Reading other people's reviews before you review a product...

Contributor: Ms. N Ms. N
Do you read other reviews of a product before you review it yourself? Do you think this helps you with writing your own review, or acts as a hindrance in some way?

Personally, I notice things that others may have left out, that I definitely will want to include in my review, or may see something that has been a problem for some people that I will want to tell whether or not that has been the case for me.
03/25/2012
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Contributor: Positwist Positwist
I do read other people's reviews, mostly to make sure I can say something about the product that hasn't already been said.
03/25/2012
Contributor: Silverdrop Silverdrop
If it's a product I've purchased for myself, then I would have read as many reviews as I could before I made the decision to buy. If it's a review item, then I'm probably one of the first people reviewing it. So either way, I don't specifically read other reviews to assist in my own review.
03/25/2012
Contributor: Nazaress Nazaress
I do read reviews before writing my own, or at least I look over them. I see what they may have left out or what I can improve upon, etc. It hasn't hindered my success so far.
03/25/2012
Contributor: voenne voenne
I generally write everything I want to say before considering reading someone else's review. Sometimes if I get stuck, I may glance over another review to see what they may have not covered. So that way I can get an idea, but I'm not stealing because I am trying to bring something different to the table.
03/25/2012
Contributor: indiglo indiglo
I read the other reviews to make sure I'm not repeating something that's already been well covered, and to see what kinds of things have been left out so far. Then I know what areas to concentrate on in my review without being redundant.
03/25/2012
Contributor: wildorchid wildorchid
I actually read the comments on other reviews to see if their are questions that contributors still have. If that's possible of course, sometimes it's a push assignment so there are no comments. I don't let what other reviewers sway what I want to write because reviews are about personal experiences, if their is something I want to talk about, I'll talk about it.
03/25/2012
Contributor: js250 js250
If it is a product I purchased, I read the reviews prior to purchase. If it is an assignment I will go over a few afterwards to compare the reviews. I like to have my own touch and spin on them.
03/26/2012
Contributor: unfulfilled unfulfilled
If it's an item I ordered for myself, I would have went through several reviews to determine if I thought the product was for me. If it's an assignment, I don't read the reviews (if there are any). I dont let what others have to say about a product affect what I have to say about a product. I include all the info I think is relevent and leave it at that.
03/26/2012
Contributor: Pixel Pixel
I don't read other reviews on the product before I'm writing mine, because I'm worried I might accidentally let other people influence me. I may read some afterwards though.
03/31/2012
Contributor: JessCee JessCee
Quote:
Originally posted by Silverdrop
If it's a product I've purchased for myself, then I would have read as many reviews as I could before I made the decision to buy. If it's a review item, then I'm probably one of the first people reviewing it. So either way, I ... more
Yes, this.

I do notice that I tend to look for problems/concerns I remember from the review I read prior to purchasing... sometimes I agree and have the same problem, other times I don't.

Now, reading other reviews doesn't really help me writing my own review, but I remember when I first started, reading other reviews helped me TONS with learning what is useful information for different types of products.
03/31/2012
Contributor: GONE! GONE!
It helps me because it reminds me of things I may not think to write about, like if I overall enjoyed a toy but there was a small problem someone else might have brought it up and I'll remember to talk about it too.
03/31/2012
Contributor: lilly555 lilly555
Like a lot of people on here if it's something I'm getting for myself, especially a toy, I have read the reviews and there are usually several to go over. With other items it depends on the product and how I feel about it. I'm always antsy to be the first to give a critical review on something .
03/31/2012
Contributor: Jul!a Jul!a
I do sometimes, and I did a lot more when I was first starting out to get a better idea of what kinds of things to include in my own reviews. Now I do sometimes to see if I'm missing anything, but not always.
03/31/2012
Contributor: MistressDandelion MistressDandelion
I do read other reviews to see if there are problems I had that others didn't mention, or problems I didn't have that other mentionned and also to kind of see how much text is good enough. Even tho using a word counter I saw that many reviews didn't have the required amount of words...

But then again everything I reviewed so far is self-bought.
04/02/2012
Contributor: Various Various
I write my review and then sometimes I check out a couple to see if there is anything I missed. For example, I tend to leave out tiny things like what lube is acceptable, so when reading I'll come to a line about lubricant and it reminds me that I didn't include it. I don't want to read a review and then write because I'm afraid I'll try to model it after what I've already read.
04/02/2012