This morning, there was a very interesting discussion on one of the TV morning shows about food blogging and customers reviews in general, as there are undercover people writing over-the-moon reviews for which they have been paid or bribed by those business or brands they are reviewing.
The discussion is extremely relevant for us, users and regular reviewers of Urbanspoon, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Imdb, Rotten Tomates, or Blogger, just to mention some of the most popular reviewing places out there.
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When I told a friend that I was posting my blog's posts on Urbanspoon, she told me about a well-publicised case of customer's abuse and untruthfulness, which really gives the bad name to any reviewing place. These sort of isolated case adds to many people's suspiciousness about any reviewing sites. Then, there are other elements I think also contribute to this distrust:
- Isolated cases of online trolls.
- Many reviewers slash or praise businesses without making clear why.
- Many reviewers mix in their head what they like with goodness.
- Many reviews are not based on objective criteria.
- Many reviews are one to five lines long. That is especially a problem when the review is nasty.
- The tone of the reviews is somewhat suspicious to the reader: Too grandiose. Too nasty. Too insubstantial.
- Many reviewing places
offer just a like/diskile button, or five-star rating, which is unfair and misleading because a three-star can mean 6/10 to 7.5/10, which is a
whole world of difference in rating for a restaurant, book or CD.
- Most reviewing places do not demand the use of personal photos to show they are real people, so people suspect that those people without a real photo are hidden trolls or liars.
The thing is that most reviewers do review with the best possible intention, mostly for fun, and are real -in the physical way- lovely people. We all want to be helpful and share our experiences, promote those businesses that do the right thing and have a great customer service, and pinpoint the sins of those that do not do so. After all, we are paying for those services and products. However, we have a responsibility, especially when rating a restaurant, café, shop or business place. Any place has good and bad things about it, so mentioning them is just fair.
On the other hand, I
feel that the reader has a duty of care - care of his/her brain... to use
it. You need to be conscious that reviews are always personal, affected by
our personal tastes and character, and that you have to read a few to
get the enlightenment you are seeking for. In fact, most people
do so while using Tripadvisor before travelling overseas, still forget
to apply the same approach when reading reviews of a camera, restaurant or book on a reviewing site.
I agree with one of the invitees to the TV show about the need of a code of ethics for professional reviewers. Personally, I think this is important even if you are are an aficionado - Ethics are always relevant in life for whatever you do.
After munching my thoughts, I have come with my Decalogue to be a Cool Ethical Reviewer (CER):
- You have a set of pre-established criteria that you apply to the product or place you review. If your criteria is your taste, that is perfectly fine. If your criteria is telling what you were doing today, that is perfectly fine. Just do so and do not pretend otherwise.
- We all have our likings
and passions, and we think they are the best
because are ours. This psychological bias affects
us all us, so we have just to be aware of it and tame it when writing. The fact that I like junk food does not make it good, does it?
- You say at least a good thing about a place you do not like.
- You do not review your own business, or your mum's, or your brother's, or your cousin's or your dearest friend's. That is unethical and unhelpful.
- You do not review your boss' business. That is unethical and unhelpful.
- You do not accept gifts or invitations by businesses to review positively. That is unethical and unhelpful. Accepting invitations to dinners is OK as far as you know yourself and know that you are going to feel OK openly criticising anything bad that you see. That is never ever simple or easy.
- If you suspect that the business is giving you a special enhanced treatment to write a positive review, do no write a review at all. After all, other customers are having a very different experience, and theirs is the norm.
- Try to avoid reviewing restaurants after the first visit. If you do so, update your reviews later on. I have some examples
of restaurants that gave me a bad impression in my first visit, to then prove to me that that day was the exception. And vice versa!
- You write a review that is decently written, structured, and that says something about the place. Sounds obvious, no? The use of colons, semicolons, spacing between paragraphs and numbered or bullet lists do help.
- Try to think about what you would like to know about that particular business, which sort of questions would you be asking, and then reply to them.
This list is also to remind myself of my duties as reviewer in those days in which my plume runs wild or is too lazy!
My main sin is the lack of concision and my constant editing of my texts, but I prefer to be precise to consise. It is just a personal option because, well, this is my blog!!!
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A fair review is good for the readers, because it gets them to know valuable information about the place they are going to visit, or tell them that a place do exist.
A fair review is good for businesses, because they can get an honest feedback from customers and a highlighting of things that need to be improved.
A fair review is good for the reviewer, because it gets you a reputation, an that is always very rewarding at a personal level.
Reviews and Reviewing sites are needed. Reviews are useful. Reviews and reviewers can be trusted. All the ones I know are! There are some nutties out there, but that happens everywhere!
174-176 William St
(Corner with Roe St)
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9231 9941
Website
Twitter
The State Theatre of Western Australia, is a great addition to cultural scene of the City of Perth and a landmark of the city despite being barely one year old. It is home to the Black Swan Theatre Company and hosts their yearly programs in the Heath Leadge Theatre, which alternate with functions popping up from other states and overseas. They also have screenings for some extreme and winter sports films and festivals, and temporary Art exhibitions, Vintage and handicraft events, and other functions. The underground area has a theatre studio and an events space, and a courtyard that also holds other functions. There is a bar upstairs and a mini-bar downstairs, and two sets of toilets up and down. In a way, the STWA has a "Downtown Abbey" sort of approach to the venue, and you want to be up up up.
When I saw the Kerry Hill' building finished from outside I thought that it was disappointedly concrete-ish square-ish and bland, and not edgy at all. However, once I entered inside my opinion completely changed. It is a magnificent building, very appropriate for what is designed for, has a mix of old and contemporary elements, and it is very edgy, classic, well organised and comfortable - uber-cool. Just the design of the ceiling is wow.
The Heath Ledger Theatre itself is extremely beautiful, spacious and Nordic-inspired style with a very soft sinuous and warm woodiness that swallows you in - like a wooden warm womb. It is not only beautiful, it is comfy. The seats are spacious and the rows placed in a way that people seating below will not impair your view of the stage and show. The toilets attached to this theatre are wow, movie-like. Hyper-clean and uber-classy. I had a movie-star moment when visiting. Dunno about the male ones. Perhaps they are too girlie for men? Men, do share your experience. The toilets downstairs, attached to the courtyard area, are on the contrary, not very appealing or glamorous, still OK.
The killer location of the place makes it super-easy for everybody going to functions without having to take the car out.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
1/ There is an over-presence of elderly and middle aged people in general. That is so because the prices are very expensive for students to venture. Masterminds of the STWA be cooler by being more generous with student prices and memberships. Have a vision of future, and start creating the public of the future by making easy for young people attending and getting interested in Theatre. Do you know what I am saying?
2/ I like the overall whiteness of the bar upstairs, but I think that is too impersonal, boring and uncomfortable. It needs of some good paintings to break the white, and an overall restructuring of the space to allow some extra seating area to be included there. There is plenty of corners and walls to cling to. Eating a snack on a common white table on my feet is not my kind of exciting eating moment. At the moment the upper bar looks more like an airport sort of eating stop, so please fix it.
TIP 1
The ground level has an official BOCS ticketing office retailer. This means that you buy anything without being charged extra for the purchase. The chaps attending to are quite friendly.
TIP 2
Pre-order your drinks and light meal online and save.
DID YOU KNOW?
Previews are about 16 dollars cheaper than the normal shows. You won't notice any difference, as the Previews are for the show team and actors to test that everything goes smoothly and fix little things that you would not notice during a performance.
312/A William St
Northbridge Western Australia 6003
Phone: Helloooooooo anybody theeeeeere?
Email: kurbgallery@westnet.com.au
Facebook
Kurb Gallery is always an exciting place to visit, as it is quite raw in conception, varied in visual languages and formats, and you get the pulse of what is happening in Perth. If you want to know what the young artists of Perth are doing, those emerging and not really known by anybody, those trying to break through and out of traditional art-market scene, Kurb is your place.
Kurb is a bit hit and miss, and some exhibitions are great, even fantastic, and others are not. Still, it is nice having the artists there, as some of them are quite nice and you can talk to them.
The artists pay about 300 dollars per week for exhibition, so it is quite normal having several artists exhibiting at the same time, or exhibitions lasting one week or two. Most guys are really young, so this is a lot of money for them.
The pieces exhibited are for sale, some of them really cheap, and others are, on the contrary, overpriced. However, nobody is there pushing to buy anything. Do as you please.
Kurb is worth a visit or several, especially if you live or hang out around Northbridge. It is an alternative place, and, as such, it deserves, our appreciation. There is no hype or pose about it, and that is always fantastic.
If you live in Perth and move around the CBD and the Cultural Centre you surely have found young people from different charities and NGOs trying to get you to sign as a member.
Two things will catch your attention: They are very good looking, and they seem to have a passion for their cause. They are my kind of hero... However, once the blindness of their beauty and friendliness wanes, and your analytical power switch on again, you start noticing a few oddities.
1/ They are not only good-looking, but they can even flirt with you... Oh gosh I am that gorgeous and attractive to have a guy who is in his early or mid twenties flirting with me? No, Not really. They do the same to everybody. They use reverse psychology techniques and compliments to make you stop. For ex. I love your bag/pendant/dress. Or ask you open questions like, "Do you care for the environment?" They are very friendly, and greet you hyper-friendly at 9am, when most people, or at least me, are struggling to even talk.
2/ They have tons of photos and booklets and that they start talking very fast, like repeating a script without much breathing. Like telemarketers but a bit more paused. They are convincing, as most charities support a good cause, and you cannot deny them that. I think the tactic is to overwhelm your senses so you feel so overwhelmed and trapped that you want to get rid of them by signing whatever they want you to sign. It works. That is why they do it.
3/ They can lie to you... bluntly. Well, most marketers will tell you half-truths or sugar-coat anything on a daily basis. Still, when it comes to charities, I find that really shocking. I have specific examples. Like you have to become a member to sign a petition against concentration camps in North Korea, they swear on their mother's grave that you cannot do so online for free even you tell them that this is not the case. Or give you wrong statistics about nett income going from donations to the cause. Many of them openly criticise Worldvision and their millionaire add, but Worlvision does not pay salaries to people to be on the streets and their adds are very limited. Then you go online, check the website of their charity and see that you were being lied. In fact you are online because you already knew that they were lying to you.
4/ Their
cause.... is a job. Because, as a gorgeous guy put it, "I have
to pay my bills". Well, so do I, sweetie. So I get a job and then I support my
causes with my salary. You can even volunteer, you know. That is passion.
I do give quite a bit of my money to several charities and I have had a sponsored child in Malawi for a few years now. I consider giving to local and international charities an obligation and nothing to be praised about because I am lucky enough to have a good salary, live decently and have my basic needs covered. Still, I want charities to sell me their cause in another way.
Do not take me wrong, I stop most times just to say no in a graceful way, because I think it takes lots of guts approaching unknown people early in the morning despite some people being quite rude at that sort of approaches. As one of the girls told me, "you are the first person who has been nice to me this morning, and I have been here for an hour. I just wanted somebody to return my good morning and be nice to me". It is not an easy job.
Still, I find disgraceful using
flirting and choosing good-looking people or giving me compliments on my bag to get my attention and sell a cause. You sell me the
cause, you convince me with arguments, and you talk to me like a person who has a brain. You are not selling snuggies, are you? There is nothing better than a genuine person telling you how wonderful what they do is because they do it out of passion and love and not because they are being paid to say just that.
The first time I donated to Medicins Sans Frontiers was during one of those infamous international war-food crisis in Africa; there was an item of news on TV, nothing related to the charity, but the logo of MSF was on every medical tent in the field. MSF did not have any add on TV that day or any other day, or gorgeous-looking marketers in the city centre. But their work and their being there was enough reason for me to donate. Nobody was selling me their cause. They were too busy helping those in need. Can you see the difference?
Call me a romantic, but you do not have to sell me a cause, a cause sells itself. My causes, the ones that get my money are those that touch me for whatever reason. The only time I have signed through one of these guys was recently, and despite me believing in their cause, I regretted it immediately, because of all the things I have said above.
The line you have to use with the most insisting guys is "I am already a member", and they will let you go. Be nice to them. After all they are nice guys making a living and working hard for something they believe in. Still, choose your charity and donate to them based on your preferences, not on marketed lies and aggressive marketing practices.
Imagine this case scenario:
You go to a restaurant, get your dish and when you ask the waiter for salt, the waiter looks down at you and, in a tone of disdain, he tells you, "Sorry, Miss, we do not do salt here, salt is really bad for you".
Ridiculous, no?
Now, it is becoming trendy amongst certain cafes, bakeries and restaurants in Perth to reply to my "flat white with a sweetener" in a disdainful flipping tone "we do not do sweetener here" or "sweetener is cancerogenous and kills".
The funny thing is that some of the same people who preach about sweetener would drink huge amounts of fizzy or caffeine-concentrate drinks, smoke, drink alcohol, would not exercise or consume tons of natural products like, say, sugar. In fact, it sounds ridiculous to me that sugar (too much sugar) could be thought a very healthy food at all. But it is not trendy to say so because our culture is very much sugar-coated and we all love our candies, cakes and chocolates.
I am not saying that sweetener is the most natural healthy wholehearted food on the Planet, or that you have to consume it in great quantities without worry. I am saying that there are different types of sweetening products to start with (chemical derived and plant derived), and that having a sweetener with my coffee or having a fizzy sugar-free drink now and then is OK - in moderation. Why? Because the scientific debate -which is the one that matters to me- has been long and inconclusive regarding the cancerogenous properties of sweetener unless consumed in huge quantities. A summary of the debate can be found at the Wikipedia in Aspartame or Stevia or just visit The Cancer Council of the USA.
Having a healthy lifestyle the whole year around does more for your health and for inhibiting your cancer risks than anything else. On the other hand, we do know that if you have a nasty gene, you are prone to develop any disease or cancer no matter how much you take care of yourself. Yes, it sucks, but that is science, not BS or mass hysteria.
The fact is:
Too much sugar do kill even if you do not consume sweetener.
Too much salt do kill ditto.
Too much water, yes water, do kill ditto.
Too much fatty food do kill, ditto.
Too much tobacco do kill, ditto.
Too much alcohol do kill, ditto.
Too much Love do Kill, ditto.
Anger do kill, ditto.
Obesity do kill, ditto.
Sedentarism do kill, ditto.
Depression do kill, ditto.
Religious fanatism do kill, ditto.
Political fanaticism do kill, ditto.
Bad traffic signs do kill, ditto.
Domestic violence do kill, ditto.
Poverty do kill, ditto.
Your inherited genes do kill.
I do no want to die
before my time, and I do take care of my body and soul all the year around, but limiting my
options is not cool or even sensible when it comes from a preaching
patronising position.
Unless the consumption of sweetener is forbidden by the health authorities and proven lethal in small quantities, I do want to have the option to consume sweetener, sugar or nothing when I fancy. I do not want to be treated as a retarded because I order my coffee with a sweetener, preached by people who make of their personal approach to life and food a pseudo-religion. I do not want food Messiahs or a nanny restaurant, just my coffee the way I order it....
On the other hand, if you are diabetic, just tell me what are you going to do without sweetener?
Has StrawberryNET made wonders for your beauty case and your wallet in the past? If the answer is yes, you will receive OzCosmetics with open arms - an Australian version of the Hong Kong giant that sells a huge selection of 100% authentic reduced-prices cosmetics and perfumes to Australia and eighteen other countries.
The philosophy, products, customer service, brands and even the prices of the products sold by OzCosmetics are almost identical to those sold by StrawberryNET: free shipping, order tracking system, friendly customer service, money back guarantee if you are dissatisfied, and super-fast shipping from their warehouse in Honk Kong. I always check the same products on both sites to see which site offers better prices; sometimes the prices are the same, some others are cheaper in one of them. The same can be said of the availability of brands and products within a brand, which are sometimes available in one place but not in the other. Most times there are not noticeable differences.
Two main things made me prefer OzCosmetics to StrawberryNET.
Firstly, their website is very clean and tidy, less colourful and with less images and, therefore, less visually overwhelming and much more professional and contemporary. Perfect if you are just searching for specific brands and products and want to go to the point without browsing much.
Secondly, OzCosmetics shipes using express Post courier and Post Office, and the parcel goes to your nearest Post Office, which is always my fav system of transport, as commercial courier companies tend to deliver during working hours, when you are working, so you have the hassle of rescheduling. If you are a mum at home, this surely does not affect you, but for working professionals it is a nuisance.
It took my last parcel, containing some of my staple expensive cosmetics, three working days to be delivered and collected. Great! They are all authentic and as the ones I used to buy from Myers or David Jones minus 20-50% the price.
Trenery is an Australian brand and online shop managed and operated by the same firm that created Country Road, of which is a sort of spin-off. Trenery, like its sister, offers simple, almost minimal, women and men fashion clothing and accessories. They do have a limited selection of items and styles for sale, smart casual mostly, something that you can wear for more than a season, but nothing really wow or daring, still that sort of chic staple you want to have in your wardrobe for seasons to come and match with the trends in vogue. The quality of what they sell is good and the pricing medium.
Trenery's website is clean and no-fuss, easy to navigate, well organised with a good viewing system. You have to register to order, and they offer free shipping to Australia and order tracking. Your purchase is sent by courier, but will be taken to your nearest Post Office if you are not at home. I love this, as it saves you the nuissance of having to reschedule the delivery with the courier.
Their Phone Customer Service is very friendly and helpful, and it is managed and operated from Australia and by Australians.
Returns are allowed within 14 days from receipt, and you can return the item by Post or via any Trenery shop in your city, if there is any.
I purchased the Juniper Satchel in Caramel and I am very satisfied with Trenery's service and the bag itself. The quality of the leather is good but not heavy, and it is very versatile as it can be worn and used as a small tote, as a cross-body or as an oversized foldable clutch. They have it in the very trendy royal blue and red. The downside is the mediocrity of the lining. The bag comes with a dust bag.
Trenery is not daring or avant-garde, but it is perfect for timeless trendy pieces that you will be wearing for more than a year. They have a simple practical website, fast free shipping within Australia, and a friendly customer service. They also deliver internationally.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
They need to improve the photographic views of the bags, showing at least one photo of the interior of the bag, and one on a person or mannequin (Nordstrom's style) to show how the bag falls on your body, and how big it is.
