Future of Product Testing on THP

[Mr. Satchmo]

While that "post-wh*ring" may annoy you, I cant tell you how much testers appreciate when someone leads feedback, any kind of feedback, on something the wrote.

I must agree with you, it really encourages us to work harder and harder, as well as working with the fellow testers, they also make us want to work even harder.

 

[Evok]

BOTH of these. As a tester, the good jobs and "attaboys" mean a whole lot, I can tell you that. Its great to get any feedback that people are reading aand following the hard work that goes into these testings because they certainly are NOT a cakewalk if you are doing it right IMO. By the same token its why I link to my old posts in every single new one, it makes it easier for people to get to over time when the page and post counts get higher and higher, but it really is a s simple as what Hawk says too, just skim until you get to the testers posts, its not like its that difficult to do.

Just my take though.

Yeah I see this alot and I think it's one of the best ways to do it. It's the ATV testing thread that lead me to THP and eventually lead me to buying my ATV. If I remember right it's InHartWeTrust that very clearly links his "initial thoughts" videos and first testing videos to all his posts after that. It makes skimming easier especially if you fall behind.

 

[Kmac]

Yeah I see this alot and I think it's one of the best ways to do it. It's the ATV testing thread that lead me to THP and eventually lead me to buying my ATV. If I remember right it's InHartWeTrust that very clearly links his "initial thoughts" videos and first testing videos to all his posts after that. It makes skimming easier especially if you fall behind.

As someone who's part of the ATV testing it's cool to read this even if I'm no jman or inhart. They both give amazing feedback though and do a great job.

 

[Evok]

As someone who's part of the ATV testing it's cool to read this even if I'm no jman or inhart. They both give amazing feedback though and do a great job.

Let me say there are a lot of great testers in there. Sorry Kmac I didn't mean to leave you out. OG is another one that lead me to my purchase and the forum, but yes IHWT is the one right off the top of my head due to the numerous gigantic detailed posts haha. I'd love to be a tester but I really dont know if I'd be able to sit and write such a detailed review. It really does take a certain someone to convey the message

 

[InHartWeTrust]

While that "post-wh*ring" may annoy you, I cant tell you how much testers appreciate when someone leads feedback, any kind of feedback, on something the wrote.

I agree 100%. It is time consuming to test and review, and with my current testing, I am trying to give it everything I have. I'm hard on myself and I'm a perfectionist, so I don't want to feel like I let anyone down or like I missed an opportunity. I feel it is my duty to do the absolute best job that I can, and this takes some time and effort...at times, a good bit of it. To me, it is great to hear someone say "thanks" and that they enjoyed reading or watching the review. It lets me know that my work isn't all for not, but rather that it did make it's way to someone and hopefully helped them out and their pondering out, in one way or another. Ultimately, that is the testers "job"...to get the info out there to others to help with their decisions and outlooks on the club. It is nice to hear that you are doing a good job...it's the same as your boss calling you into the office at work to tell you that you kicked ass on a project; you wear a smile for a little while after.

It may be childish or immature of me to enjoy little minute things like that, but to me, I do value it and it really makes it much more motivating for me to continue to give it all I have.

Yeah I see this alot and I think it's one of the best ways to do it. It's the ATV testing thread that lead me to THP and eventually lead me to buying my ATV. If I remember right it's InHartWeTrust that very clearly links his "initial thoughts" videos and first testing videos to all his posts after that. It makes skimming easier especially if you fall behind.

Yes, I do this for 2 reasons. 1) It was a requirement at a fitness forum I used to review different supplements for, so it is a habit and part of my "template", and I personally always found it to be useful myself in other fitness forum member's reviews,and 2) Jman did this in his i20 review, which was the first thread I really immersed myself in here at THP, and I liked it. It helped me to reference back when I wanted to see some previous posts that I faintly remembered but couldn't remember for certain what was said.

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

As someone who's part of the ATV testing it's cool to read this even if I'm no jman or inhart. They both give amazing feedback though and do a great job.

Yeah me neither haha,

but that's great that you bought the ATV LBE

 

[GolfZook]

Im new here but I really like the members testing clubs. To me it gives more honest and open feedback. Years ago in the wine business it was widely known that a lot of the higher rated wines were those that gave ad money or did something for the ratings folks. To me, when you have regular gofers testing the equipment it gives it a whole new perspective and for me it takes out the question of truthfulness in the review.

 

[cj3ap2]

I don't know if I'd say all the "good job", "congratulations" posts are annoying, especially after hearing those who've done testing say how much they appreciate them (which I can certainly understand), but I do feel they get to be a bit much.

I love that thp does the testing and when I'm doing my research on clubs I can get real reviews from regular golfers and people I've conversed with in other areas of the site; it's a rare and wonderful thing that is being provided. However I do feel it gets to be a bit daunting, even while skimming, when doing research on say 3 or 4 different models of clubs when you have to skim through 4 or 5 pages to get to one kernal of information at a time and it goes on for sometimes hundreds of pages.

 

[Evok]

Im new here but I really like the members testing clubs. To me it gives more honest and open feedback. Years ago in the wine business it was widely known that a lot of the higher rated wines were those that gave ad money or did something for the ratings folks. To me, when you have regular gofers testing the equipment it gives it a whole new perspective and for me it takes out the question of truthfulness in the review.

Totally agree. I found reviews from golf digest and all that crap but it wasn't untill I found this testing thread that I felt I had some truly unbiased, no BS reviews. It sucked me right in and I followed for days. I love the idea

 

[JeffReedMO]

I am relatively new (7 months or so), and I can honestly say, in my time here, I have never seen a bad testing thread. I have been in some more than others, but I think each and every tester chosen does a smash up job. Some go to lengths that others don't, but for the most part, you are getting a great wealth of information and insight, and as others have pointed out, you are getting that insight from scratch players, all the way up to the high handicap player. That means a lot, because you can cut through all of the fluff. I am not skilled enough technologically to produce a video with fancy music and special effects zooming in and out. I'd rather beat the product around a while, and tell you straight up, "I liked this. I didn't like this. This worked. This didn't."

And, with new members joining every single day, it seems we are going to have something of great value for a long time, and that is fresh perspectives moving forward. I told Kelly after my first write up with the ATV, I think people just assume we are getting "free stuff" and playing with it, but it's more work than anything. Work I LOVE, BTW. But testing is hard. Not necessarily the testing portion of it, on course and such. But putting into words, what you are experiencing and in a way others can understand and work with. And maybe its just me, but sometimes the testing becomes a contest. Not so much wanting to top the other reviewers, but maybe elevate your game to improve on something others are struggling with, that way, we can give a full review of the club. It's fun, but as I said, more work than I think folks sometime give it credit for.

But, it truly is an awesome experience to be chosen as a THP tester.

 

[Jman]

Im new here but I really like the members testing clubs. To me it gives more honest and open feedback. Years ago in the wine business it was widely known that a lot of the higher rated wines were those that gave ad money or did something for the ratings folks. To me, when you have regular gofers testing the equipment it gives it a whole new perspective and for me it takes out the question of truthfulness in the review.

Amen. Its one of the MANY wonderful things about THP. JB and GG have truly made it about the average golfers, and its one of the reasons it is so easy to become immersed in the site.

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

I am relatively new (7 months or so), and I can honestly say, in my time here, I have never seen a bad testing thread. I have been in some more than others, but I think each and every tester chosen does a smash up job. Some go to lengths that others don't, but for the most part, you are getting a great wealth of information and insight, and as others have pointed out, you are getting that insight from scratch players, all the way up to the high handicap player. That means a lot, because you can cut through all of the fluff. I am not skilled enough technologically to produce a video with fancy music and special effects zooming in and out. I'd rather beat the product around a while, and tell you straight up, "I liked this. I didn't like this. This worked. This didn't."

And, with new members joining every single day, it seems we are going to have something of great value for a long time, and that is fresh perspectives moving forward. I told Kelly after my first write up with the ATV, I think people just assume we are getting "free stuff" and playing with it, but it's more work than anything. Work I LOVE, BTW. But testing is hard. Not necessarily the testing portion of it, on course and such. But putting into words, what you are experiencing and in a way others can understand and work with. And maybe its just me, but sometimes the testing becomes a contest. Not so much wanting to top the other reviewers, but maybe elevate your game to improve on something others are struggling with, that way, we can give a full review of the club. It's fun, but as I said, more work than I think folks sometime give it credit for.

But, it truly is an awesome experience to be chosen as a THP tester.

Hehe I hope you aren't referring to me here. . .hehe

 

[JeffReedMO]

Hehe I hope you aren't referring to me here. . .hehe

Not at all. I admire the work you guys do with those videos. I wish I had the skill and the patience to sit down and do it. I don't, shameless admission. As I told IHWT in the ATV thread, I learn visually, which is why your videos and others are good for me. I noticed a few things Hart was doing, that I wasn't, and we struck up a conversation about it. And I can see where some would have a hard time following my reviews, because I do mainly just lay out, what I did, what I did wrong, where the product failed, succeeded, etc. I try to make it cut and dry, but like me, some learn and make decisions by visuals. I think the ATV thread is a good mix of techy dudes (Hart, you, Gray), and just some "beat the brakes off it and talk about it", (Me, DK, KMAC).

 

[roggey]

I don't know about you all, but I mainly skim the testing threads until I see something from the testers, so the good job posts don't bother me at all.

While that "post-wh*ring" may annoy you, I cant tell you how much testers appreciate when someone leads feedback, any kind of feedback, on something the wrote.

BOTH of these. As a tester, the good jobs and "attaboys" mean a whole lot, I can tell you that. Its great to get any feedback that people are reading aand following the hard work that goes into these testings because they certainly are NOT a cakewalk if you are doing it right IMO. By the same token its why I link to my old posts in every single new one, it makes it easier for people to get to over time when the page and post counts get higher and higher, but it really is a s simple as what Hawk says too, just skim until you get to the testers posts, its not like its that difficult to do.

Just my take though.

No doubt about it. I don't want that comment of mine to be taken out of context: I recognize that positive feedback is encouraging and feels really good to those receiving it, not to mention that it is well deserved; all I meant was that it gets seriously redundant if you see three straight pages of single line posts all saying exactly the same thing. I was not advocating for people to NOT compliment the work or posts of others by any means and, to add a little more clarity, I used 'good job' as an example but was referring just as much to posts that don't involve testing. I spend a lot of time on the computer every day, it's just one of those things that slows down my ability to be as active in forums as I might otherwise.

Testers putting links to previous posts in a testing thread is brilliant and is exactly the kind of thing that helps those 200+ page count threads become easier to follow.

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

Not at all. I admire the work you guys do with those videos. I wish I had the skill and the patience to sit down and do it. I don't, shameless admission. As I told IHWT in the ATV thread, I learn visually, which is why your videos and others are good for me. I noticed a few things Hart was doing, that I wasn't, and we struck up a conversation about it. And I can see where some would have a hard time following my reviews, because I do mainly just lay out, what I did, what I did wrong, where the product failed, succeeded, etc. I try to make it cut and dry, but like me, some learn and make decisions by visuals. I think the ATV thread is a good mix of techy dudes (Hart, you, Gray), and just some "beat the brakes off it and talk about it", (Me, DK, KMAC).

That's the amazing thing about THP forum testing, there are so many backgrounds and styles of testings from each person so a person interested in lets say the ATV wedge, get a variety of responses from different people-scratch players to high handicap players and each of them have different and similar things to say

The amazing thing about the ATV for example is that it has worked great for a majority of people from Tour pros to high handicappers and the ATV forum testing is really showing how much of a universal wedge it really is.

 

[pmoa]

I found testing to be rewarding, because I try to write information that I was searching for before the testing started. Im pretty sure if I had a question about something someone else does too. Testing is worth the time and effort especially if it helps even one person make a decision with their game. Its so hard to translate your testing to another player with similar game. Answering questions is fun.

 

[Kobey]

I'm in the group that finds too many attaboys a bit cluttering and hard to wade through. One reason my post count is low is because once someone else has already said what I wanted to, I don't post. But I do believe that good posts should be recognized. It makes the writer feel good and lets the other readers know that there is good information there.

I don't know if this is the place for this or not, but I propose a change to the way users are recognized for quality posts. The reputation system on the forum is outdated and I think it could be revamped. Since it isn't really used for anything, it could be changed to more of an unlimited system for showing approval. Something similar to what is in place now, but more obvious and easier for new users to find and use. I guess what I'm thinking of is a system similar to what other sites use, like Facebook's "Like" button.

I don't see any need for negatives. If you disagree with something in a post, the best way to handle it is to tactfully post a rebuttal.

One thing we don't always remember is that testing threads aren't just for the THP community. They are for the entire world to discover and learn from. If people are scared off because they have to slog through page after page to try to find the information they're searching for, then it hurts THP as well as the companies giving the items for testing.

Just my 2 cents.