Review panel?

[admin]

I know one or two people are going to be whinging unhappy about this idea, but I was thinking that maybe when we get something in for review that it's handed over to a review panel. The review panel bossman would be instrumental in delivering said product to reviewer, and the only criteria for being on the panel would be that you have proven writing skills and NHC staying power. Essentially you can opt in to the panel by writing something for the NHC.

Thoughts?

[LordEoin]

Seems like a good idea, provided the reviews are honest and open, not hidden in the member's only area.
However it might be best to have the supplier post it directly to the chosen reviewer to avoid delays. reviewer could pay the fiver shipping or something.

I was thinking of also starting a sticky in the Kit section that links to all the various kit reviews that have been posted.
The 2 ideas would go well together

[LordEoin]

Indeedy, but I think it should happen on the forum, then the thread gets condensed to a frontpage review.
My reason behind this is that reviewing a kit can take a few months from start to finish (ie brewday, secondary, bottling, conditioning, drinking day)
Also, there are usually some lovely hidden tips and tricks that pop up randomly in the life of a thread.

[Ciderhead]

Whinge Alert 
I have no issue with your reviews btw in fact that one on the mill was pretty good.
Clearly I and others are not arsed doing them as we have enough paperwork in our lives already and homebrewing is an escape from that, but the nasty evil Irish begrudery comes out of me(and others) when I see you or a panel or whatever you want to call it getting HB stuff stuff for free and to be honest I would prefer if the supplier sold his wares directly to us and we asked the awkward questions as I used to see on Beoir and then he/she gave a discount on a few or raffled once a quarter with a compulsory review by the winner of the raffle or otherwise winner pays for it.

The retailers to the NHC have a direct target audience of 500 members and unlike other homebrew forums have the run of the place free of charge, and of course there are obvious advantages to allow them best meet our requirements but there are also very obvious conflicts of interest that need to be addressed, this is one of those.
 
We have own own path to tread, that line becomes very grey when we are now doing the marketing and that review information is being used by the retailers in their own marketing efforts as well.
I also find it difficult to comment on something that a fellow NHC member reviewed as they are going to defend it to the hilt as they have it foc.

I would like to hear from the retailers on this as to what they would like to see from the NHC the best structure for delivery of their promos?

[LordEoin]

The retailers to the NHC have a direct target audience of 500 members and unlike other homebrew forums have the run of the place free of charge, and of course there are obvious advantages to allow them best meet our requirements but there are also very obvious conflicts of interest that need to be addressed, this is one of those.

Everyone has the right to come on here and do as they will free of charge. The only difference is that these guys sell us stuff and occasionally give us stuff to test. I see no problem with that.
 

We have own own path to tread, that line becomes very grey when we are now doing the marketing and that review information is being used by the retailers in their own marketing efforts as well.
I also find it difficult to comment on something that a fellow NHC member reviewed as they are going to defend it to the hilt as they have it foc.

Screw being politically correct. If a review is false, call it out.
The beauty of being a forum/community is that there will always be conflicting opinions.
These different opinions can occasionally turn into minor disputes but eventually just get left as differences of opinions.
Obviously someone who gets some kit for free will see it through slightly 'rose tinted glasses', and that's fine.

By the way, remember that people also review stuff that they bought themselves.
For example, I'm currently reviewing a kit I bought and it will probably be uploaded in the kit section once it has cooled enough to pitch the yeast.
I don't think it would be much different to a review i'd do if i got it FOC.
At the end of the day, a review is a review. if it's honest it's useful for both the retailer and the community, otherwise it's not.

[irish_goat]

How about any kit review has to include a score based on tasting at a meetup? That way the reviewer can still think it's great because he/she brewed it and it was foc but anyone at the meetup will be honest.

[Garry]

Yay from me too.

If the club gets a product for free, it's only fair to the supplier that it goes to someone that will do a well written review. 

If a product is below par there is a polite way of pointing out it's flaws rather than just saying "this is crap". Besides, I don't think we'll be receiving any sub-standard products to review, that wouldn't make sense for the retailer.

This is a public forum so you have to be honest in a review, else someone will call your bluff.

[Hop Bomb]

The freebies for review is kinda weird. The companies dont donate anything to the club or the forum to help with its running but they can post their ads in the for sale section all the time, send people free stuff for review which then gets the front page generating more advertising & clicks to their website. All for a tiny 5% discount.

If you take the brewing network for example (granted they have 20,000 podcast listeners so have more weight when it comes to sponsorship) Their advertisers pay them to advertise & also offer 10% off to all their members. 

Why dont ye just do banner ads & have advertisers pay. At least we'd get something that benefits the whole club.

[Garry]

How about any kit review has to include a score based on tasting at a meetup? That way the reviewer can still think it's great because he/she brewed it and it was foc but anyone at the meetup will be honest.

Yes, a second opinion would be good. A meet-up would be best but this mightn't suit everyone. If there was a review panel then maybe the reviewer could send a couple of bottles to others in the panel?

[LordEoin]

wow.. we're complicating things again...
Just remember, there are more reviews done on paid kits than freebies.

Why not just leave it simple
- kits get reviewed
- reviews get linked in sticky
- then there's a nice handy resource for anyone looking to try a new kit, and a source of frontpage material.

Freebies are a different matter. The more I read, the more I think we should just stick to raffling them off to paid members and having the retailer mail them directly to the winner. The retailer gets a link to his product in the review, members a chance to win some freebies, the forums gets more decent content, the publishing team can condense review threads to a front-page article if they want.
Winners all round!

The idea of the panel organizing getting the freebies, deciding who gets them, organizing delivery, following up on reviews, ensuring club meet tastings go ahead etc seems like an unnecessary effort.
A more realistic scope would be that a panel would facilitate the raffle,  inform the winner how to claim their prize, follows up to make sure a review gets done or the person gets blacklisted from future raffles. I'm sure that no paid club member would like to be on a club blacklist.

The idea of a panel is still a good one, but lets not over complicate things.

[Eoin]

Does this happen every time a kit is sent out? I get the impression it's not happened at least once. Hence the rule sought

Sent using a complex system of semaphore and ninjas.

[LordEoin]

A kit not getting reviewed should be pretty uncommon if only paid members are eligible.

[Padraic]

I'd prefer that we weren't reviewing shops kits etc. As stated above they are gaining more from the relationship than we are!

[LordEoin]

They're going to get reviewed regardless of where they came from.

How about we move this thread to the members' area and out of general viewing?

[LordEoin]

If it doesn't disqualify me from entering raffles.
I like me bingo and me raffles!