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New Tool Review Forum - Food For Thought ?

My experience with this both from a website review end and working with print publications. On websites, the reviewers generally are compensated in one or more of the following:

1) Exposure/name recognition that comes with being associated with the review. Perhaps their company name is linked at the end of the review for example.
2) They are paid to do the review. On the website end, this is generally not that common. It's more typical in print publications but does not pay incredibly well. Usually in the $200-500 range. That's how it works in the 3d computer graphics industry anyway.
3) They get free product in exchange for doing the review. While the immediate reaction might be this contributes to a biased review, you counter this by being upfront in the article that the reviewer received product in kind. You also tell the company providing if a review is done, it's with the understanding it will be a balanced and fair review, showcasing both good and bad. Usually if you find bad things with the product, you can reach back to the company to get their feedback. Perhaps the next version is addressing the issue, perhaps it's user error etc. Then include that in the review. Finally, if you write balanced reviews, people will see that and you build trust with the audience and the companies providing the products for review.

Most people who do reviews are not looking to get paid or get something for free as they are generally looking to contribute to the community by supporting it. The exposure and other perks are just a bonus. Generally unless you are paying someone, you're not likely to find someone random to just provide content.
 
WRT forum points, my comments are just a suggestion...and I'm not married to it. Josh, you and I have spoken about this before. I think going forward Admins and Moderators need to ensure you minimize workload and manual intervention as much as possible. Otherwise we'll lose good talent and experience leading the forum as it becomes too onerous. You created a good thing here, so if the software doesn't allow it easily, don't bend over backwards to do anything manually.
 

Thanks!

The issue is that Xenforo launched a major overhaul of their software, they described it as: "many new features and significant changes under the hood, with the core code having been completely redesigned."

This happened Dec 1 2017, so I have been reluctant to try any 3rd party plugins / components that were created before that time.

It might be fine.... I likely just need to setup a new testing server and give it a whirl, just haven't yet, I suppose, haha.
 
This happened Dec 1 2017, so I have been reluctant to try any 3rd party plugins / components that were created before that time.

I hear ya! I have always been reluctant to add too many 3rd party add-ons to our system too for the same reasons. We have a handful and some custom developed ones, but it also means every time you upgrade you have to be concerned that it might break the forum or that possibly poor programming in the add-ons add security holes.
 
I hear ya! I have always been reluctant to add too many 3rd party plugs to our system too for the same reasons. We have a handful and some custom developed ones, but it also means every time you upgrade you have to be concerned that it might break the forum or that possibly poor programming in the add-ons add security holes.
Exactly. We're on the same page here.

I've installed a few in the past too, a handful of them immediately broke during that big update, which definitely puts me into the category of "once bitten, twice shy".

I am biding my time a bit, as I know the applications will generally be updated to support the new version, particularly stuff from teams like Brivium, they obviously have a vested interest in making sure it all keeps working.
 
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