This weekend, I decided to undertake the all-consuming mission of trying to find the perfect DIY book nook kit to invest my free time in. Naturally, this required a deep dive into the rabbit hole of various online reviews.
The most helpful ones were ultra detailed, including over three paragraphs describing the entire experience. They included tips and workarounds for issues they found (for example, wood glue to hold the miniature staircase together) or a clear explanation on what was wrong with it. They also included pictures of the product in the unfinished stage and even the instruction manual.Those reviews certainly succeeded at boosting credibility and felt like a recommendation from someone who had already undertaken this journey.
Now onto the slightly amusing at first glance but not very-helpful ones, featuring one liners like “I would throw this straight into the garbage”, confused one star reviews with “Bought by accident” or just lines of random alphabets and emojis.
Even if you’re dissatisfied by the product and don’t want to invest any more thought, once you choose to write a review, you’re already investing more time anyway. You may as well be more specific and stop others from falling into the same trap you did. What exactly was great about the product, or what was wrong with it?
Specificity helps manufacturers, creators and prospective buyers alike, while meaningless reviews ruin the product’s cumulative score, which really isn’t fair to someone who might’ve spent countless hours perfecting their product. It’s like you leave the fate of your GPA in someone else’s hands and they’ve already managed to wreck it for fun.
I wasn’t on the hunt for a flawless five stars book nook and frankly I wouldn’t trust that, given the amount of false reviews out there. I just wanted proof that it can actually be built before I’m halfway through and realize there’s something wrong.
Which is exactly what happened to a handful of people. Most kits range from seven to twelve hours of effort so the motivation to write a review if something goes wrong with it is understandable. After all, it wasted your time, money and expectations.
Reading all those reviews also made me realize that I need to start reviewing products I like more. I don’t want to fall into the trap of only looking at mistakes. Good things deserve recognition too, not just something that’s rage baited you into speaking up. A review doesn’t have to be five stars to be valuable, it just needs to answer the “should I?” or “should I not?” for others.
