I think some people misunderstood my post about becoming unmoderated, so I wanted to clarify it, as well as ask a question to all.
First, It isn't a REQUIRMENT that you have 10 reviews to be unmoderated. When Sly and I first became moderators of this board, we asked anyone who was currently moderated and who wished to become unmoderated to PM us and we'd look into his posting history, and as long as the person followed TER's posting guidelines we'd be happy to unmoderate him. The post below was simply to state that if you have 10 reviews and were still moderated, it would almost be a "rubber stamp" approval to become unmoderated. It's simply a way for someone who may not have been a member of TER for a long time but had a prolific review history to get unmoderated more quickly. Pure and simple. We never thought it would cause the controversy it apparently has.
Now for the question. TER gets hundreds of thousands of hits weekly, but 98% of those are strictly to view the review database. The boards are here strictly as a courtesy and are used by only about 2% of the TER visitors. They are 100% free, and they do not generate ANY revenue for TER. That's why they are moderated by volunteers who aren't compensated for their time or effort. So the question is this...
Do you think that hobbyists who frequent these boards and who DO see providers on a regular basis have an obligation to fellow members to post reviews? Or do you feel that since you're paying the 20 bucks a month for membership, posting reviews is a totally optional choice?
And one other question. Is everyone aware that you do NOT have to be a VIP member in order to post a review, and in fact you will receive a FREE 15 day VIP membership for every review you submit that is approved?
I myself find the boards more informative than the reviews. I find the boards to be more honest since statements can be questioned. I take the reviews with a grain of salt as I feel there is a large number of fake reviews and this number probably grows everytime something free is offered to encourage reviews. I pay for my membership, support TER, and feel no obligation to post reviews.
I understand your point... I really do, but consider this; the review database is what drives TER, not the boards. If everyone felt that simply paying their 20 bucks was good enough, eventually there would be no new reviews being posted... no new reviews means nobody would be willing to keep shelling out the membership fee, so eventually the whole thing, including these boards, would go away.
I would venture to guess that there are three types of hobbyists who use TER. One is the guy who occasionally sees a provider and wants to maximize that once-in-a-blue-moon experience, so he pays his fee to access the database and spends weeks or even months purusing the database to make the perfect choice - I'm guessing that this is the biggest class of member.
The second type is the guy who rarely if ever sees a provider and is only here to live vicariously through the exploits of others (not that there's anything wrong with that)... he has fun reading the posts and reviews, but he probably isn't a paying member. He primarily visits the boards to get his daily sexual exploits "fix" - he may be a lurker or a frequent poster. I tend to think that this category are the posters who are the biggest naysayers and assholes, since they have no real investment in the information to be gathered here other than to live out their voyeuristic fantasies, and often their envy makes them nasty.
The third type is the guy who sees a LOT of providers, and uses the boards and the review database extensively. He does a lot of research before seeing a lady, both through the database and through ISOs and discussions on the forums. This class of hobbyist gets the most out of TER, and they're the ones who should be giving the most back by posting reviews. While paying members are the lifeblood of TER, the frequent reviewers are the backbone that supports the whole structure.
Personally I really don't understand why anyone wouldn't post a review, other than a selfish desire to keep a great provider all to himself... for the five or ten minutes it takes to write a review, you make a positive contribution that helps your fellow members and at the same time you get free VIP access. It's a win-win situation!
I fit more into your category 3. I do quite a bit of research through others that I know on here and do very few reviews. I do not post unless I feel I have something to add to what has been said or if I see someone who "flies low", I respect that and keep the info private.
I typically am open to sharing information when asked and am not "dormant", but I do not utilize reivews to do this.
I am currently unmoderated and have been so for quite a while, so I have no opinion on the moderation situation.
I dont post reviews because I hardly ever see anyone openly available. However, I do pay for VIP membership so I do not feel the need to post any review.
I would guess that a MAJORITY of people who post reviews do so to get the free VIP membership.
...anybody benefitting from the work of others should seriously consider doing their own reviews. That seems fair to me and is simple community values really.
At the extreme, if there are no reviews, then there is no worthwhile site.
I wrote several hundred reviews between 1997-2003 on various sites simply because what other people had written in their reviews helped me enormously. It still does to an extent too.
Eddie,
I am a paying member and I have elected this manner of membership so that I could have complete access to the review details without satisfying posting review criteria. I have touched upon my reasons for wanting to avoid posting reviews (for the most part) in a recent and previous board exchange with Sly. I certainly understand that if everyone took my approach then there would be little to no reviews and the value of TER would be greatly diminished. For me it is a question of balance between my personal preference and the value of a service. I prefer to remain UTR as much as possible and as a result I am more than willing to pay for the privledge of using the TER information made available by other members. While I totally respect those who post regularly, I signed up only because I knew that I had the option to pay without posting. As such I feel that I am satisfying my obligation just as those who receive VIP status for posting are satisfying their obligation. Again I stress that I respect all those who post and those behind the TER scenes such as yourself. However for me at this time, I am just not comfortable being in such a public forum frequently. Interestingly enough, although I'm not a long standing hobbyist, many of the providers that I have visted have asked me to avoid posting reviews. As it is in every one of their cases they are already reviewed and all have outstanding feedback.
...this is often stated as a justification for not writing reviews. But I would counter that the idea is not just to become a reviewer, but to become a reviewer of note. The more credible info the merrier. If she has 100 reviews then I want to read what reviewer 101 has to say, if he is a serious guy. You should remember that somebody may well be following your track and your view may hold more sway than others.
There is one classic case that I recall. There is a lady with maybe 30+ positive reviews on a European site. She has a couple of negative reviews including one by a reviewer whose opinion is widely respected and not only by me. I decided to see her anyway and she was every bit as bad as the serious guy had pointed out. Her other reviews were simply horseshit written by assholes.
So not only should you become a reviewer, but you should become a diligent and serious reviewer of note. There is no point being an asshole, grade inflater or kiss ass because that base is already well covered.
I don't understand why you think that being a reviewer exposes you? You can keep UTR and still review. That's easy surely!
I fully agree with you on all points. I'm still wondering why you haven't submitted a review for over a year, as the 68 reviews you have are so valuable. As I've told you before, I'm looking forward to eventually seeing you break the century mark in reviews!!! 
Thanks for your continual contributions here!
Sly
...at the moment I have an SO and that really gets in the way of a good time, lol.
Don't forget I'm only 68 under this handle. I've had a few others on TER and am already way above 100 here in total. Don't tell my mum, she'd chase me around the block with a frying pan
I do understand all of your points and I even agree with some of them to a certain extent. In the one review case that you cite I think the most important factor there is that there are previous postings with vastly different ratings and experiences, i.e. most are very good and at least one was way different. In my earlier exchange with Sly, I too pointed out that if my experience varied greatly from previous 8,9 and 10 posts then I would post a review. However, for me (and I know you feel differently) if the service ratings and embedded acronyms are pure repeats of all previous posts and the only differnece is my own writing style and my own choice of adjectives then I'll pass. My single post to date was by provider request and my review fell well within 100% of all the other 10 pages of reviews. However I was asked very nicely and I was only too happy to abide by her request. I felt kind of funny posting it but that's just me and I realize that...
If I may I'd like to throw a related question out to you, Eddie, Sly and anyone else...
What is your stand on abiding by a providers request to not post a review reagardless of how positive it may be? Are you more apt to think of your fellow TER community ann post the review or will you honor her request?
...and she stands by her end, then it is only right that you stand by yours. Your first responsibility is to yourself and your own conscience, not to other anonymous hobbyists. If she did not honour her end of the bargain then I would not feel obliged to honour mine.
If a lady does not want any reviews then my understanding is that she can contact TER and request a no listing. So it is not really an issue for a lady who is very much against the whole process. However that circumstance is rare and I'll assume that you have had other experiences that you could share if you so wished. Again, the over riding point is that if people don't bother writing reviews then all the $20 monthly fees to TER aren't really paying for much of value and presumably they would soon dry up. As quoted above 98% of hits are to the reviews. If most guys were as reluctant as yourself then the site would simply be diminished.
The problem is that if you don't post reviews unless your experience is vastly different than previous reviews, then your review carries less weight because you don't have a volume of reviews to compare that one to. It's a Catch-22 situation. If I see all 8's and 9's and a solitary 6, I usually look to see how that hobbyist has reviewed other girls in general. If he's a "tough" reviewer, I might give his rating less weight, but if I see that his other reviews tend to be generous, I'll take his opinion more seriously.
I treat reviews like Olympic scores. I usually throw out the highest and lowest and trust the rest.
...I look for averages. Two guys will think identically and one will call it six and the other an eight. So if you can see where there average lies based upon the totally of their reviews then you can use that as a base and check the movement in their scores from there. But I'll agree that the more reviews a guy has, the easier it is to get a feel for where he is coming from.
Of course the text speaks bigger volumes than the numbers anyway, to me personally.
Good point, and that's where the VIP members have an advantage, because they can read the body of the review. I've seen guys give a girl a 7, but when you read the "juicy details" section they rave about the girl and recommend her highly.
There is an inherent problem with numerical ratings. For one, it's totally subjective, and for another, TER actually has guidelines for what the numerical numbers are SUPPOSE to indicate, but most reviewers ignore those guidelines. For instance, if a girl only provides CBJ, the guidelines suggest that she should get no higher than a 7. An 8 is reserved for those girls who go beyond the average. 9's or 10's should be reserved for a girl who goes well beyond the norm, and providing Greek is one example of the criteria that TER uses to indicate a girl deserves a 9 or 10. But few members actually use that as their benchmark. If I were King, I'd do away with the numerical ratings entirely and let the actual body of the review indicate the kind of experienc it was.