10 ms·

> because you aren't aggregating professional reviews of these products outdoorgearlab.com looks like a professional review site to me in the context of being

> because you aren't aggregating professional reviews of these products outdoorgearlab.com looks like a professional review site to me in the context of being an affiliate marketing / review site. IMHO almost all reviews online are affiliate marketing these days, so what I'd really be interested in is a site that hosts reviews and doesn't allow _any_ affiliate marketing or external links. IE: No incentive to game the system with inflated review scores. And if you pay attention to those affiliate marketing sites that are disguised as review sites, note how they never give anything a bad review. "Poisoned my dog, caused my house to be condemned - 4.0/5.0 stars." Getting you to buy _something_ is the only goal.

skratlo 6y ago
outdoorgearlab.com ? you must be kidding me, in their reviews, they leave out ~50% of competition, and their sorting of best product in category is apparently a bidding game, shifted just right to make the results believable. I do spent lots of time on researching outdoor products for my own needs, and outdoorgearlab.com is a joke
- hnu0847 6y ago
  Where are the best places to find good information if not outdoorgearlab?
- bdamm 6y ago
  So, basically just like car & driver?
- hammock 6y ago
  OGL used to be great. They didn't get to where they are because of scumminess. However, the quality has dropped in the last few years, and they do seem to be more influenced by affiliate marketing these days.
  - svachalek 6y ago
    There's big money in affiliate marketing and very little in reviews so this gradual erosion is unfortunately universal in review sites.
jtbayly 6y ago
> No incentive to game the system with inflated review scores. There huge incentives from the companies who make the products to influence the ratings, regardless. Is there any way that this site can prevent fake reviews?
hammock 6y ago
Reddit is the biggest player in this space right now. "[xyz product] reddit" are very popular search terms.
- wyre 6y ago
  I think because without Reddit every result is an affiliate blog trying to sell the product. Reddit feels like the reviews come from real people.
  - nwienert 6y ago
    How to build the next Google: all good results these days are within communities, and Google search has become useless for most of these searches. So don't build a search engine: build a "rotten tomatoes for X" where the sources for each X are "the top N subreddits/communities/editorial-sites/forums for X". For example, supplements: examine.com, reddit /r/supplements /r/nootropics (long tail ones), wikipedia, etc. Then, final piece: make this aggregator site also a community (ala reddit/hn) where people vote on the results rankings, but also vote on how other people comment on them. Because you can lock down user accounts quite a bit (have high bar for registration with lots of verification for voting permissions), and you have a quality indictor for the users themselves (users voting on users), you may get much better results over time as the community sorts out who are legit and who isn't. I'm not saying any system is immune to optimization/spam, but it feels like Reddit, HN, SO, Wikipedia at least prove that if you want good quality content, rely on a community. Why not extend the model to search itself?
    - hunter2_ 6y ago
      I think wikipedia, HN, etc. are less suseptible because people don't use those sites as heavily to make purchasing decisions. Any community that helps with purchasing will be targeted by those interested in sales who figure out how to meet the "high bar" no matter what that may be. Even purchase verification isn't high enough these days (see recent unsolicited package scams such as the seeds from China).
Pxtl 6y ago
Straight up paid astroturfing is probably more lucrative and less obvious than affiliate links - It just requires more co-operation between the marketer and the salesman.
tomcam 6y ago
In your ideal version, how would the site get paid for?

skratlo 6y ago

outdoorgearlab.com ? you must be kidding me, in their reviews, they leave out ~50% of competition, and their sorting of best product in category is apparently a bidding game, shifted just right to make the results believable. I do spent lots of time on researching outdoor products for my own needs, and outdoorgearlab.com is a joke

hnu0847 6y ago
Where are the best places to find good information if not outdoorgearlab?
bdamm 6y ago
So, basically just like car & driver?
hammock 6y ago
OGL used to be great. They didn't get to where they are because of scumminess. However, the quality has dropped in the last few years, and they do seem to be more influenced by affiliate marketing these days.
- svachalek 6y ago
  There's big money in affiliate marketing and very little in reviews so this gradual erosion is unfortunately universal in review sites.

jtbayly 6y ago

> No incentive to game the system with inflated review scores. There huge incentives from the companies who make the products to influence the ratings, regardless. Is there any way that this site can prevent fake reviews?

hammock 6y ago

Reddit is the biggest player in this space right now. "[xyz product] reddit" are very popular search terms.

wyre 6y ago
I think because without Reddit every result is an affiliate blog trying to sell the product. Reddit feels like the reviews come from real people.
- nwienert 6y ago
  How to build the next Google: all good results these days are within communities, and Google search has become useless for most of these searches. So don't build a search engine: build a "rotten tomatoes for X" where the sources for each X are "the top N subreddits/communities/editorial-sites/forums for X". For example, supplements: examine.com, reddit /r/supplements /r/nootropics (long tail ones), wikipedia, etc. Then, final piece: make this aggregator site also a community (ala reddit/hn) where people vote on the results rankings, but also vote on how other people comment on them. Because you can lock down user accounts quite a bit (have high bar for registration with lots of verification for voting permissions), and you have a quality indictor for the users themselves (users voting on users), you may get much better results over time as the community sorts out who are legit and who isn't. I'm not saying any system is immune to optimization/spam, but it feels like Reddit, HN, SO, Wikipedia at least prove that if you want good quality content, rely on a community. Why not extend the model to search itself?
  - hunter2_ 6y ago
    I think wikipedia, HN, etc. are less suseptible because people don't use those sites as heavily to make purchasing decisions. Any community that helps with purchasing will be targeted by those interested in sales who figure out how to meet the "high bar" no matter what that may be. Even purchase verification isn't high enough these days (see recent unsolicited package scams such as the seeds from China).

Pxtl 6y ago

Straight up paid astroturfing is probably more lucrative and less obvious than affiliate links - It just requires more co-operation between the marketer and the salesman.

tomcam 6y ago

In your ideal version, how would the site get paid for?