Awards are Worthless - Introducing Recommended Tags
 

For our dedicated readers and forum visitors I'd like to post this preview link to a work in progress article which details our new "Recommended Tag" system to point out to our readers what products stand out from the crowd and why.

Your input, ideas, remarks, critics are much appreciated: http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=get...&articID=5 34

alright, a few thoughts then (not all too pleasant). keep in mind that these are just observations and feelings, not accusations & that i'm only saying it to help.

- you say awards are useless, but to me it looks like a big part of the reason you'll move to this system is that the sponsors will get off your back (no longer whining about awards). afterall, to them, a recommendation is the same as an award. it might not be a big ringer like "best of test" and "editors choice", but "recommended high end" doesn't sound too bad either, does it? in essence, to prevent this, you'll need to make some pretty dang clear rules amongst reviewers to be selective with those recommendations. or you'll end up as the thing you're trying to fight.

- with the abundance of recommendation classes, it pretty much looks like you'll be putting a recommendation on almost everything, except on the stuff that'll cause your pc to implode. this of course might make you a bit more popular for the sponsors (the people that give you hw to review). once again, you'll need to be sparse with it, or you'll loose credebility.

- the recommendations look pretty neat. just the 1+1 i don't really like. sure, it's "easy calculus" and therefore novice, but still. i wonder if something more humorous might not fit in better? (een fopspeen? ^^ although that's probably not classy enough)

- another possible addendum to the logo is to add "Recommended" into the logo itself. so you dont have to write it above & that way producers/sponsors can use the logo itself without extra hassle. example:
High End
[M]adshrimps
Recommended


i like the initiative, but do realise you're threading on thin ice. so watch your step & take your time. that's better than trying to rush it & do an halfassed job. ;)

like we said; these are for the readers; not the mfgrs; I have lots of room on my back, and they can all jump on there without a problem, not doing this to get anybody of my back:) If that would have been the case, I would not have waited 5 years for this.

the recommended tags are there for the readers, and internally we will discuss heavily to see if a certain piece of hardware deservs it, because yes, we need to avoid putting a tag/logo in every review "just because".

we do have a bit of added variation with bronze/silver logo's, but I personally like to keep things clean & simple;

the logo's are paid & done at this moment; don't really have the skills to get them altered to fix them, the 1+1 is do-able for the purpose I guessed?

good to hear that affirmed once again.

it's really sad to see that pretty much all the really big sites lately have been involved in one or more mini-scandals over the years.

in the end, i think all sites are "corruptible" up to a certain point. there's little use denying it, but a clear and transparant system can keep most of it at bay. and therein probably lies the power of medium-sized hardwarecommunities, i guess. they are popular enough for manufacturers to bother sending stuff to, but they are small enough not to be sucked into a world of favoritism simply to get that one scoop everyone has been waiting for.

i really wouldnt go for any extra logo's. you already have more than enough. it'd beat the purpose.

no need to alter them on my account! not just for lil' ol' me ;)

roundups >>> awards

if a company doesn't have the balls to send their product, it won't even pop up on my radar


I also doubt that awards work to sell a product, I doubt that a good product would sell worse if there are no awards on it.

If you want to point out what type of user the product would be good for, do it in the conclusion. The tags only make things more confusing if there is a good conclusion.

the tags would be there as addition to the conclusion/recommendation;

they will be very rarely used in roundup tests; unless one product really stands out.

also, please understand that these are not awards, Awards are for the companies/products; the recommended tags are for our readers to help them spot a better than average product:)

@SuAside: I agree on the silver/bronze logo's, there are enough as it stands now, will think trice before using any of the other ones;

also since the tags are user recommended, we can change/alter/remove/add them depending on user feedback, experience, etc;

I LIKE THE FORMAT.:woot: :woot: :woot:

Biggest problem, is it`s use and it`s limitations.
Time can be the only judge over that, though.
As for it`s use, I`ll probably leave that up to you, just like the final editing.
For all things, there need to be people.:ws:

only gripe i have is the overlap, what distinguishes performance from high end? etc
it's not really that clear even from the explications provided.

Performance can be "or lower end hardware like 7900GS with high OC, or 7300GT with DDR,…"

High End is strictly... high end gear; yes they can co-exist in my humble opinion, unless "High End is always = Performance". but where does that leave high performance PC6400 memory or 7900GTO ?

well well well, look at this:



took them 5 years, but some review sites are actually changing their "useless" awards to something a bit more meaningful !

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7173/s...dels-tested/12