Reviews improvement idea

[pt]

Nobody works even part-time. W1zzard puts in by far the most work since he writes all the programs, maintains the forums, and does reviews. I'm pretty sure he has a real job outside of Techpowerup, I just don't know what it is. If it appears someone is on the forums for hours on end, they most likely left their browser window open. Moderators get e-mail alerts for PMs just like you and e-mail alerts for reported posts. This allows us to log in for a minute or two, address a problem, and leave. We're not always waiting around.

w1z for a living as far as he told me, he makes software to anyone who pays him (freelance?), i asked him to do a software to control the world, but i'm short on money

 

[W1zzard]

w1z for a living as far as he told me, he makes software to anyone who pays him [ed.: a lot]

yup

 

[pt]

yup

lol at the edit, i want lots of moneis too

 

[keakar]

Or maybe remove all the pictures from the review in the first post? The pictures are what take so long to load and take up the most space.

you have to have pictures with a review, but maybe formated differently or in a link maybe would help. that way you put one picture in the review and a link to more views so you only load pictures if you want to see more of what it looks like.

 

[Thermopylae_480]

People like Malware and Jimmy are close to full time, arent they? Sure they are news staff but news staff generally has people with sharp command over english, and that thair english can be very decorative, your english is 100% fine, but your style of writing is more technical than decorative. You need both.

Technical writing should be the goal of reviews. It should be written with a scientific and analytical approach in order to clearly convey the results indicated from experimentation. Colorful, creative writing is for short stories, and works of fiction. The purpose of a review, or any other technical form of writing, is to concisely, and clearly deliver as much information as possible without any ambiguity; not to entertain the reader.

 

[btarunr]

I don't deny that at all but we also need to keep in mind the target audience. People from all walks of life who couldn't be having a technical know-how should learn to make informed chioces based on our reviews on-par with those readers with the technical know-how. Think about the larger section of audience.

By decorative I do not mean pretty graphics, teasing language "This card rocks!" etc, no. What I mean is that in a statement in a review like eg: "This GPU has 36 Pixel Shader units" you could hyperlink "GPU" and "Pixel Shader" in this way: "This GPU has 36 Pixel Shader units." So that key words in the first few sentences in the article could point to a reference wiki article, in a manner similar to how Wikipedia's articles are built. By doing this simple step, we empower even the most non-technical people in understanding our technical reviews better and we could build on this reputation and end up attracting both nerds and jocks to our site looking for help with purchasing computer hardware. Now It takes a very little community effort to modify each of W1z's reviews this way so people reading our reviews start thinking "here's a tech-site that makes my life easier and I don't feel inferior to those with high technical know-how"

That's all I meant by 'decorative', not a hip-hop "buy this shit yo!" or teen "this card totally rocks man!" but something that caters to the larger audience: "This GPU has 36 Pixel Shader units.".

Again I understand it would make the reader lazier and that he wouldn't have to google-out everything but if we build the TechPowerUp! Reference Wiki further, we will give a massive boost to the hitrate by such method of linking technical terms to its Reference Wiki article.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

Technical writing should be the goal of reviews. It should be written with a scientific and analytical approach in order to clearly convey the results indicated from experimentation. Colorful, creative writing is for short stories, and works of fiction. The purpose of a review, or any other technical form of writing, is to concisely, and clearly deliver as much information as possible without any ambiguity; not to entertain the reader.

Ima agree. Most of us on the forums are used to the "OMG LOL THAT WAS H4X" writing style and think Therm is right. The mature users are like... ok serious time, gotta read a review. Remember W1z is a professional guys. Anyway, this is a fact sheet. It is like a lab report from school. The data, tables, and finally the analysis. (overly simplified, but you get the point).

 

[Kreij]

If this site were to switch to video reviews I would never see them.
I know that I am simply another internet user and my opinion holds about as much weight as a flea's testicle, but I can jump to the information I want in a text review in seconds and not have to sit through whatever other BS is in a video.
If I want to quote a review in a forum, I can cutnpasta an text I want.
I like Tom's reviews (as well as others), but I have never watched any website's video review.

W1z is right ... Text reviews FTW !!

 

[Thermopylae_480]

I don't deny that at all but we also need to keep in mind the target audience. People from all walks of life who couldn't be having a technical know-how should learn to make informed chioces based on our reviews on-par with those readers with the technical know-how. Think about the larger section of audience.

By decorative I do not mean pretty graphics, teasing language "This card rocks!" etc, no. What I mean is that in a statement in a review like eg: "This GPU has 36 Pixel Shader units" you could hyperlink "GPU" and "Pixel Shader" in this way: "This GPU has 36 Pixel Shader units." So that key words in the first few sentences in the article could point to a reference wiki article, in a manner similar to how Wikipedia's articles are built. By doing this simple step, we empower even the most non-technical people in understanding our technical reviews better and we could build on this reputation and end up attracting both nerds and jocks to our site looking for help with purchasing computer hardware. Now It takes a very little community effort to modify each of W1z's reviews this way so people reading our reviews start thinking "here's a tech-site that makes my life easier and I don't feel inferior to those with high technical know-how"

That's all I meant by 'decorative', not a hip-hop "buy this shit yo!" or teen "this card totally rocks man!" but something that caters to the larger audience: "This GPU has 36 Pixel Shader units.".

Again I understand it would make the reader lazier and that he wouldn't have to google-out everything but if we build the TechPowerUp! Reference Wiki further, we will give a massive boost to the hitrate by such method of linking technical terms to its Reference Wiki article.

Okay, I see what you mean. I just didn't want to see anything like, "The sun glistened on the fire engine red HD 3850 as I pulled it from the steely packaging, and foam that looked like an egg crate. As I gazed upon the card it reminded me of a sprawling futuristic metropolis, filled with towering structures and intricate roadways."

 

[btarunr]

^almost spilled my coffee

 

[OnBoard]

Or maybe remove all the pictures from the review in the first post? The pictures are what take so long to load and take up the most space.

you have to have pictures with a review, but maybe formated differently or in a link maybe would help. that way you put one picture in the review and a link to more views so you only load pictures if you want to see more of what it looks like.

He didn't mean removing pictures from the review, just from the first forum post. You still see every picture from the link supplied in the first post and it would remain the same. I love pictures, more the merrier and higher the quality the better (for a degree obviously, you run out of display resolution eventually).

What newtekie1 suggested was to have just the text of the review (with a link to full) in the forums part. Text should load quite fast (even when long), but not take space like the pictures do, that you have to scroll for eternity.

Like the idea, if it's easily doable. That would remove the annoyment that this thread was about, but still allow to quote some text part of the review. Made too general topic name, but seems it was just good, spawned some discussion

 

[OnBoard]

Okay, I see what you mean. I just didn't want to see anything like, "The sun glistened on the fire engine red HD 3850 as I pulled it from the steely packaging, and foam that looked like an egg crate. As I gazed upon the card it reminded me of a sprawling futuristic metropolis, filled with towering structures and intricate roadways."

n1 Thermopylae_480, that almost sounded dirty. Like soon you were going to talk about how you looked upon caressing the towery shapes and felt the female ports on the back, just to insert the male DVI connector gently but firmly on place and then screw it tight

 

[pt]

if anyone on tpu can review hardware like this pls do so
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art.../zeropunctuation/2808-Zero-Punctuation-Crysis

best reviewer ever

 

[King Wookie]

Okay, I see what you mean. I just didn't want to see anything like, "The sun glistened on the fire engine red HD 3850 as I pulled it from the steely packaging, and foam that looked like an egg crate. As I gazed upon the card it reminded me of a sprawling futuristic metropolis, filled with towering structures and intricate roadways."

Thermopylae, I think you missed your calling.

 

[craigwhiteside]

if anyone on tpu can review hardware like this pls do so
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art.../zeropunctuation/2808-Zero-Punctuation-Crysis

best reviewer ever

lol.......