January Diamonds are out - let the debate begin (AGAIN!)

Just noticed that the Jan diamonds are out already - things must have been slow in the Ciao office. With all those tech problems to sort out, I suppose that running the old 'algorithm' must have seemed like the fun job of the months.

Lots and lots of electronics this month. Quite a few with relatively low reads - both member and external. Some blatant use of titles designed to attract the google hits (Brad and Angelina being sufficient draw to drag in 600 reads on a travel opinion).

Go for it RWF members - lets hear the theories on this batch!

I'm expecting to get enough to make a nice bit of jewelry.

Useless barstards could not spot a quality review if it bitch slapped them wearing a pantomine horse outfit.

Is that something that quality reviews are in the habit of doing?

I wonder if my review about the worrying trend of people being bitch slapped by muggers dressed as pantomime horses will get a diamond?

I do question the commitment of Ciao this month, I am sure I have seen better this month. Personally I wouldn't rate many of those as exceptional

But, perhaps those are the reviews that their marketing Gurus can make most dosh from.

Four reviews posted in January £2 from the premium fund + a few pennies from reads.

Same four reviews on Dooyoo in January made just over £12

Paul99ine wrote:

But, perhaps those are the reviews that their marketing Gurus can make most dosh from.

Perhaps... but as long as Ciao continues to market the diamonds/PF as "the best", then this discussion will always be relevant.

I'm off to look at the reviews now (but I betcha if there are any phone reviews that they're crap).

steerpyke wrote:

I wonder if my review about the worrying trend of people being bitch slapped by muggers dressed as pantomime horses will get a diamond?

Neigh chance.

atticusuk wrote:

Useless barstards could not spot a quality review if it bitch slapped them wearing a pantomine horse outfit.

Everyone knows that this is the officially recognised (by the UN, International Red Cross, Womens' Institute and other important global organisations) and internationally accpeted way of denoting such a review

fizzywizzy wrote:

atticusuk wrote:

Useless barstards could not spot a quality review if it bitch slapped them wearing a pantomine horse outfit.

Everyone knows that this is the officially recognised (by the UN, International Red Cross, Womens' Institute and other important global organisations) and internationally accpeted way of denoting such a review

I am soooo glad you let me in on this secret.

Ciao's Favourite Member wrote:

Paul99ine wrote:

But, perhaps those are the reviews that their marketing Gurus can make most dosh from.

Perhaps... but as long as Ciao continues to market the diamonds/PF as "the best", then this discussion will always be relevant.

I'm off to look at the reviews now (but I betcha if there are any phone reviews that they're crap).

I think they may have changed the wording slightly - who knows, maybe they read our comments on here.
Instead of saying that the diamonds are 'the ten best' it now says they are 'ten of the best'.

Is it my imagination or is that a small but very significant change?

And as commented by someone above, lots of phone and electronics reviews. For goodness sake, what is there still left to say about an ipod?

'Ten of the best' makes it sound like names are pulled out of a hat.

I'm not even interested in finding out which reviews have received a diamond...

koshkha wrote:

Ciao's Favourite Member wrote:

Paul99ine wrote:

But, perhaps those are the reviews that their marketing Gurus can make most dosh from.

Perhaps... but as long as Ciao continues to market the diamonds/PF as "the best", then this discussion will always be relevant.

I'm off to look at the reviews now (but I betcha if there are any phone reviews that they're crap).

I think they may have changed the wording slightly - who knows, maybe they read our comments on here.
Instead of saying that the diamonds are 'the ten best' it now says they are 'ten of the best'.

Is it my imagination or is that a small but very significant change?

And as commented by someone above, lots of phone and electronics reviews. For goodness sake, what is there still left to say about an ipod?

I'd go with significant, but with the caveat that Ciao clearly don't reward the reviews that fulfil their own writing guidelines.

It ain't worth getting all hot 'n' bothered about. Life's too short and we ain't gonna change the way they run their company.
We either accept the way Ciao is or.....jump ship!!

Personally, I ain't jumpin' no ship.

I suppose it's a bit like asking people to pick out their ten favourite films, no matter how similar your tastes people are not going to pick the same ones.

I just had a look at the list of ten and there are none there I would rate as E but I can see why most of them have been picked. A couple are surprising since I wavered between a VH and H when rating...

If you look at them they are all very detailed, they are laid out clearly and mostly well written. Almost all include a fair amount of personal comment on the products and most are written in a conversational tone which emphasises the fact that these are supposed to be personal opinions of products rather than simply a detailed overview of the functions etc.

I'm sure if I looked through other reviews from January I could pick out others that in my opinion would be more worhy of Dimaonds but then we could all do that.

You have to go back to June 2006 since a book review (Rachel got one for her of A Child Called 'It')
or May 2006 since film review got a diamond.

I've got no chance then!

Me neither then

Mauri wrote:

You have to go back to June 2006 since a book review (Rachel got one for her of A Child Called 'It')
or May 2006 since film review got a diamond.

I've got no chance then!

And would I be right in thinking that means not one book or film since they cut to only 10 per month?

I think so, also only one music review has made it since then as well. That makes me sad.

Maybe I should get writing about my DVD player...

Mauri wrote:

I just had a look at the list of ten and there are none there I would rate as E but I can see why most of them have been picked. A couple are surprising since I wavered between a VH and H when rating...

I've SHed two, including one where the author reviews someone else's item...

Awaiting the inevitable Abuse report as we speak.

Long reviews for the win.

I've also just noticed one where the reviewer's experiences cannot be any more recent than 20 years old.

How can a review be given a diamond if their experiences are 20 years out of date?

Unbelievable.