Would it make sense to have a section for product reviews for eco-friendly products?
There are lots of products out there that have added the word eco into their name, but its hard to tell which ones are actually better than their competitors (versus just rebranded) and whether or not they work as well as the "non eco" version. Hearing what other people use, and why could be very valuable and help people make decisions on what they will buy. Examples off the top of my head/ around the kitchen include:
Eco friendly dish soap, eco friendly glass/surface cleaner, various brands of fake meat (which taste good versus which make dog food seem gourmet), energy/power meters, solar thermal/ photovoltaic/wind turbine systems, appliances etc.
The value of having the review on a site like this is that you can see who the reviewer is and what else they are doing. If all they do is review one companies product and never touch the site again you are suspicious, if they are active on the site you have a much better reason to trust them.
This is something that has been brought up to me on a number of occasions and may be a useful tool in trying to attract sponsors. My fear is that it is beyond our scope. What do people think? Reply to comment
I was thinking something along the lines of what is done here: http://lumberjocks.com/reviews but with a shift in which products are reviewed. The reviews would be community generated by those who wish to write reviews. I don't think this would be very effective at generating sponsors directly (without compromising the integrity of the reviews) Reply to comment
This also got the steve/jeff vote of cool idea, scheduled for Sage.
We've got some concerns about whether or not it would end up becoming a monster, and taking our focus away from the core mission: give people the big picture, and get them doing things.
But as of now, it's on the slate, more feedback welcome! Reply to comment
I think if you keep them as their own section you won't have to worry about them overtaking the site. They also let you link the big picture to more actionable data. For example if you discuss the need for monitoring your electricity usage, and then can link to the review section on watt meters you can get a much better idea of which ones meet your criteria. If someone thinks "I should get a watt meter" they are less likely to go out and get one then if they think "I should get a watt meter, and that model looks cool. Ooh and people here say it worked well." Basically these should help translate the abstract I should do something to a here is how to do it.
The links could come from both big picture pages and guides and fixes. This also allows people to effectively add info to guides and fixes (which devices work/ don't work/ are really awesome in a given category) without needing to coordinate with the original fix/guide creator. If they link to the review section (with appropriate category or tag) the guide/fix is automatically kept up to date with new technologies/products as other users notice them. Reply to comment
There's definitely a compelling argument for doing this. They would get their own section, probably link back to the big picture and possible be tied into guides somehow, the question, in my opinion, is how to organize them in a way that is a bit more helpful than a list of feedback meters and various controls equipment under Smarter Systems. I don't know if its through tagging, us trying to define categories, or what.
In the end, definitely something we want to implement by March 1st, but probably won't happen before then because its such a big thing and we have so much other stuff to do first. Reply to comment
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There are lots of products out there that have added the word eco into their name, but its hard to tell which ones are actually better than their competitors (versus just rebranded) and whether or not they work as well as the "non eco" version. Hearing what other people use, and why could be very valuable and help people make decisions on what they will buy. Examples off the top of my head/ around the kitchen include:
Eco friendly dish soap, eco friendly glass/surface cleaner, various brands of fake meat (which taste good versus which make dog food seem gourmet), energy/power meters, solar thermal/ photovoltaic/wind turbine systems, appliances etc.
The value of having the review on a site like this is that you can see who the reviewer is and what else they are doing. If all they do is review one companies product and never touch the site again you are suspicious, if they are active on the site you have a much better reason to trust them.
Any one else have thoughts on this? Reply to comment
We've got some concerns about whether or not it would end up becoming a monster, and taking our focus away from the core mission: give people the big picture, and get them doing things.
But as of now, it's on the slate, more feedback welcome! Reply to comment
The links could come from both big picture pages and guides and fixes. This also allows people to effectively add info to guides and fixes (which devices work/ don't work/ are really awesome in a given category) without needing to coordinate with the original fix/guide creator. If they link to the review section (with appropriate category or tag) the guide/fix is automatically kept up to date with new technologies/products as other users notice them.
Reply to comment
In the end, definitely something we want to implement by March 1st, but probably won't happen before then because its such a big thing and we have so much other stuff to do first. Reply to comment
If you don't have an account, you'll need one. We recognize that this is a pain, but we do it to keep spambots from flooding the site. If this really bothers, you, please let us know. We're listening!