I was thinking on this while writing a couple reviews today, and realized that there a lot of new names popping up that I don't know. Like Epiphora stated though, the people who don't care about the quality of their reviews won't get promoted to advanced reviewers. I do however believe that there are just more people joining the review program, period. It seems like every day there are a couple of reviews from people I have never seen before. With so many joining, there are bound to be some that just aren't up to par. Maybe people think the reviews don't need to be readable in order to get free toys? Maybe that “well written, copy edited” part missed them? I would hope that if I put out a bad review, someone would shoot me a message asking me what the heck was going on. I try not to write while I am drunk…but things happen you know less

I have found the opposite problem when I am writing a review. I always write in word and then re-read it like five times before I copy and paste it over into the actual review form. No matter how many times I go through and check the spelling it always says there are spelling errors. Is it because I use some slang or more expressive words that are not exactly grammatically correct. Words like cunt, ummm, minty, lol, and several others. Names of items are almost always "wrong" as they like to change the correct spelling to something that is more "cool."Knotty Scout, I am wondering exactly what you are talking about. Is it the reviews that have one or two spelling errors? Or are you talking about the reviews that almost every word is spelled wrong and there is no use of grammer? Also, what kind of spelling errors? Write instead of right? Or slang, or wrods taht aer speled lik this? Just would like to be sure I know exactly what you are talking about. One or two mistakes in an otherwise good review doesn't bother me at all. If a review is written so badly that I can't understand it, I just rate it honestly. "not useful at all" although I rarely run across this. less

Bah, i think i dropped a post somewhere.In any case, like adrianna mentioned - it's usually the misuse of homophones, or typos that were actual words - so they went under the spellchecks radar.I have a list on my other computer of links - but I'm not on my laptop now...but the day I posted that message I read 4 new reviews with errors in them. I think that is pretty significant. less

I have noticed it too, was just curious what specifically was annoying. Thanks for answering my question. I do agree that there are quite a few horrid reviews, and it is annoying to me as well. I don't quite get the mentality behind it, as I would be horribly embarrassed if people thought my reviews were horridly written.Jimbo- Sorry, I wasn't here in April. I joined the first of June, and am talking about the number of reviewers I have seen in that time. Sadly, my old vibe didn't break until the middle of may, or I would have joined sooner Another thing I have been wondering, do the reviews that get a massive amount of "not useful at all" votes get taken off the website? I had read one particular review that I couldn't understand even what the person was talking about. I rated it not useful and saw that several other people had as well. I later went back and was looking at that toy (don't remember what it was right now, obviously I didn't end up buying it) and saw that there were no reviews for that toy. Does this happen very often, or was I just mistaken? If that review was removed, thank you! less

Well, since you just joined in June, you are one of 95 reviewers whose first review posted that month.As of yesterday, 55 reviewers have had their first review in the month of July. If that pace continues for the rest of the month, then there will be fewer in July than there was in June.Yes, I too consider myself crazy for keeping track of this information.My records indicate that reviews are occasionally removed, but it doesn't happen very often. less

My original point was that when there are a large number of reviewers joining (and I would consider anything over 1 per day to be in that category) that there are bound to be people that don’t pay any attention to the guidelines or rules involved with the review process. I never said that there were more reviewers joining this month than last month. In fact, I never gave a specific duration of time, because I was talking more about longer periods of time as apposed to short periods of time, like months. What I said was “I do however believe that there are just more people joining the review program, period.” I guess I should have been much more specific. My focus wasn't really on the number of people joining, rather that there are bound to be careless reviewers when there are a large number of them. And yes, I realize that there might be a larger percentage of badly written reviews now than there might have been in April, but that doesn't change the fact that a large number of people could potentially mean a large number of bad reviews. In my last reply to you I was trying to clear up that I was only going off of what I personally had seen. I consider 50 new reviewers in a month to be a large number. Seems like a lot of interest in the program, even if it’s not as much as it was a couple of months ago. In case you thought I was trying to argue with you, let me clear that up now. I was not trying to argue with anyone. I was only giving my opinion and thoughts based off of what I had seen.While I am on the site many times throughout the day, I honestly don’t have the time to keep track of reviewers that join; I think I would just leave that up to you anyway Sorry my posts weren’t clear enough and I wasn’t able to get my point across the way that I had intended. less

Well said.I apologize if I came across as being argumentative. I was just stating facts as I saw them. The number of reviewers being added each month has been pretty high (greater than 1 per day) since last October. However, lately it does seem that there are more with spelling and grammar errors. I think some of that has to do with changes to the reviewer program in general and some of it has to do with the sheer quantity of new reviewers. With the way the review program is currently operating, it is very important that the reviewer carefully check their review or there will undoubtedly be typos and grammar problems. Bulma, I appreciate how well written your reviews are and how enjoyable they are to read.As far as keeping track of reviewers, I kind of enjoy it and generally I come in once a day to update my records with what took place the previous day, so I only have to be on once a day for about 15 minutes to do that. Any amount of time I spend on here beyond that is for fun and because I am not busy some where else. less

Would it be feasible to add an editor to the staff team? Hell, I'll volunteer. LOL I'm not sure what the approval process all entails but it's obvious that there are some changes being made to our reviews (like links added to appropriate sections on the site) but editing isn't one of these things? It might be smart to include that.The problem with leaving it entirely up to the reviewer is that even if I reread my review 100 times and first write it in a program like word, if I do not have a strong grasp of the English language, this will not help. less

Ha, I assumed it would take a lot longer than that. I spend more than 15 minutes on the site! I kind of had this picture in my head that it took 30 plus minutes a day. I am guessing that you just check the "just joined" tab by the "top reviewers" tab? At least that is what I would assume would be the easiest unless more than 5 people joined that day. And no, I don't think you're crazy at all for keeping track. At least if I'm ever curious how many new reviewers joined within a given month, I know who to ask less

I have found the opposite problem when I am writing a review. I always write in word and then re-read it like five times before I copy and paste it over into the actual review form. No matter how many times I go through and check the spelling it always says there are spelling errors. Is it because I use some slang or more expressive words that are not exactly grammatically correct. Words like cunt, ummm, minty, lol, and several others. Names of items are almost always "wrong" as they like to change the correct spelling to something that is more "cool."Knotty Scout, I am wondering exactly what you are talking about. Is it the reviews that have one or two spelling errors? Or are you talking about the reviews that almost every word is spelled wrong and there is no use of grammer? Also, what kind of spelling errors? Write instead of right? Or slang, or wrods taht aer speled lik this? Just would like to be sure I know exactly what you are talking about. One or two mistakes in an otherwise good review doesn't bother me at all. If a review is written so badly that I can't understand it, I just rate it honestly. "not useful at all" although I rarely run across this. less

With the slang words, you can add those to your MS Word, when going thru and doing an actual Spell Check. That way, once you add it, your slangs won't pop up as incorrect. I think that the more words are spelled correctly, and the sentences are put together well, it also instills a sense of knowlegeable people. My parents were teachers, so, that's the way I was brought up. I'm probably a bit too "anal" with my writing, for my own good sometimes! LOL less

Don't want to stir the pot, just wanted to show my concern. The quality of reviews from some of the new folks is just not what it was. I just read a review that made me cringe.Before I say this, let me reiterate that I am NOT perfect and I do make mistakes, so please do not think I am on my high horse.I, in my humble opinion, believe that the persons selected to review here should be a little more serious as writers then the average joe who just wants free toys. Of course the toys are fun, but I enjoy writing. That's why I am here. It's a venue for me, an outlet. I hope others feel the same. less

I am a fairly new member. I have only been on the site a few months. I look back on my first review now and I realize how atrocious it really is. When you are new to the site it took me a few times to really understand what the site was looking for in reviews. I plan to do plenty more reviews and I am now starting to get way more involved in the site. I believe that's all you really need to do. If you really care about the site then you'll spell check your work. I use word and Firefox and still have had some stuff come up wrong. I think instead of spelling 'smell' I accidentally put in 'small' and the spell checker didn't catch it. There's really nothing you can do unless there was someone going over each review to check for things like that. I don't think free toys are the driving force for me. I'm a reviewer and don't get free toys. Yes, I was denied! I don't really care about that though. I know I need to be more active and improve my future reviewings. You'd never know I took a million writing classes in college. Whenever I feel like I'm ready to take reviewing on more aggressively I will ask the administrator to reconsider me, but until I feel more comfortable on the site I'm not going to ask. So I guess my point is, some people really do want to be informative and creative but it's hard for newer members to get the feel for what is asked. less