hmmm

[Archon]

Not to sound mean or anything, but perhaps DT should be a bit more critical about the things they review. Im lookin at the 3 on the main page, and they all got 8/10. If I recall correctly, most of the other reviews are too.


Just my 2 cents

[Ioman]

But they are all good products.....our scores are consitant with other publications on the same products. The reviews before these recieved better ratings. I have 2 products which I am currently reviewing that will be recieving a score lower than an 8 too.

It just depends on what we get to review. I don't want to give out a bad score just because we haven't in a while.

[RageSlave]

Archon, can you send us some of those crappy Sony Pda's to review so we can have some bad reviews? LOL!

[ECA]

To base reviews on what OTHERS say, is incorrect.

A good review should be based on items you HAVE reviewed.
The first review of EQUAL items will always be a 5, as there is nothing worse and NOTHING better. Then you USE that AS the base score. IF you find that the FIRST review was totally OFF(it was REALLY bad, then you can change it, and keep the current and newer REVIEWS accurrate.

Its like a diving compatition. The first round, should ALWAYS be low scores, unless there is something exceptional. Then you base the second round on what was done before.

DONT base them on other sites, and reviews.

I have mentioned before, that I have seen ALOT of items and alot of Tech, and some of the stuff REALLY sucks in 'what they do', 'Can do', 'should do', and there Future of the product.
the Idea of a PDA, that has a OS, and can be programmed, is wonderful, except when it has an interface that CANT be adapted to other items to extend its use(KB, GPS, Cell, wireless, cradle comp interface, ect)

Just think about it, if we wanted THERE evaluation, we would go to the other sites.

[Ioman]

Originally posted by ECA
To base reviews on what OTHERS say, is incorrect.

A good review should be based on items you HAVE reviewed.
The first review of EQUAL items will always be a 5, as there is nothing worse and NOTHING better. Then you USE that AS the base score. IF you find that the FIRST review was totally OFF(it was REALLY bad, then you can change it, and keep the current and newer REVIEWS accurrate.

Its like a diving compatition. The first round, should ALWAYS be low scores, unless there is something exceptional. Then you base the second round on what was done before.

DONT base them on other sites, and reviews.

I have mentioned before, that I have seen ALOT of items and alot of Tech, and some of the stuff REALLY sucks in 'what they do', 'Can do', 'should do', and there Future of the product.
the Idea of a PDA, that has a OS, and can be programmed, is wonderful, except when it has an interface that CANT be adapted to other items to extend its use(KB, GPS, Cell, wireless, cradle comp interface, ect)

Just think about it, if we wanted THERE evaluation, we would go to the other sites.

Good points ECA. I don't think it is fair to give a product a good score only because we have nothing to compare it against though. I think that is not fair to our readers. I think it is safe to compare the product to others like it in a feature for feature comparison and then to run spead benchmarks to see how it stacks up against computerized reference systems.

[dang]

I can only speak for the way that I do reviews, but I review it on my own opinion along with how it performs. I base my judgement on my experience with other products in the same field, along with research I do.

Remember, an 8 is better then average, but not a must have.
I have given products that I would not buy myself 6's or 7's, just because they may not cater to my interest, but they may cater to other peoples. I provide my input, facts, and opinion and let others make a judgement off my review. Hopefully I provide enough information for the readers to make a judgement that best suites them.

By the way, did any of you realize that the readers can submit their own review? I highly recommend it so that you may provide your own input of the products.

[ECA]

HOW ABOUT THIS.......

012-- 34--56-- 789 THERE is no 10 as only GOD has tho's

The general idea is only 4 parts.
012...Not worth it.
34..... interesting but OLD hat
56.... Nice idea, could be better
789.. Very good.

Now thw idea is only 4 parts. Then you get to add your OWN point or 2.
A product is only guaged on a scale of 1-4. But then you add your Point to it, not to exceed that LEVEL.

An 8 on other systems would be a 7 here, and then you add what you think about it. A product may go down a scale but NEVER over into another level.

[llbbl]

Good Job ECA.

This helps us a lot because the reviewers can use this as a suggested scale when we review products.

I just wanted to say that right now we don't have enough time to review crappy products. We choose the ones that we think will be good because this is probably the products that the majority of people are going to want to read about. This translates into more page views and a more profitable website. Sure when DT gets to be larger we can hire full time reviewers, but right now as it is we have to be picky about the items that we review.

[ECA]

Whats picky.
Think what those little companies would DO, just to get 1 good review. A small company with a Good product would LOVE your site. it gets there FOOT into the open market. And makes it an open review, which OTHER reviewers MIGHT pick up.

Think about it.

(Yes, I was at V8juice's and he got me drunk)

[v8juice]

Originally posted by ECA
(Yes, I was at V8juice's and he got me drunk) [/B]

I can vouch for that...

[neuroking]

I say have the same 1-10 scale, but divide up the analysis different from all the other sites.

I could see several categories, each with 3 rating:
- Design - SW Ease of use
- Design - Ergonomics
- Design - Wow factor
- Performance - Speed/Range
- Performance - Reliability
- Tech Synthesis - did they pack the right stuff in one item (ie-camera phones with no memory expansion, bluetooth adapter included, but no standard, so no use with other products)
- Price
- Upgradability
- Release Timing - Every tech has a 'sweet spot' for introduction. Did the company time it right. (ie-GeForceFX would get a mixed review - had to respond to ATI, but did not offer substantial benefit for price they are trying to make high profit on)

Each would have three sub-ratings:
Previous - This corresponds to "How does this product compare to the previous generation on this category?"
Current - This corresponds to "How does this product compare to the current offerings in this generation on this category?"
Next - This corresponds to "Based on what info is available, how does this product compare to the next generation on this category?"
This way you can say, "Yes the speed has increased , but only from 1 to 3. But, compared to other offerings available today, it is the best out there, and upgradable to the future speed 5 model. But, watch out for Yabbabaa Inc's version, which promised an increase of 7!!!. rating 3/9/8

Also, variable weighting. No one cares what an internal DVDRW drive looks like, but they will care about speed.

I dunno. I just like to see things in their relative place in the current market, and the next generation. The hardest thing about product research on teh net is figuring out if the review was exceptional because no one else did X/Y/Z. But one month later 10 companies came out with infinitely better stuff.

Also, I like keeping track of release timing. For instance, if you go for a new P4 3 GHz with the 875 chipset when they're released, you have a sweet deal. The price will be edged toward the 3.2 GHz, you got DDRII, it is sufficiently late after the Radeon 9800 to drop the price on that, which wil play anything released for the next 4 years. you can get a top top of the line system for a couple thousand less than the absolute top, which REALLY is only a hair better.

Okay, babbling now.

Brandon

[ECA]

Yes there are alot of things to GRADE on a product.
Looks is the LEAST of them.
As long as the ITEM works.
HOW it works.
HOW easy to install, unlike HD that you STILL have to FDISK from dos.
Associated progs
And what OS's it will work with.(for some reason Ppl are saying a AGP4x+ wont work on any system but XP), windows 95,98,2000,me,xp, and SE's, as well as linux, X10, BOs, what ever.
Associated hardware. A midi cable for a KB, or sound card.

ANY plus's the others dont supply.

[Archon]

atleast yall aint as bad as that 3dgameman whatever he is... that guy would give a positive review on a plastic cpu heatsink

[ECA]

My problem with games and progs, is I have seen ALOT of them from the past. And I compare them with what we are getting NOW. And ALOT of the current ones, SUCK. If you get a rating of 6+ from me, it is based on alot of BACK history, not on whats out there NOW.

As for hardware, I tend to be critical, of what they COULD have done. Like Joysticks. 99% are crap. And when they finally make a good one, I let it be known.