As Casanova said, "woman are like glass: the more you see, the more you find. Once you find something, that will tell you the differences between each of them."
The dictum introduce my question: how many providers a newbie should see before sitting down and typing his first review?
Now, let's start with number: 12 to 15. Why so? Well:
a) because that allow to get a sufficient range of talent, skills, attitude, taste and so on such that comparative analysis can be jetted down;
b) because that will cover all kinds of type, from tall to spinner, from teens to milf, from shy to naughty, from red to blonde, from surfer to goddess and this will allow you to collect the details that will made your bookshelf a deposit of treasure or just furnishings;
c) because the curve of learning in the hobby is cumulative, and as many things in life, time will just teach you how to slice the pieces in the correct way; thus, 12 to 15 will cover approximately 3 to six months of activity, and give you a temporal persective. As in Casanova, forbearance is the virtue of the true lover, and its most valuable asset.
d) because risk and uncertainty are the menu of the industry, and the law of the large numbers will work as an insurance policy against both, at least...
In a nutshell, the more you see, the more you learn. And the more you learn, the likelyhood that your review should reflect it...of course, the more you see, the likelyhood of becoming addicted...but this is another topic.
Numbers of course, are not everything...but before I enrich the menu, please comments and criticism are welcome.
Any number is arbitrary. In my case, it took me almost two years to attain 12 approved reviews. Only I know (if only I could remember) how many dates it took to get to those 12 reviews. I will contend that I knew what I liked long before that time. If we all waited that long, the database here would be far smaller, and that would hurt all hobbyists.
Also, my taste in women has not changed significantly in the last 20 years. If I hobbied once, or for years, there are still styles of women that I'd never sample, simply because they don't appeal to me. My "bookshelf" would have many copies of the same high-quality book.
I think that the preferred approach would be to buy your first VIP membership and pick out a handful of ladies that fit your bill. When that time is about to run out, you'll have a pretty good idea if you should purchase more time, or if you can review your way into more VIP days. Remember, a review should be submitted within 90 days of your experience.
Funny how some males are. You stated that your female type has not changed for 20 years. Mine has not changed since I was aware of women. What I liked as a boy is what I like now, the facial features change mildly with each one, but the hair color, eye colors and mouth types stay the same. The range of the look is so tight that it exludes likely 90% of women in the world. Ask me why I like what I like, there is no other reason that the look does it for me.
Your premise is more practical if the hobbiest has little or no experience with women in the civilian world. I have been with more than a few women, especially in my younger years, so even as a newcomer to this hobby, I have a sizeable database of information for comparison.
I'd add the caviat to that of not submitting a 9/10 review or 1/2 review for the first 4 or 6 experiences(I think 12-15 would take most a Looooong time to stack up). This would avoid the inexperienced reviewer from putting up a "The Best EVER!" or "Terrible" types of reviews that might just happen because of his lack of knowledge. If you go on your first date and (assuming you are not a virgin) have a baseline knowledge of how sex and intimate encounters work you should be able to post the info you have gathered from that date accurately. Not that a newbie couldn't have a 'once in a lifetime' experience right out of the box (or more likely the 1/2 terrible one) but I think that is where your Casanova reference comes into play, seperating the wheat from the chaff.
Getting reviews posted and contributing to the community will only make a newbie a better member, and thereby grow his knowledgebase, making him a better reviewer. Besides everyone knows to take a newbie reviewer's words with a grain of salt. I've only got 5 reviews up and that's with being a member here for about a year(if memory serves), I didn't put one up for about 8 months.
SMEGMA!!
I came to TER and review writing after 20 years of hobbying. I wrote a review on the first lady that I saw after joining TER because I knew what I was writing about. Experience in the hobby is what matters, if a newbie does not have extensive experience, the newbie should not write a review.
When you post a review of a lady, it is your review of her and only her. It is not a comparison of her vs. other ladies. So in a nutshell, I would say post a review starting with the first lady you see.
I agree with your assessment. Feelings expressed in reviews are highly personal recounts of how a hobbyists experienced a provider and whether the hobbyist enjoyed the experience.
One of my most disappointing experiences as a hobbyists was with a highly reviewed and highly rated lady. To be short, I saw nothing in her that other hobbyists saw. I remember looking forward to seeing her based upon reviews. I was so put out when I opened the hotel door and saw her that I developed an instant failure to perform, although her ads had indicated it, she was not my type. I simply could not get excited about her, she sensed it and her and me mutually agreed to shorten the date. Fortunately, I had brought along the phone number of a traveling lady that I found on Cityvibe, I called and set up a visit with the second lady. She was hot and I performed outstandingly and had fun with her. I did not write a review of either lady, The first because I figured that I was an exception, the second because by the time I was writing the review she had quit the business.
Good Question. Here's what I did.
I was a member of TER about 6 or 8 months before I posted my first review. In that time, I researched and read quite a bit on the Newbie forum and the Manual. I had about 4 or 5 sessions with providers that I found on here but didn't submit any reviews. I was trying to gauge my personal experiences and rating scale with what seemed to be the norm on this site.
In fact, it got to the point that I thought that this Hobby wasn't for me and I was going to give up trying. Then I saw my first really great provider (read my first review). After that, I knew better what to look for and how to read between the lines of ads as well as reviews.
As a result, I like to feel that my reviews and ratings are based on realistic expectations.
Then again, you could simply be honest in all your reviews by faithfully reporting your impressions. As someone else pointed out, though, it would be a good idea to be careful about handing out scores on the extremes (3s or 10s) until you have a little basis of judgement. Hate to rate your first provider as a 10, only to find out that compared to later experiences, she was only average.