Hmmm, this is pretty cool. Not really a hammock hiker but could be. I have been looking for a really light weight alternative for my speed hike coming up... ;)

Looks like it's time to get writing!!  I have been thinking about getting a Hammock for a while and this would work out great!! 

Wolf

awesome thanks for another great contest!! Time to review that tent...

Excellent! I bet all of you have a gear review or two in you that you're ready to share. 

Alicia, does a 4 season tent count? I mean I know they are intended for deep winter use but they can be utilized year round...

I just used mine on a recent trip a few weeks ago and I think Tipi pretty much uses his year round.

Rick-Pittsburgh said:

Alicia, does a 4 season tent count? I mean I know they are intended for deep winter use but they can be utilized year round...

I just used mine on a recent trip a few weeks ago and I think Tipi pretty much uses his year round.

 If you can and do reasonably use it in summer, you're in. Go for it.

Cool, thanks. I think its about time to do a Soulo review... Honestly, I only used it for the recent trip just to see how it would perform in warmer temps.

Hmmm... I would like to do a review on something more "warm weather specific."

Off to the bat cave to look around.

I will come up with something. I am doing the Soulo review here shortly regardless.

Rick, didn't you read the small print,

"All Moderators named Rick are excluded from winning said Hammock"

  You have to much fun as it is!  :p

Wolf :)

Wolfman said:

Rick, didn't you read the small print,

"All Moderators named Rick are excluded from winning said Hammock"

  You have to much fun as it is!  :p

Wolf :)

Lol, I missed that. Guess Alicia slid that one in under my nose...

I have to agree with ya. I have a "ton o' fun" here. This place is like a playground for me when I am not on trail.

All the members here are awesome...

Rick-Pittsburgh said:

Wolfman said:

Rick, didn't you read the small print,

"All Moderators named Rick are excluded from winning said Hammock"

  You have to much fun as it is!  :p

Wolf :)

 

Lol, I missed that. Guess Alicia slid that one in under my nose...

I have to agree with ya. I have a "ton o' fun" here. This place is like a playground for me when I am not on trail.

All the members here are awesome...

Bring on the reviews, Rick and everyone else who has some gear opinions to share. The only people who aren't eligible to win are Trailspace staff and our family members.

Just wanted to throw my opinion into the mix, and I think it would make for an interesting conversation.

I believe this way of determing a winner favours the quantity rather than the quality of any given review. I've been reading through the recent reviews and a lot of them aren't much more than 2 or 3 sentences. With each of these entries people get another chance of winning. If someone were to take half an hour to write a through, in-depth review and someone else fired off 5 in that time they'd have a much higher chance of winning. I know personally I read all the in-depth reviews, sometimes a couple times, whether or not I am looking into buying that product. A lot of these "Great product, love the velcro straps at the bottom" reviews aren't helpful at all.

I love the way the gear review of the month winner is chosen. Quality is chosen by all, and so far there have been some fantastic and well deserved winners. 

Obviously a system like this is helpful in getting people to the site, generating new members.

What are everyone else's thoughts?....

I wondered how long it would take until someone brought up Jake's concern — quality versus quantity — which I understand and appreciate. I'm glad our members want reviews to be the best possible, and glad Jake raised this issue.. 

First, rest assured that we will continue to recognize and encourage high-quality reviews on Trailspace, through Reviewer of the Month recognition, Killer Review status, helpful ratings, and Review Corps reviews.

Top-rated reviews continue to get higher status on product pages than other reviews. Quality, in-depth reviews are very important and valuable, and that's not going to change. Thanks to all of you, like Jake, who take the time to write and share them with the community. It's appreciated.

However, quality and quantity are related. You'll have a hard time having quality reviews to share, if you also don't have a healthy quantity of reviews coming in.

We can —and need to — encourage more reviewers to take the step of actually writing a review. Taking that step is essential.

Not all reviews are going to be Killer or Top-Rated reviews, and that's OK. Virtually no one writes Killer or Top-Rated Reviews their first time out. But, if you get someone to take the step of writing a review, they may continue to write more reviews and may eventually move up the quality scale and/or become an active community member.

And if they don't, they've at least contributed some info in the form of a review and rating of a product. For example on Amazon, if a product has 100 reviews with an average rating of 5-stars, you don't need to read every single review, but you probably will look at the overall crowd-sourced rating and then read the top-rated, most helpful reviews to get both the gist and the best in-depth info.

While high quality reviews are the ideal, a rating and review is better than no rating and review. But, if you don't ask and encourage people to write reviews, you get nothing. 

I'd add that if you don't like or if you disagree with a review, the best course of action is to write and share your own and show them how it's done. (I know most of you in this thread have done that with your own quality reviews. Thanks!)

I think Jake's questions are good and valid and I'm curious to hear other members' thoughts on the subject.

How do you encourage people to write and share reviews, preferably good reviews, regularly? That's the core of our community that we want to encourage and recognize, but you still need a larger pool of reviews and reviewers to keep the community vital. Quality and quantity are both essential.

Sounds kind of like the rating system we were talking about earlier. I know I wrote a review of my Trailspace cap just to get in on the draw. I mean, I probably would have written one eventually, if it turns out to be as good as I think it will, but I banged one out just to get in.

One small concern, and I think I mentioned it earlier: I have a lot of gear, but I've reviewed everything I have that I think deserves recognition for one reason or another. Am I going to go out and buy a new toy, just so I can review it on Trailspace? As much as I'd like to, I don't think my wife would approve ("How many pairs of hiking boots do you really NEED anyway?").

Someone just starting out might write a great review of something they've just bought, but as often as not, they're just gloating over their new toy. The review might be good, but it might also lack the balance and the substance that experience using other models would offer. And if they've never used it in the rain, how would they know how good it is?

I think I have been trying harder to put more effort into the reviews I do than when I started. I have even gone back to edit some with the recent tips that were implemented a few months back. I think one way to look at it is some contests are for the more in depth reviews and some contests are more hooks for getting new people in. I don't see anything wrong with that. So long as Rick doesn't win....jk...JK RICK!

giftogab said:

So long as Rick doesn't win....jk...JK RICK!

Oh, you done went and did it now lol. 

(Goes back to typing on current review he is working on frothing at the mouth mumbling "my precious" like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.)