Don't buy this it sucks well at least my friend says so

[jackfaire]

Okay I love reviews good or bad I love them. I am a firm believer in word of mouth advertising. Your going to get typically honest and unpretentious reviews. I draw the line when you review a product that you have no personal experience with however. This year my budget for discretionary spending is larger so I have been shopping around making a list of tech toys I have been wanting to buy and figuring out the best ones.

I stumbled across a review that starts off, "I didn't buy this, but I am looking for a good one"

Basically the entire review is "I have read a bunch of reviews, talked to a bunch of people, basically everything your doing and I will save you the trouble don't buy this one."

Now if your a friend of mine and you have been hearing bad stuff about a tech toy I am looking good god man by all means let me know. Do not however post a freaking review online talking about a product with which you have no personal experience.

I will list why this is a bad thing:

1) We do not know you. The reason we listen to our friends when they say they have heard a bunch of bad things is that while we do not know their sources anymore than we know yours we do know how trustworthy they are on topics of this nature.

We know that Billy is talking out his ass while Jimmy is pretty savvy on this kind of thing.

2) It being a review lends it an air of respectability not even Jimmy would get. We are a culture that was raised on reviews that were done by professionals that had to watch the movie, test the product, etc. People may forget that one line "I haven't bought this" or even gloss over it and take your word that the product they want is just no good.

3) It's a waste of reading it's a review of a review. That's what it basically is. It's the equivalent of me posting a review on line about how Ebert felt about a movie.

"Roger Ebert gave this movie a thumbs down and said it sucked. So don't go watch this movie it sucks oh but I haven't seen it."

Well that's about it. Have fun on the internet Billy.

[Rageaholic]

Yeah, I don't understand how one can review a product that they had no experience with. A friend tried it and thought it sucked? Then let them write the review!

Then there's the other side of the coin. Where someone assumes that because a person wrote a negative review, that they never tried it. Like if a book is reviewed on amazon, the few negative reviews will be met with several comments on how ignorant the person is, how they didn't "get" the book, or how they are just biased. I mean, at least these people are reading the damn book instead of writing a review for their friends who read it.