Rules for Posting a User Review

Closely moderated reviews by forum members willing to share their experience and accept stiff peer review. Open only to registered forum members.

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MikeC
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Rules for Posting a User Review

Post by MikeC » Sun Feb 13, 2005 12:02 pm

Rules for Posting a User Review

There are many good reasons for these rules. The most important one is the definition of sound as a human perception. You can measure it, graph it, and record it, but it’s meaningless without a listener, and different listeners hear differently. Using written language to try and describe a sound to someone who has not heard it and who has never shared hearing anything with you is… difficult. This is the essence of what SPCR tries to do.

SPCR reviews sometimes take weeks (even months) to write. We chew over and discuss all kinds of fine details in the test methods and data. We labor over language precision and clarity. We juggle many dozens of photos to pick the best, and then spend time editing them for greatest usefulness. So it’s not out of line to ask for SPCR User Reviews to meet high standards, too. High standards will make them that much more valuable, and there will be kudos to writing a well-received User Review. We expect you’d have to spend at least an hour or two thinking about, planning and drafting your review for it to be any good.

1. No company reps or revenge seekers! Anyone who posts a user review to criticize or praise a product dishonestly for marketing, competition or some other hidden agenda will be banned from the forum. There will be no exceptions. Don’t think you can hide behind web anonymity; truth has a way of coming out.

2. Establish credibility. Although some new users are already experts in PC silencing due to lurking, you can understand why members would be skeptical of any new user posting a glowing or scathing review. Ask questions and help out first before tackling a review. This goes a hundred-fold for genuine SPCR newbies. (Not really a rule, but strongly recommended.)

3. Be prepared to update within 48 hours of the original posting. If there's a minor problem to your review, someone will let you know. If you don't remedy the problem within a day or two, it will be deleted. We want to keep this forum filled with only reliable information, and minor problems can keep a review from being credible.

4. Establish your acoustic baseline and expertise level. The more you can tell us about your “qualifications”, ambient noise level, location, and system, the more clearly we can hear through the filter of you and your words. Identifying other products you have experience with can help others understand where you are coming from. Always describe the loudest component in your current setup. The single biggest source of variations in people’s reactions to acoustics is the level and quality of ambient noise they are used to.

5. Describe the noise, compare it to something known, and don't exaggerate. Does it rattle, hum, chug, whine, buzz, whoosh or what? Is it louder or quieter than a recommended product? What does it sound like? By something known, I mean a product widely used and known, such as a Panaflo 80L fan. NOTE: Comparisons to jets will be automatically deleted.

6. Pictures and numbers are optional, but recommended. Not everyone is good at photography, nor does everyone have a power supply tester or an SLM. But if you do, post them, and explain your thoughts. Pictures and numbers should supplement a review, but a really good review should be able to explain everything without them. If the pictures are bigger than 640x480 pixels, link to them instead of posting them.

7. Stay professional. No matter how bad the product is, do not insult either the product or the company that made it. You can openly say that you don't think it's good, but not "it sucks". Also, saying “SPCR rocks” does not guarantee your review will stay in the clear (unlike other review forums). Some good advice: The closer you can make your review to an official SPCR review, the better it is for everyone.

8. Don't review anything SPCR wouldn't review. If a product doesn't advertise itself as being silent, and it isn't, don't write a review on it. However, if it doesn't advertise itself as silent, and it IS, then by all means, review it. Ditto the converse. Also, keep modifications to a minimum; the idea is to review the product, not your mad modding skills.

9. Don't review anything SPCR already HAS reviewed. If you want to review something that has already been posted as a User Review, post it in that thread.

10. Write the review in a separate Notepad / Wordpad / Word program. (Not a rule but a strong recommendation.) This is for your own good. Anyone who's ever lost a really long post due to forum timeout or whatever knows why this guideline is here.

The last strictly enforced rule is: Play Nice, and Say Something Intelligent.

BTW, if you decide after working long and hard on a User Review that it might be good enough to be an official SPCR review, contact me by email. [email protected]

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