Poll on reviews, reviewers, and you

[Vanuslux]

I read all of the reviews, even if I'm not interested in the book. I like knowing what's out there. I usually form my own opinions based on the information the review gives, thus being told why they did or didn't like a product is a lot more useful to me than the rating they give it.

 

[SpottyJungleCat]

only for content. I would not use what someone else liked or disliked as a basis of my megre buying capacity, if i did that and either missed something I might like or bought somthing that I didn't, i'd probably resent the reviewer... and really you all (reviewers) don't need that.

Tim

 

[Arnwyn]

I'll read them all, but take them with a (heavy) grain of salt. They all have their ups and downs (one reviewer used to only post basic "table of contents" reviews and no other comment, which was less than helpful - but he has vastly improved in recent years; a couple others could really use some proofreading and editing; and at least one seems a bit oversensitive to any comments that could be construed as negative - you know who you are ) so I make sure to read them all.

I particularly appreciate reviewers who tell me why they did or did not like something.

 

[The_Gneech]

I look for patterns ... if a bunch of reviewers complain about an aspect of a product ("What were they thinking throwing a Roper against a 4th level party?"), I'll pay more attention to it than anything any one reviewer says.

As for making/breaking a purchase, generally that only happens if I'm only peripherally interested in the first place ... and then usually it's more likely to make than break. You can generally assume I won't buy any given product, but if it catches my interest and then gets a lot of interesting and positive reviews, I'm more likely to take a second look.

-The Gneech