Two years: Questionable editorial neutrality and inconsistent diction

[Linus]

I've always found reviews here are long winded with fair, accurate conclusions.

If you feel like reading for 1,000,000 years, read a full GPU review here or one of Anand's Apple articles.

Otherwise, just skip to the graphs and skim the conclusion like 99% of other readers...

No need for a (frankly) long, wordy complaint letter... This is the internet FFS...

[SugarJ]

Linus, you're just too hyper to sit still for that long.

Just kidding. I think the idea is to cover all the bases, and answer as many questions as possible. You could cut it down to one page and a "Kickass" rating, but I wouldn't be hanging around. I like the plethora of information. To be honest though, if it's a piece of kit I'm not at all interested in, I do tend to skip some of the graph pages.

[JD]

To be honest, I rarely read an entire review front to back. The introduction I nearly always skip since it's really just useless babble to me. Usually just look over the graphs and captions under pictures. Then read the conclusion. Gives me a brief overview and if I find myself interested, then I'll bother to read it in depth.

English definitely isn't something I study much but I think HWC reviews could simplify the wording a bit. They almost seem like marketing ads the way some things get hyped up or the review turns into a story of sorts. I don't find other "top" sites to do that as much, yet there are other sites that have absolutely horrid reviews with no depth and barely any writing at all. It's just finding the perfect medium.

At the same time, I understand how difficult it can be and how time consuming it is. I could never write as much as HWC Reviewers do about a single product. And well it's not like everyone writes the same way or knows the same form of English so it's not like you can expect everyone to write one exact way.

[mo' power]

Greetings all,
I find the reviews on this site are great for the most part. There are a few I have read that I found to be mediocre at best but most/none of us here at HWC are not photojournalists with university degrees. I have made several component purchases based on what I have read here because of the information and comparisons contained within the body of the review. If I feel that the individual writing the review is heading in a biased direction, I simply read someone else's review on another site. What makes these enthusiast sites great is the amount of accurate informaton contained within the reviews, not the way they are worded. I could care less if someone doing a cpu cooler review called heatpipes "long shiny pipe-thingies"
Some of the reviews written here occaisionally get linked to from the websites of major manufacturers. I think if these reviews are good enough for the manufacturers, they're good enough for me.

Just as an example, here is our happy little HWC beaver doing his thing!
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

Cheers all!

[chrisk]

Originally Posted by stoanee

This discussion should not have been posted here. The appropriate people should have been PM'd with this subject. The OP comes across as a pontificating perfectionist. Having said that, I like the reviews here and have no problem with the way they are written. If I need to read something more verbose I will subscribe to "Better Homes and Desktops".

This is my feeling as well. A PM to the editor would have been perfect in this case. Posting a thread like this only serves the following purposes (intended or not):

1. The HWC fanboiz will flame and attack the OP. Makes me wonder if the OP realizes this and does not care, wants the attention, or has some need to constantly correct others. I do realize that I am a part of this now, simply by posting.
2. Reviewers, who volunteer, feel unappreciated. Many spend their own money and put their own precious time into these reviews. If we, as a community, call them out like this, they may be less likely to do a review in the first place. They will interpret the 'offer to help' as condescending. Frankly, I am not sure I would blame them, as a real offer to help would have been done via PM so that they can save face. Quoting articles as the OP did and simply changing the quote titles does nothing to hide who they are criticizing, as many of us know how to do a Google search with quotes. If you really want to improve the quality of the reviews, do so via PM and allow the reviewer to save face. Allowing someone to save face is the best way to get what you want in this world.
3. Drags down the tone of the forum. This creates needless drama, and gets people posting about other people. Again, I am doing this now, but I really have to get this off my chest and I am doing my best to be respectful. There are human beings on here on the other end of the posts, and posts which attack the ability or conduct of each other only ends up in more posts and threads which do the same.

Hopefully I have made myself clear and have not offended anyone. If you have a problem with somebody or something, PM. If you allow somebody to save face then you will get much further along. You have a real issue with somebody's writing style, PM them. If you don't like somebody's post, PM them about it, and if you like, include a mod in the PM.

Drama *facepalm*

[chrisk]

Oh BTW the reviews here are better than most on the web.

[Linus]

Originally Posted by chriskwarren

Oh BTW the reviews here are better than most on the web.

QFT

5 characters

[Jake_HT]

[DaleF]

Originally Posted by Linus

If you feel like reading for 1,000,000 years, read a full GPU review here or one of Anand's Apple articles.

Personally, I read all of reviews, and sometimes I wish the reviews were more technical. Then again, I am studying computer engineering and may not be your average reader.
But yea, good reviews.

[MAC]

Personally, I don't think writing in a clinical, matter-of-fact way is the most interesting method for those who actually read an article from beginning to end.

Also, a little irreverence and a slightly more casual writing style shouldn't put into question the legitimacy or impartiality of a review. Generally speaking, I think most people will agree that we provide more info per review than the majority of other sites, but we try to do so without the reader neading a doctorate degree (which isn't to say that we cater to the lowest denominator, because I certainly don't).

Having said that, we adore criticism, so keep it up since it's not necessarily easy to self-analyze our communal shortcomings.

And those who explicitly stated that they avoid our reviews when making hardware choices, well please state what needs to be fix or amended and we'll see what we can do.