Two years: Questionable editorial neutrality and inconsistent diction

[Squeetard]

Why don't we let this guy have a go at editing a review. Post the before and after, then have a vote?

[Jonwall]

Originally Posted by Squeetard

Why don't we let this guy have a go at editing a review. Post the before and after, then have a vote?

Lol good idea. Then let him edit dozens of them and see if he edits every one of them the exact same way. Oh and dont forget to not pay him.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by Squeetard

Why don't we let this guy have a go at editing a review. Post the before and after, then have a vote?

That isn't going to happen. His concerns were noted, I replied to his statements and that is as far as it will go for the time being.

[FtGF]

Add another one to the list of posters who enjoy the reviews. Where I think the op was totally wrong is the "Questionable editorial neutrality" right in the thread title and his examples were laughable. "Cooler Master has been at the forefront of case market for some time now" I really can't see anything wrong with that, it's absolutely true. I as a consumer want to know what brands are regarded as good or otherwise. That is the perk of putting out consistently good stuff people talk highly about your products! Plain and simple. Also his version of the heatsink review put me to sleep. My brother who is just getting into PCs would not read that crap. If you want to turn people off of building their own PCs you should go that route!

[WolfBane]

Originally Posted by Pike

I like the reviews as well. My only gripe with them would be that contrary to what was stated as in fault of the reviews...I would like to see a more personal approach to writing. Someone mentioned in this thread that this is a community (i'm assuming a community of geeks, nerds, IT pros, and wannabee computer techs) and that's who these articles should be written for. Why be melodramatic, too scientific or so anal about a cpu cooler or a new SSD...my god people, this is a computer forum, not a scientific endeavor!!!

I would like to see a bit of humour injected in the reviews. There is enough crap, negativity, and hate in this world. They should be written for everybody and in laymen's terms...not for a research paper.

Anyways...keep up the great work guys...you've always had my attention

HMMMMMMMMM WUNDER WHAT I WOULD BE CLASSIFIED UNDER?
LOL GEEK (Dunno i am kinda old)nerd nope to many tats for that i guess ,IT pro lol not smart enuff here :),a wannabe that has to be it !!! lol has to be :)

Alls i know is i enjoy hwc and the other forum members and the reviews (wich i rely on quite a bit:))

I think i am just me in the end lol

[Silvgearx]

It cause there volunteer we have to point them in the right way ;) or just look else where is the smarter and easier choice

The most enjoyable reviews for myself in HWC are the motherboard ones, it gets right to the points no turn arounds or bias stuff like how this company is good or not , right on the meat, nice and good facts. Great pictures of full installation of hardwares. When i read those mobo reviews its almost like i am testing one myself.

And the video case reviews kick ass

Hats off to you good sir

I ain't expert dont quote me

[Chilly]

Amon... Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah? I just read your second post, all I saw was back peddling and massive use of pretentious and large words. You sounded like Nigel from Fraiser.

You dislike it so much, go make your own reviews, post them in the "member review" forum and maybe one day you'll get choosen to review for HWC, maybe not. That, or go start your own site, either way I thought your "rewritten" parts sounded more boring and worse than the original.

[chouchou]

+1 to the group of people who come to HWC first before the likes of much bigger sites such as OCD or tomshardware.
At HWC i can expect a well written, professional review that'll help the majority of computer beginners to the minority of computer enthusiasts.
Without the reviews here, I wouldn't know of half the knowledge i've gained.

And i'll agree with Chilly when he says that maybe you should write a review and let us give you some feedback?

[stoanee]

Originally Posted by Chilly

You dislike it so much, go make your own reviews, post them in the "member review" forum and maybe one day you'll get chosen to review for HWC, maybe not.

Absolutely the way to go. I believe Amon totally messed up his attempt at righting a perceived wrong. He should have PM'd a request to edit a review, presented his case, qualifications as a editor, submitted an edited review for grading, approval and gone from there. (chain of command)

[sswilson]

I held off posting a comment until this evening because I didn't want it to look like all of the staff were ganging up at once..... ;)

As has been stated already, we actively encourage constructive critisism, and I'm sure SKYMTL will have a close look at Amon's critique(s) in order to make any adjustments which will improve the quality of our reviews.

That said, the OP could have put a little thought into how he presented his critiques.......

Two years: Questionable editorial neutrality and inconsistent diction

Starting off in this manner right off of the bat pretty well puts every member of the staff on the defensive without a single person having viewed any of the actual content of the post/thread. Sorry, but we put a lot of stock into being as unbiased as we possibly can, up to and including the point where manufacturers put us on their shitlist because we won't tow the party line. I'm a pretty easy going Moderator, but, calling the integrity of our staff into question (aside from a generic... "why are your #s so different than other websites" question) is high on my list of things that get my attention rather quickly.

As far as the intros go... that's probably the only place where we might see something which may appear to have some bias, but that bias is applied evenly to all manufacturers..... I agree that you'll often see much of the "party line" in the intro, but that's based on giving the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt... if they tell us that they think their new product is the next best thing to sliced bread, or if there has been a lot of buzz on the `net about a product, we'll mention it there and then let the rest of the review speak to how well it meets those expectations. I doubt we'd see too many review items coming our way if we started out our reviews with a negative slant.

The style of writing is harder to fairly critique, but having written a few reviews myself I can only offer the view that everybody's style is different, and that there is a hell of a lot of work involved in putting out a single review, let alone several a month. Some folks will put a lot of work into the technical side of the review, while others will spend a little more time on the writing. AFAIC, all of our reviewers are doing an amazing job, especially when you consider the volume of work thrown their way.

Anywise... I guess that's my own two cents on the issue, and I'd like to thank all of our members for keeping these kinds of discussions reasonably civil. The HWC community is (in my biased opinion) the best tech forum on the `net because we can have these kinds of discussions without resorting to personal attacks.

Steve