TER General Board

How to choose wisely? (link)...
VOO-doo 2116 reads
posted

The first section of this article discusses reviews. Thought it might generate an interesting discussion. As quoted:  

 
"An often neglected point that author James Surowiecki made in his popular 2004 book The Wisdom of Crowds is that a group is “far more likely to come up with a good decision if the people in the group of are independent of each other.” In other words, the crowd has a better chance of being wise when they do not have access to “the same old data everyone is already familiar with.” On Yelp, TripAdvisor, Amazon, and other hives of user-generated ratings and reviews, people are not acting alone. The review that they write will be seen by many other people, and before writing their review, they were probably exposed to the opinions of many other people.

 
Reading about strangers’ experiences is not necessarily a bad way to predict our own experience. As University of Virginia psychologist Timothy D. Wilson and colleagues note, the process of “surrogation” (learning vicariously through others) can lead to “more accurate forecasts about one’s own enjoyment than receiving a description of that experience.” This is in part because we might discount our own biases in thinking about how much we might enjoy something like a hotel, and in part because we might tend to think our own opinion is more unique than it is.

 
But others’ opinions can create biases of their own. Massachusetts Institute of Technology management professor Sinan Aral and colleagues have found in experiments, through the mechanism of “social influence bias,” that the presence of a positive review, for example, can inflate the number of subsequent positive reviews. An analysis of Amazon reviews, by contrast, found that later book reviews tended to diverge from earlier book reviews; one problem is that readers’ expectations have been influenced by previous reviews—people began to review other reviewers. And reviewers, of course, tend to be those who are most motivated—those who had the best, and worst, experiences. This helps explain the famous “J-shaped distribution” of Internet reviews: Mostly positive, with a sharp negative tail, and a dip in the middle. Selection bias begins before reviewing, of course; “purchasing bias” implies the people who are more likely to like something were those who purchased it in the first place.

 
There are other caveats. A property may be popular on TripAdvisor because it is cheap, or because it has a lot of reviews—not necessarily because it is the “best” place to stay. As a study in The Journal of Consumer Research found, comparing reviews of products on Amazon across various categories, the things that got the best reviews rarely converged with the products deemed best in Consumer Reports testing.

 
Lastly, because of ordering effects, we may simply never find the things that would be our favorites. On a recent trip to a coastal Mexican town, a person pointed me to a low-key fish shack on the beach. It was easily the trip’s most memorable meal. But when I looked for it on review sites, it was buried dozens of places away from the “top” restaurants."

 
So finally, the author arrives at the same conclusion as many TER veterans:  

 
"Glance at the overall rating, and number of reviews, but don’t wade too deep into the thicket of reviews—you will become quickly confused by the conflict between varying peoples’ expectations and experiences. Ignore one or five star reviews, and focus on the action in the middle, where people are more authentically grappling with how they felt. Look at user-submitted photos more than reviews, so you can draw your own conclusions."

-- Modified on 9/8/2017 4:33:18 PM

In other words, ignore reviews altogether and use a single data point: one-self. The distribution and its mean are familiar to you and the 1-sigma point is also known...

As you pointed out ("fish shack"), by throwing the dart you sometimes hit the bull's eye. Of course, when the single dart costs $300 - $600, many mongers will not have the cojones to play the game...

Just saw that a very lovely lady is coming back to town. Got to run & book my encounter!

When reading reviews, I tend to consider each reviewer's reviewing (and even life) experience in guessing their potential bias. This lets me put their comments in perspective.  

For example, when I see high ratings and little to no actual criticism from a new reviewer, I will discount most of the positive, or subjective opinions. A guy who's having sex for the 1st time will probably think everything was awesome since he has not comparison. As long as he actually reached orgasm he's gonna be happy.  

Similarly, a reviewer who really likes huge tits is not going to like a provider with an A or B cup, which is my preference.  Because of these considerations, I read reviews more for objective facts than for subjective descriptions or excessive superlatives.  I know what I want a provider to do for/with me and that generally drives whom I decide to session with.

VOO-doo62 reads

For instance, I'm doing an outcall to a beach community today. If I do a search for seafood restaurants in the area, and I come up w/a few huge chains. While those might be very popular, that's not really my preference, unless there are few other options. Having been there before, I've eaten at what's considered the "best" place (it's mentioned in some articles as being one of the top restaurants in the entire state). It's not listed as one of the first five results on Google or Yelp. It's kind of small-ish and not a place you'd find unless you were looking... some reviewers complain that tables are close together, it's noisy, and that food can take a while to come out (small kitchen). However, I'd 1000 times rather go there, and wait an extra 10 min or so for some truly fresh and well-prepared fare, than visit a chain. But that's my personal preference.

 
What I thought was really interesting, was the way that they say reviews generate more reviews. The article says that 1) People's reviews are influenced by previous reviews, and 2) Some things become more popular for the very reason they they're reviewed a lot - even if they're just reviewed a lot because they're cheap. Also, it points out that, if we accept consumer reports as a reliable source, the things that are the most highly reviewed are not necessarily the best things (the article said that this conclusion was reached by studying Amazon products and their respective user reviews vs. Consumer Reports ratings).

 
I've definitely seen phenomenon #1 in action here. I worked for two agencies that would start us out w/some regulars who'd review highly in exchange for kickbacks. There's definitely a momentum that arises from a few really good reviews in a row. Obviously, though, if the service is not truly up to par, then subsequent reviews will lag. #2, I've seen to an extent.

I almost fell out of my chair laughing. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, "Joe's Crab Shack" is to "quality seafood" what Golden Corral is to a "quality steakhouse" lol They make even Red Lobster (with my apologies to Perfect Storm) look like a gourmet restaurant by comparison.

 
Your point about reviews is well taken. Take the case of the "Top Lists" right here on TER. Once a woman gets a string on decent reviews, AND she starts charging accordingly, it's very hard for the average reviewer to "buck the trend" partly because of the blow back he can expect, and partly because many guys are so insecure that they believe that others will think they simply didn't "measure up" and that somehow the bad session was "their fault"

 
I used the reviews as a review to "weed out bad providers" and not to go rushing out to see the provider/s with the best reviews from the "great unwashed". Like you, I believe my standards are much higher than the average reviewer and I am not going to trust the tastes of someone who only gets laid once a month any more than I am going to go to Joe's Crab Shack because some tasteless hooker in LV thinks they have "quality seafood" lol

in a similar fashion, looking more for reasons I SHOULDN'T see a provider than for reasons I should.  I don't give a lot of weight to reviewers that have less than three or four reviews a month, as they sometimes get so euphoric over getting their rocks off, that they tend to over-score everyone they see.  Guys that hobby at least weekly are more apt to be sensible and honest in their evaluation of their experiences.  

Sex is like pizza, when it's good it's really great.  

And when it's bad, it's still pretty good.  

:)

The first time I heard it in the late 70's.  Kudos to you for still remembering it.

my-0.02-cents41 reads

Every newbie should read this before posting outside of newbie section. I got caught up on analysing reviews and trying to judge a girl and my potential experience, and that is the worse thing any hobbyist can do.  I have read so many reviews on providers and it gets very confusing.  

A poorly written review can make a very highly rated girl sound like a desperate SW provider if the client leaves out the fact he got "PSE" and wanted "dirty talking" for the meeting.

As the OP states, it can get a bit confusing with the amount of the reviews available.  
Checking reviews is one of my way of doing research on a lady.  I quickly scan the reviews and see if there is any submitted by those that I value.  He (or she) may have my similar tastes in ladies that I seek.  
Additionally, I review a lady's website and her comments on the board.  
It's all part of the "hobby" in meeting new ladies and re-visiting ladies that you like.  If consistency and no drama is desired, you can always visit or purchase one of those sex-bots!

Some things just can not be quantified with subjective or objective measurement.  
My physical and emotional needs can be met at many different points, and have been here.
CR would narrow my choices to hair and maybe eyes.
I look at reviews and ask, is she safe, reliable and somewhat consistent.  
Is the author stable and free from apparent agendas.  

Thanks for putting data to keyboard to back up my feelings about this topic.

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