A suggestion: Product Reviews/Recommendations section

[Pickle Juice]

Yeah, I want to start a thread on hair dye...animal friendly ones and maybe a "henna, how to" thread and I don't where to put it. I looked at the US section but then I'm limited to Northeast which I'd rather not do.

You can post in the section entitled "United States". You don't have to limit yourself to a region. It's not very obvious from the section that it is possible to do that, but if you click on "United States" from the forum's front page, just click either of the "Post New Thread" buttons you see under the list of regions, and your thread will be started in the "United States" section instead of one of the region sections.

See screen shot.

 

[mlp]

I'm another one who thinks we should have a products review/recommendations section. I never even look at the regions section - I just figure it's for people from a given area to talk about things specific to that area - events, restaurants, etc.

Many products are sold online, many are sold internationally. A products review/recommendation area just makes sense.

 

[KLS52]

Thank you, PJ.

 

[thefadedone]

I'm another one who thinks we should have a products review/recommendations section. I never even look at the regions section - I just figure it's for people from a given area to talk about things specific to that area - events, restaurants, etc.

Many products are sold online, many are sold internationally. A products review/recommendation area just makes sense.

I agree with this. Plus I think it would really benefit new vegetarian members (as well as the rest of us) to read product reviews/recommendations. I feel that putting them in the region sections hides them and makes it a bit harder to find. I think a product review section would get a lot more traffic and contributers if it were put elsewhere.

 

[mlp]

I agree with this. Plus I think it would really benefit new vegetarian members (as well as the rest of us) to read product reviews/recommendations. I feel that putting them in the region sections hides them and makes it a bit harder to find. I think a product review section would get a lot more traffic and contributers if it were put elsewhere.

Agreed, 100%.

 

[Rosie1]

I'm glad some other people agree.

I had also been thinking when I started the thread about how lots of products are bought online/internationally and there's not really a spot for them. If I want to ask about recommendations for something, I don't want to have to just put it in the US section, because I want to hear from everyone all over.

 

[Second Summer]

Okay folks, this is how I think I would like to do this:

We will have a separate product reviews section. As I've mentioned before, I've found this excellent business directory add-on for the board software that I think we can use for reviews. There will be links to it both from the top menu and from within the forum structure, as on the surface it looks like just another forum. The difference will be that you can rate the product/business when you post a review, and (hopefully) an average score for all the reviews of the product/business will also be displayed. Each product/business can be in multiple categories (up to 5) at the same time.

However, from within each local area forum there will be a link or links to relevant threads or subforums within the review system.

While we're waiting for the add-on developer to implement the rating feature like they've indicated they will (and I've even waved some money under their nose), I think it's better to just stick to the local area forums. I'm hoping it won't be so long to wait, but I really don't know.

 

[Muggle]

Could another option be something similar to the vegan, lacto -ovo, lacto and ovo options in the recipe section? Have an option when starting a thread in the product reviews/recommendations section to label it with a country.
I suppose the problem with that would be which country options to have.... Maybe something like USA, Canada, North America, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and then an Other option or if we get a couple of members from a country not listed then could add that in? And people could always have the choice not to label their thread with a country anyway.

I don't know if that makes sense. I'm over tired ( 1 hour of sleep. Yay! ) and rambling. Sorry.

 

[Second Summer]

^ One problem with that approach is that a thread can only have one prefix, but there could be products that are available in more than one area (e.g. the USA and Canada), but no other areas.