While I enjoy reading people's opinions about things, I would never buy something sight unseen, based upon an opinion from someone I don't know personally. I might however, put something on my 'list of things to try' based upon an review thread or article. I do the same thing with the ubiquitous 'swing tips' found in every golf magazine ever printed...  ;)

[Gerald]

OK I didn't meant to step on toes ..... which I am very good at (shoe size 16 with pain).

But some reviews are nothing more than "This is a great ball" or "Brand XYZ balls suck" ........

Besides that what is the worth of people reviewing any product, copying and pasting the marketing b#llsh$t into their review.

If a real hacker, that in no way ever hit backspin at a ball is reviewing a ABC lobwedge and say they had trouble stopping the ball from the deep rough and conclude that it makes no sense investing $135 for an added spinning wedge, what is the value of such a review (yep ..... got the picture ?!??).

Of course I  am interested in what a mid capper thinks of a G15 or K15 driver, because I can play as good as a single digit, but the next day as bad as a high capper ...... so if he really takes the time to write a decent review on what the driver does for him, I am very eager to read it, but not if only can read what Ping says about it.........

[B-Con]

In general, people don't do a good job of reviewing anything; it's not just golf. Part of it stems, I think, from the fact that too many people form emotional opinions about their products. * Have you read electronics reviews at, say, NewEgg? People will leave 1/2 ratings in every category if their first one is DOA, never bothering to update it after they get a working one next week. News flash: [i]Somebody[/i] has to get the malfunctioning units... * If someone likes something and doesn't know how to evaluate it on a detailed level, they are unlikely to find any faults with it and thus figure it deserves 5 stars. Or worse yet, maybe they used it once and had good results, and assumed it was the (in this case) club that deserved credit. Maybe just their first drive with it was very good. I think a lot of reviews are written in the excitement of returning from the first round or driving range trip with it. * If someone has a bad experience with something, they may rate it terribly even if it's caused by outside circumstances. There's a review of a course on here with a1/2 star rating in every category because the player was [i]treated badly by members of the course[/i]. In his mind, that justified a terrible rating of the fairways, greens, etc... * People will compare completely unrelated products. Try reading car reviews. Someone will review a $30K car, rate it poorly, call it "cheap feeling", and then reveal that all the other cars they tested were $60K cars. That's completely unhelpful for anyone not looking at $60K cars... So, bad opinions abound. Couple that with the fact that, to be honest, most clubs perform fairly similarly and usually it's only the good players can really tell a difference, and you get a lot of bizarre ratings. [quote name="Clambake" url="/forum/thread/46917/user-reviews-are-pointless#post_608104"]

Just yesterday I was looking at a club review here on Sand Trap and a user rated a particularly driver 5 stars, and in the comments indicates that they will be getting fit for one a few weeks after they posted their review.    A club review by someone who hasn't even played it yet - how useless!

[/quote] +1. I've seen that happen too many times. I read reviews for every club before I buy it and I've seen too many reviews end with "and I hope to get it next week!" Um... OK? :-O All that said, reading the content in reviews is where the real benefit comes from. I'm more interested in reading reviews that talk about performance than the actual stars given. If I'm researching a ball, I want to read 10 reviews that say it had good bite around the greens. If I'm researching clubs, I want to see 10 different people agree that, as high HCPers they were able to get good launch trajectories with it. Etc. [quote name="Elvisliveson" url="/forum/thread/46917/user-reviews-are-pointless#post_608133"]

But that's most likely due to the fact that there are always a few users who give the product only 1 or 2 stars with a review that goes like this:"I bought this driver and it looked really nice, except for that big sock that was on it. I took the sock off played a round. It hit the ball okay, but for some reason became all scratched up. When I wanted to return it, they told me all I could get was trade-in value...what a rip-off. *1/2."

[/quote] I think he was referring to the actual reviews, not the cumulative reviews.

[LankyLefty]

User reviews are not pointless at all. You just need a lot of them to really learn anything.

If you were to fill a jar with 5342 jelly beans and then ask 5 people to guess how many were in there the average of their answers would be wayyyy off.

However ask 5000 people and the average of the answers will be quite close.

The thing about user reviews is that specific contents of them are rather useless.

Some dude telling you this driver gave him 30 extra yards even if true... his driver old driver could have been made in his basement out of paper mache and toothpaste.

User reviews if in high quantity will give you an Idea of weather the product is well made, If it performs up to expectations, and If the promises made about it by the company hold true in practice. The actual content of each single review however is though... useless.

[Elvisliveson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elvisliveson

But that's most likely due to the fact that there are always a few users who give the product only 1 or 2 stars with a review that goes like this:"I bought this driver and it looked really nice, except for that big sock that was on it. I took the sock off played a round. It hit the ball okay, but for some reason became all scratched up. When I wanted to return it, they told me all I could get was trade-in value...what a rip-off. *1/2."

Quote:

Originally posted by B-Con

I think he was referring to the actual reviews, not the cumulative reviews.

It was a joke, a joke! Is this Frankie Carbone from Goodfellas? Or maybe it's just Dr. Kiljoy.

[B-Con]

It was a joke, a joke! Is this Frankie Carbone from Goodfellas? Or maybe it's just Dr. Kiljoy.

My wife calls me Dr. Killjoy, so that will suffice. :-) I got that it was a joke, I just... iacas's point... Neeever mind. :-)

[wmiller]

No toes stepped on Gerald, at least not mine!  :)

I agree with your viewpoint, I just thought you were adding some new wrinkle that I hadn't thought of. I take amateur reviews for what they are: someone talking about their personal experience with product XYZ, not as an endorsement. Too much about this game is subjective anyway.