To write a product review with the NV News community in mind first and foremost...

[ragejg]

As many of you know, I enjoy writing reviews of PC hardware. I've reviewed the following products over the years for NV News:

Creative 3D Blaster 5900 Review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/3dblaster_fx_5900/index.shtml)
Chaintech FX 5600 Personal Cinema Review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/chaintech_5600_personal_cinema/index.shtml)
BFG FX 5900 XT OC Review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/evga_5700u_personal_cinema/index.shtml)
BFG FX 5600 Ultra Review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/bfg_geforce_6600_gt_oc/index.shtml)
Gainward Geforce 6800 Golden Sample AGP Review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/gainward_geforce_6800_golden_sample/index.shtml)
SilenX iXtrema 120mm Copper CPU Cooler Review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/silenx_ixtrema_cooler/index.shtml)
Corsair TwinX XMS DDR550 Memory Review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/corsair_xms4400/index.shtml)
I-Joy MobiDV compact video recorder/MP3 player Mini-Review (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=45392)
EVGA Geforce GTX 465 SC vs. Radeon HD 5830 Review (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=151518)
EVGA Geforce GTX 460 SC vs. GTX 465 vs Radeon HD 5830 Review (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=152967)
Overclocked GTX 460 vs Overclocked HD 5830 - Lost Planet 2 Benchmark Performance Writeup - a review postscript (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=152967)

These reviews (and ALL of the NV News reviews) are the result of a relationship between NV News and some of the hardware manufacturers, which get excited about our staff putting together a product evaluation in a professional manner.... and likewise, all of the review staff gets very excited and proud to put these together.

I am proud of my reviews, but still think that I have a ways to go before I can be considered a good reviewer. Despite the fact that I believe that I present some information in a unique way with interesting language sometimes, I think that other staffers here have put together much better reviews than myself. I'd like to evolve int a premier review-writer, and I'd like to do that here and nowhere else.

This is where my questions to the community come in.

One thing I notice over the last few years is that our reviews end up being discussed in more detail on other sites than our own, and it seems that the overwhelming majority of review reads come from outside of the community. I can't help but be concerned about this.

Is the NV News community itself uninterested in reviews any more?

or

Is the NV News community only interested in a certain demographic of product any more?

For example, do so many of us have high-end system components that most of us don't care to read about lower-end enthusiast or mainstream solutions? Or do most of us have a different way of obtaining product info that makes reading an NV News review redundant?

So here's my MAIN question, which there may be no answer to, but I must ask this:

What would have to be done for there to be an NV News product review that EVERYBODY in the community WANTS to read, and wants to discuss in a fair amount of detail?

Is there something that can be done/written that is unique to this community that could truly interest everyone, and get everyone talking in various levels of tech-speak in a well-developed feedback thread that actually fosters review updates, postscripts, and completed member-requested test results?

Other parts of this question: Let's say that on the same day, the $500 "Geforce GTX 580" is released, the $199 "GT 560" is released, the new "nForce Infinity" motherboards come out, and the AMD Bulldozer CPU is released. Which of these products do you think will attract the most people HERE?

... And since I've noticed through observations and by reading posts on the subject that a lot of the higher-profile members here stick around less for the tech talk and more for the non-tech discussions here, what could be done in a review unique to NV News that would actually foster even those folks to join in on the discussion? Less formality? More inside jokes (like having Bob Saget's face or some pepis or staek be in all the product shots)? ... or maybe have the language of the review be less technical and more general?

I'm hoping I'm at least slightly being understood here. I'd like to write a review that is more popular and enjoyable for this community than it is for anywhere else. That's not to say that I don't want other sites to be discussing our reviews, but having our community having the most to say about an NV News-written article sure would be nice, IMO, no matter who it's written by... me, Vin86, MikeC, whoever. :)

... It was hard to word this post right, and I apologize if it sounds scattershot but I did my best. I'd like to be well-understood about this so I'm very interested in anyone's thoughts on this, whether it be actual discussion, spam or full-on displeasure.

Thanks for your time. :)

[Bman212121]

One of the reasons why I like reading reviews from other sites is the amount of detail. I just quickly skimmed your Evga GTX460 article and it seems to be a lot more in depth than most others. http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=152967

To be more specific I do read a little bit about the arcitecture, but chances are I might read half a page then skip to benchmarks. Rather than having to actually read all of the details, it's really nice to just see graphs where you can quickly make a conclusion about the performance of a card. It may be different for other people but I am mainly interested in heat, power consumption, and performance in certain games. I will glance at noise levels, but mainly just read the summary.

One of the limitations that nVNews has is the portfolio of different cards. What is really nice about reading a review at say pcper.com is they use a common test bed and review just about all of the cards when they come out. So rather than seeing a review of just one or two cards you can quickly see the difference between all current generation and last generation cards. A great example would be people upgrading from say an 8800GTX or GTX 260 to a GTX480. Having a graph that compares the performance of all of these cards when the newer generation comes out makes it much easier for people to decide if it's worth upgrading.

I really think that your review that I linked has come a long way from some of the older reviews. When a review of a new product is only a page or two long, it leaves me wanting to know more. Chances are good I'll still look at reviews from other sites to make sure they come up with the same conclusion, but if there is more content I will spend more time looking at it.

Another thing is that most of us don't visit the main page, so it might be useful to publish new reviews in another location. A lot of the time I don't even know that nVNews reviewed something. Maybe have a section dedicated to nVNews reviews, or make sure they are all caught by the new feed, as that section gets more attention.

As for the reviews, I will still read reviews on graphics cards, processors, motherboards, power supplies, monitors and SSDs. Right now the big things I'm reading are about SSDs and cell phones. The only issue with graphics cards reviews is that a lot of sites I might visit will review every iteration of a card. If I've read a review on the GTX 460 I really don't care to read another on the GTX 460 SC as it's just going to be almost the same. Add a few fps to the benchmarks and that's about it.

Lower end hardware reviews can be just as interesting if not more interesting than high end. There are a lot of people who have HTPCs and need to fit a modest budget while still getting a solid system. Being able to find a good card that is silent, small, cheap, and can still play a game or two would interest me for sure. Making a low power computer that is still quick and affordible can be a challenge, which is where a review would definitely help.

Putting personal touches on your reviews could be good and bad. It might help lure people into more discussion, but like a lot of threads on here it can go south quickly. (like bob saget to meth's nvm..) It could have an adverse affect on those readers who are not part of the community. One thing that bothers me when I read a review is when the author does a poor job of proof reading. Spelling errors are one thing, but it's even worse when they start messing up data. An article loses a lot of credibility if they cannot get the most important part correct.

Hopefully my opinions might help you understand, and get some feedback from other members. If something doesn't make sense I can try to explain better. It is plenty late so I'm not guaranteeing coherency in my post. ;) (That and I don't have spell check loaded)

EDIT: One other thing that I was thinking of. I remember there used to be a time when the latest and greatest game came out, and everyone would flex their rigs and post benchmarks of how well their system can run it. If nVNews were to do a review of a game, they could ask the members for feedback on performance. It would be unique for people reading the site to quickly see how different hardware configurations might run the game. If people also posted their settings configurations, other members might have a better understand of which settings to tweak to make the game run better. If another member has a similar pc (which a lot do) and posts their favorite settings to make the game run smoothly other people can then test those settings and give suggestions how to make it run even better. You might see some of that information in a thread currently, but if it's a 20 page thread most people are not going to sift through all of the pages to find the relevant information. If it were better managed in a way that is easy to read it would be far more effective.

[methimpikehoses]

One of the reasons why I like reading reviews from other sites is the amount of detail. I just quickly skimmed your Evga GTX460 article and it seems to be a lot more in depth than most others. http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=152967

To be more specific I do read a little bit about the arcitecture, but chances are I might read half a page then skip to benchmarks. Rather than having to actually read all of the details, it's really nice to just see graphs where you can quickly make a conclusion about the performance of a card. It may be different for other people but I am mainly interested in heat, power consumption, and performance in certain games. I will glance at noise levels, but mainly just read the summary.

One of the limitations that nVNews has is the portfolio of different cards. What is really nice about reading a review at say pcper.com is they use a common test bed and review just about all of the cards when they come out. So rather than seeing a review of just one or two cards you can quickly see the difference between all current generation and last generation cards. A great example would be people upgrading from say an 8800GTX or GTX 260 to a GTX480. Having a graph that compares the performance of all of these cards when the newer generation comes out makes it much easier for people to decide if it's worth upgrading.

I really think that your review that I linked has come a long way from some of the older reviews. When a review of a new product is only a page or two long, it leaves me wanting to know more. Chances are good I'll still look at reviews from other sites to make sure they come up with the same conclusion, but if there is more content I will spend more time looking at it.

Another thing is that most of us don't visit the main page, so it might be useful to publish new reviews in another location. A lot of the time I don't even know that nVNews reviewed something. Maybe have a section dedicated to nVNews reviews, or make sure they are all caught by the new feed, as that section gets more attention.

As for the reviews, I will still read reviews on graphics cards, processors, motherboards, power supplies, monitors and SSDs. Right now the big things I'm reading are about SSDs and cell phones. The only issue with graphics cards reviews is that a lot of sites I might visit will review every iteration of a card. If I've read a review on the GTX 460 I really don't care to read another on the GTX 460 SC as it's just going to be almost the same. Add a few fps to the benchmarks and that's about it.

Lower end hardware reviews can be just as interesting if not more interesting than high end. There are a lot of people who have HTPCs and need to fit a modest budget while still getting a solid system. Being able to find a good card that is silent, small, cheap, and can still play a game or two would interest me for sure. Making a low power computer that is still quick and affordible can be a challenge, which is where a review would definitely help.

Putting personal touches on your reviews could be good and bad. It might help lure people into more discussion, but like a lot of threads on here it can go south quickly. (like bob saget to meth's nvm..) It could have an adverse affect on those readers who are not part of the community. One thing that bothers me when I read a review is when the author does a poor job of proof reading. Spelling errors are one thing, but it's even worse when they start messing up data. An article loses a lot of credibility if they cannot get the most important part correct.

Hopefully my opinions might help you understand, and get some feedback from other members. If something doesn't make sense I can try to explain better. It is plenty late so I'm not guaranteeing coherency in my post. ;) (That and I don't have spell check loaded)

EDIT: One other thing that I was thinking of. I remember there used to be a time when the latest and greatest game came out, and everyone would flex their rigs and post benchmarks of how well their system can run it. If nVNews were to do a review of a game, they could ask the members for feedback on performance. It would be unique for people reading the site to quickly see how different hardware configurations might run the game. If people also posted their settings configurations, other members might have a better understand of which settings to tweak to make the game run better. If another member has a similar pc (which a lot do) and posts their favorite settings to make the game run smoothly other people can then test those settings and give suggestions how to make it run even better. You might see some of that information in a thread currently, but if it's a 20 page thread most people are not going to sift through all of the pages to find the relevant information. If it were better managed in a way that is easy to read it would be far more effective.

i will second this rather than giving a reply, other than the part about me and bob. :mad:

[ragejg]

Unfortunately I was joking about including inside jokes in reviews. :p

Thanks for the response Bman (and meth by extension). I'm looking forward to hearing from other community members about this as well. :)

[bob saget]

I am not good at discussing things. usually just come to throwing punches. seriously, i mostly just skim them and head to the concluding thoughts.

[ragejg]

I am not good at discussing things. usually just come to throwing punches. seriously, i mostly just skim them and head to the concluding thoughts.

That's fine, I completely understand that some review readers check content out in that fashion. I do have to wonder however if the fact that there seems to be less hardware enthusiasts that actually like to talk about the tech has anything to do with the perceived decrease in readership and discussion that is beyond the token "good job".

On a related not, nobody hardly discusses the news headlines; they're largely ignored as if most everyone would rather talk politics/open forum stuff than tech news that is relevant to the name of this site. I mean, I've softened my once hard-line stance on that, but it still puzzles me a little bit that the news items are IMO not given a fair shake.

[Bearclaw]

That's fine, I completely understand that some review readers check content out in that fashion. I do have to wonder however if the fact that there seems to be less hardware enthusiasts that actually like to talk about the tech has anything to do with the perceived decrease in readership and discussion that is beyond the token "good job".

On a related not, nobody hardly discusses the news headlines; they're largely ignored as if most everyone would rather talk politics/open forum stuff than tech news that is relevant to the name of this site. I mean, I've softened my once hard-line stance on that, but it still puzzles me a little bit that the news items are IMO not given a fair shake.

I've been going on those reading a lot of them. I wish more conversation would ensue, though.

[nekrosoft13]

Reason why I often don't read NVNews reviews, simply because I don't know that there are reviews or when they get posted. I usually never visit the front page.

What would help is section of forum, where all front page stories/articles would get posted, and people would be able to discuss/talk about it.

Also more reviews wouldn't hurt, try to get a small review team, most of jus change update hardware quite often.

For example what neowin.net does is User Reviews one example below
http://www.neowin.net/news/neowin-member-reviews-apple-magic-trackpad

Where users from the forum write reviews about new hardware.

[ragejg]

Bearclaw, Necrosoft, thank for the replies.

Is the news not discussed a lot maybe because it is made by a bot and the posts even look kind robot-y?

We used to have a review team of a few people; I'm not exactly sure who else is on staff right now, as the staff section isn't up to date to the best of my knowledge.

And I'll be sure to look into that neowin link a little further than just a superficial read.

:)

[Bearclaw]

Bearclaw, Necrosoft, thank for the replies.

Is the news not discussed a lot maybe because it is made by a bot and the posts even look kind robot-y?

We used to have a review team of a few people; I'm not exactly sure who else is on staff right now, as the staff section isn't up to date to the best of my knowledge.

And I'll be sure to look into that neowin link a little further than just a superficial read.

:)

I just posted a news article, just linking to some tech news. If it's ok, I would love to continously post in the news section for stories.

[ragejg]

i think it's fine. :) ... that section is a good repository for articles that don't quite fit into othe predefined forum categories. i'll certainly make an effort to view and post in that section more, as a lot of the material in that section is about things that effect pc gamers from casual to hardcore enthusiast tweakers who spend a lot of time at xtremesystems.org.

[Bman212121]

I am not good at discussing things. usually just come to throwing punches. seriously, i mostly just skim them and head to the concluding thoughts.

Well I think that is the way a lot of people are. I'm honestely supsrised that methim actually read my big brick of text. A lot of times if the paragraphs are too long and drawn out I'll just start skipping. That's were the pretty pictures and graphs really help in reviews. Something visual makes it a lot easier to tell if it's good or bad rather than trying to read a bunch of numbers.

I like the news feed, the only time where it gets annoying is when the same article is posted because it's at 5 sites.

[nekrosoft13]

its also annoying where you click a news link, but there is no news posted, instead you find another link