User blog:Soupperson1/Reviewing

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I believe there's only been about 9 reviews in the past 6 months. :/ Yes, that is pathetic. I have a solution to this problem though, weekly reviews. If at least 7 of us all say we'll review a set once a week, e.g. Me-Thursday User1-Friday, User2-, we'll be treating the site with a review daily, one of us each day. It be best if we all picked a theme or two, e.g. if you have lots of Bionicle review them. Though we wouldn't have to it could be easier.

Benifts of Reviewing

For us

We are using our lego more. I have no doubt some of you leave the set and let it collect dust. So you'll be able to use that dusty set in writing a review.

Reviews are fun to make, you can make your review funny if you please.

For the site

New users: if the site post reviews daily, it's bound to get some attraction. If they enjoy our reviews hopefully they'll join this great site.

Free sets:The LEGO group gives out sets to popular sites like Eurobricks and Heartlaketimes. If our reviews are popular, hopefully it will happen to us too.*

Review section is alive again:As I metioned before the review section is pretty dull and lifeless now, we shall change that!

No money shall be invested in a review site:The review section can stay here unless really popular, as new users will easily find themselves onto articles.

We beat wikia:I believe wikia Is almost as active as us, we have to change that, by bringing more users to the site.

Conclusion

Please sign up in the comments, and say what day you'd like to review. Also reviews take at most an hour to make.

  • If I win any free sets I will donate them to the site for prizes, as I don't feel comfortable handing out my address online, even to the LEGO group.
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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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Meiko brings up a good point about balance. The issue though is that we have none, so until we actually start getting heaps of reviews, I wouldn't worry about getting heaps of reviews. :P We do need to figure out a better system, and we could start with something like this. I am a little afraid it would fizzle out though, especially since I probably don't have 52 sets worth reviewing just for one year, but I would be willing to try since I know that I have plenty which I could, but they probably wouldn't be pictorial because I am awful at taking pictures and even worse at actually uploading them. (That is why I have absolutely no physical MOCs on Customs. :P )

I do like this idea and I could probably churn out a review every week, not that they would all be so ridiculously thorough. I might not have 52 sets worth reviewing, but with some CMFs and taking a week off here and there, I might be able to do it. They certainly wouldn't be pictorial though. Another thing we should probably do is advertise reviews in news more. Either individually or together in an article.

Oh, and we do get free sets from TLG now, I guess you missed that. Meiko did a review of the MINI Cooper somewhere and we were trying to get a review of The Tumbler, but let's not talk about that. :P
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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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Hm, even when I proofread I don't catch my mistakes....
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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I presume you buy at least 52 sets a year, and I believe you have like 300 sets. :P The CMF is a great idea, I could easily do if with animal packs. Also if you don't like the set do a rant, if you like/okay a set that's a good nice review, if you love the set talk on about the set.

You don't need to take pictures. :)

More free sets, the better! :P we only have 42 users, so I doubt were LEGOs number one site to get sent to.
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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on each Sunday we could advertise them as weekly news, unless the set is brand new or not out yet. Or somthing like that.
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ToaMeikoHonorable Brickipedian

123 months ago
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Based on our statistics we got a value of €600 allotted to us. We have €220 remaining for the rest of the year if you have any suggestions. And seeing as our statistics were better this year than they were in 2013, we'll likely have a larger budget from LEGO next year (but unfortunately after I turned in our statistics to LEGO last month, our site grew nearly twice as much in viewership).

(and yeah, let's not talk about the Tumbler review...)
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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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I don't know how many sets I buy a year, but I think it's less than 52. :P I probably can come up with things to review though, so I'm not so worried.
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CligraBricktastic

123 months ago
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As someone who has just kinda gotten back here, would one of you mind explaining how exactly the whole "getting stuff from LEGO" thing works?

Also, I think a weekly news post with all new reviews in it (um.. when there are any :P) would be a good idea, just to drum up awareness a bit.
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1999bugAmateur

123 months ago
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I'd love to, but the majority of my old sets are disassembled and I rarely buy new ones, so..
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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you can use old pictures for your old sets
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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I mean as in Google for pictures for the sets
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ToaMeikoHonorable Brickipedian

123 months ago
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No he can't; we're not going to be using someone else's pictures in our reviews.
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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What about LEGO's pictures?
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ToaMeikoHonorable Brickipedian

123 months ago
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Many people look at reviews to see photos that highlight features of the set and it's build as they're described in the review, not to look at stock images of the product.
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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It be better then no reviews, building sets take time, if you have to take pictures of the set, it would annoy most people and be a turn off. One of my favourite reviews, when I was younger were Nightshrouds on site pictorial reviews, especially the garage. Some of our featured reviews even use stock pictures.
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AjraddatzAmateur

123 months ago
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I always wanted to make a better system for reviewing.... but never did. :3 Maybe sometime in the future.
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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I hope you'll consider, in the future! :)
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BrickfilmNutBuilding Bigger

123 months ago
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Replying to your message here instead of on a talk page. :P Anyway, I planned to do a whole bunch of reviews in the near-coming future; I just need to find a cord to hook my camera up to my computer again, as my current one is broken. So, basically, I'll probably be helping fill up the review namespace quite a bit soon, but I won't be signing up to this. Besides, I don't really care for the constraint of having to review something weekly; I only want to review something that I actually feel I have something worthwhile saying about.
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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The only problem with reviewing randomly, you won't get any site traffic. If you think for a minute I'm sure you have an opinion on most sets, or you wouldn't have bought it.
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BrickfilmNutBuilding Bigger

123 months ago
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It's not a matter of having an opinion on a set or not. Most people can form enough of an opinion of a set from looking at the images and pages about it online. It's about whether I have anything to say that may not be obvious from this alone. For example, in my upcoming Chima review about the Bat Striker or whatnot, I discuss the wings of the set, which is hard to get an idea of without buying the set (as I learned), whereas for a set like Karai's Bike Chase, there was absolutely no new perspective buying the set offered, or at least none that wasn't covered in another review elsewhere, so I don't really feel a need to review it. Because why would I create something that offers no value to the reader? It'd be a waste of my time.
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IchindarBrick Master

123 months ago
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Joining. But, I'll not sure if I can do every week...

Will do Ninjago, mostly.
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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Yay, that was almost immediate! Thank you, please before your first review read Forum:Brickipedia: The reincarnation/Reviews. Ooh also you don't have to but would it be possible for you to pick a day for reviewing?
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IchindarBrick Master

123 months ago
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Saturday? Not sure if I'll be able to keep it up, though.
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ToaMeikoHonorable Brickipedian

123 months ago
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The problem with reviewing daily is that 1) you have to manage the schedule (i.e. having a set to review every week and having our users able to put out a good review each week) because that's what visitors will come to expect, and 2) there's a strong chance visitors will pass the opportunity to read our reviews since they'll be more frequent and less "special".

In my opinion our priority for reviews before we go making too many of them should be to get some consistent standards and regulations for how user reviews should be. See Forum:Brickipedia: The reincarnation/Reviews.
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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Reviewing weekly, I want seven people to pick a day. So the site has daily reviews. :P
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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"The problem with reviewing daily is that 1) you have to manage the schedule (i.e. having a set to review every week and having our users able to put out a good review each week)"

A review takes me 30-60 minutes to do. That's barely anything compared to the amount of time, most people spend on the Internet. I can manage the reviewing schedule, heck people can leave their review on my talk I'll do all the editing for them, if it takes them to long.

" 2) there's a strong chance visitors will pass the opportunity to read our reviews since they'll be more frequent and less "special"."

Brickshow,Jangbricks and BrickQueen post reviews daily which are quite popular. Also if we get readers to like a reviewer that be once a week, they'd stop by. :)

"In my opinion our priority for reviews before we go making too many of them should be to get some consistent standards and regulations for how user reviews should be. See Forum:Brickipedia: The reincarnation/Reviews."

Well send that link to the reviewers who sign up.

Anyway, Are you joining the weekly review team?(I need to make a better name)Your reviews are well written, and you have a lot of sets.
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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

123 months ago
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I'll try and post reviews weekly, mainly Friends&Disney Princess