Anybody interested in a review site?

[Razasharp]

You know the score, people get themselves banned and then go around the review sites writing ****ty reviews about your forum.

Solution?

Review style testimonials.

So this new site would be for site owners to sign up and invite some of their users (with a unique token) to submit a testimonial. Or, you could just enable public testimonials but you get to accept or deny them.

So it's a bit like a testimonials page but off site, and in the style of a review (i.e. with a rating of 1 to 5). All this would be made clear on the site itself - that it is review style testimonials.

What's the point? The point is to get these 'genuine' reviews to show higher in google than the review sites that almost always attract trolls. The alternative is to tell your genuine members about the review sites, hoping they will leave reviews - but that is just playing into the hands of the review sites.

I was going to code this for me and my buddies, but just wondering, would anyone else be interested in something like this? (It will be free to use - supported by ads like most forums.)

 

[Carlos]

Interesting concept. However, there isn't a plugin that really does this unless you're talking about something like what http://www.adminforums.org is doing with their forum showcases. Another very close thing to this idea is the resource plugin. (In general, anyway.)

But interesting concept!

 

[Razasharp]

Interesting concept. However, there isn't a plugin that really does this unless you're talking about something like what http://www.adminforums.org is doing with their forum showcases. Another very close thing to this idea is the resource plugin. (In general, anyway.)

But interesting concept!

Hi Carlos,

It would be a proper review site - lets call it websitereviews.com for example, and your site's reviews would be at websitereviews.com/codforums.com

The idea is to get your review page on this site _higher_ in google than your review page on the other review sites.

Your users won't need to sign up either, they just use the token/url you give them. That's another thing the other review sites are good at - harvesting your memberbase!

Does that explain it any better?

 

[Carlos]

Hi Carlos,

It would be a proper review site - lets call it websitereviews.com for example, and your site's reviews would be at websitereviews.com/codforums.com

The idea is to get your review page on this site _higher_ in google than your review page on the other review sites.

Your users won't need to sign up either, they just use the token/url you give them. That's another thing the other review sites are good at - harvesting your memberbase!

Does that explain it any better?

Yep. Thanks.

Just remember your concept is in a crowded space. There are tons of sites doing similar ideas to yours. I understand what you want, but you're still in a crowded space.

 

[wedgar]

You know the score, people get themselves banned and then go around the review sites writing ****ty reviews about your forum.

Solution?

Review style testimonials.

So this new site would be for site owners to sign up and invite some of their users (with a unique token) to submit a testimonial. Or, you could just enable public testimonials but you get to accept or deny them.

So it's a bit like a testimonials page but off site, and in the style of a review (i.e. with a rating of 1 to 5). All this would be made clear on the site itself - that it is review style testimonials.

What's the point? The point is to get these 'genuine' reviews to show higher in google than the review sites that almost always attract trolls. The alternative is to tell your genuine members about the review sites, hoping they will leave reviews - but that is just playing into the hands of the review sites.

I was going to code this for me and my buddies, but just wondering, would anyone else be interested in something like this? (It will be free to use - supported by ads like most forums.)

As @Carlos said, Interesting concept. I'd be interested in checking this out.

 

[Razasharp]

Yep. Thanks.

Just remember your concept is in a crowded space. There are tons of sites doing similar ideas to yours. I understand what you want, but you're still in a crowded space.

Does anyone else do similar Carlos? (Where the site owner gets to approve reviews?) I saw one start-up in the space but they charge quite a bit of money for it - can't remember now mind as I had the idea last year and that's when I looked into it.

As @Carlos said, Interesting concept. I'd be interested in checking this out.

Cool - I shall let you know if I proceed further with it. In the meantime if you have any suggestions please feel free to let me know.

 

[Null]

There's no point in having a facility to review another website if the website owner can accept/deny reviews, the site owner could just deny anything they deem negative.

The way around this would be to just allow the site owner to respond back to a negative review with something like 'We had to ban this user as they were constantly evading filters'.

That's it. A review and a single response (you don't want it to become a back and forth discussion).

 

[Ingenious]

Not quite sure I understand the concept. Why would people read reviews of forums, when they can just join the forum itself? And wouldn't the actual forum always outrank review sites in search results? I can understand reviews for products and services etc but not for forums?

And unsure how a consumer would trust reviews where the webmasters can exclude bad reviews. It's hardly neutral and hardly useful or balanced. The advantage of outranking other review sites seems totally negated by the fact the reviews themselves are not impartial. They are controlled by the site being reviewed. Why are these 'genuine'?

Or have I missed something?

 

[Razasharp]

There's no point in having a facility to review another website if the website owner can accept/deny reviews, the site owner could just deny anything they deem negative.

The way around this would be to just allow the site owner to respond back to a negative review with something like 'We had to ban this user as they were constantly evading filters'.

That's it. A review and a single response (you don't want it to become a back and forth discussion).

But that's what happens at the current review sites - they allow the troll comments (bait) and you or your users can respond.

The way we have always dealt with trolls is to ignore them, or not give them any airtime on the site at all. So I would not want to use a proxy to respond to them. (And most review sites love the 'back n fourth' remember, they want traffic more than anything else after all).

Not quite sure I understand the concept. Why would people read reviews of forums, when they can just join the forum itself? And wouldn't the actual forum always outrank review sites in search results? I can understand reviews for products and services etc but not for forums?

And unsure how a consumer would trust reviews where the webmasters can exclude bad reviews. It's hardly neutral and hardly useful or balanced. The advantage of outranking other review sites seems totally negated by the fact the reviews themselves are not impartial. They are controlled by the site being reviewed. Why are these 'genuine'?

Or have I missed something?

I doubt many people do read reviews, they are more a magnet for the disgruntled. But they often come in second or third in google after the site itself - so in a way, they are a strong and very appealing platform for your trolls.

This idea is to serve two purposes. One is to get genuine testimonials up higher than the troll reviews. And the other is two stick two fingers up to the trolls.

 

[Carlos]

Does anyone else do similar Carlos? (Where the site owner gets to approve reviews?) I saw one start-up in the space but they charge quite a bit of money for it - can't remember now mind as I had the idea last year and that's when I looked into it.

showsites.us/sites/www.codforums.com‎
domsreport.com/www/codforums.com

Intentionally left unlinked. But you get the idea...

 

[Razasharp]

showsites.us/sites/www.codforums.com‎
domsreport.com/www/codforums.com

Intentionally left unlinked. But you get the idea...

They are not review sites... I am on about sites where users can leave reviews about your forum.

 

[Carlos]

They are not review sites... I am on about sites where users can leave reviews about your forum.

I know, I know. I'm just saying that you need to stand out above those kinds of sites that "document" websites value, website "history" as is the case with that DomsReport, and I remember seeing a review site but it was poorly done. Oh, and Yelp, too.