Want to set up a review page

[Steve Bullman]

Hi. been looking for plug ins on apps for review pages without much luck. I have set up a database to do this instead which is ok, but would like to know if theres a way to leave star ratings for the product review itself, not just in the comments

[gabs007]

Sorry for the long explanation.

Not sure if this can help you, but my website is based on reviews.  I tried and tested different scenarios and eventually decided to go the old or classic way.:  1 item = 1 topic where first post is the introduction and replies are reviews. or 1 topic with the title as reference, and all replies ( even the 1st post) are the reviews.

I work using 2 different options, but I could pick up one if I wanted. 

Option A)

For example, if you are reviewing books,  first topic has the book data ( publisher, writer, cover, etc. ) and following replies are reviews ( you only allow reviews there )
If you are reviewing movies:  1 movie = first topic is the movie data ( cover, director, cast etc. ) and replies are movie reviews and user's opinions using a common template ( rating, cons, pros, etc. ) In this scenario, you normally force users to use taxonomies for the topic titles, for example:  movie title - director - (year)  or  book title - author's name - (year)

I use this widget to help users to write the title and 1st post of the topic.  https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7436-bim42-topic-thumbnail/

Mike John created a widget for me where all the answers in 1 particular forum  load the same text, in my case load a set of questions that hte user has to fill in for example

 

Quote

Your name: 
Year you read the book: 
Did you buy the book on paper or digitally:  ( optional)

etc

So when the user tries to reply in the topic, a template or kind of template appears automatically. The user gets help with the questions he needs to answer or items he needs to review for that particular topic.
You can ask him if he can sell the widget to you. It's not on the marketplace.

  IF you allow your users to dialogue and chat in the topic then it will eventually become a mess nobody wants to read since it doesn't provide reviews, but discussions. However, you can allow them if you want more interaction. That's up to you. I do not allow it.

This method requires moderation, in fact, heavy moderation. Specially when it comes to create new topics since you have to verify that information provided is accurate for the item. 
When the book or the movie topic already exists it's very easy to add reviews. You also have to check that they are using the template provided since nothing prevents the user from deleting the text that appears in the reply and write something of their own.
You might also find that people duplicate items, for example, they start a new topic with a book that already has a topic. Moderators then will have to merge the topics.

____________

Option B is not allowing to start new topics, only new replies ( which are reviews)  or allow to start new topics only to users with more than x topics or reputation.
This way people won't be able to mess up topics, specially newbies. 

In order to make things easier to users, you can create a forum ( like I do ) with the name :  Review Inbox.   Where users can start a new topic and you can use the widget:  https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7642-pre-defined-topic-fields/   to help them to stick to the template everytime someone creates a new topic there.  
Every day a moderator checks the forum for new topics and merge the topics or creates new ones.

In order to help users to write reviews easily I have a button picture with the words ( Write a review)  that I add to the sidebar with a link that creates a new post in the selected forum directly. It's been working great, it's a link with the "/?do=add" method to create a new post in the forum. 

___

It sounds complicated but I have learnt that users prefer reading topics and forums rather than using the page system.  SEO also seems to work much better using the forums. 
Cons for this system is that requires attention but when it's all set up it's very easy to understand. Feel free to ask 

 

[Steve Bullman]

Thanks, and yes that was a long explanation!!!

I think I can see where you are coming from with this, but entirely sure it would suit my needs though.  Any chance of a link to see yours in action?

[gabs007]

10 hours ago, Steve Bullman said:

Thanks, and yes that was a long explanation!!!

I think I can see where you are coming from with this, but entirely sure it would suit my needs though.  Any chance of a link to see yours in action?

 

I will gladly send you a private message with the info and the links, since it's an adult website  

You will see how I do it, and how most of my competitors work.

[Steve Bullman]

One of the nicest looking IPS sites I have seen by far, for many reasons 

 

Thanks, it looks to be working quite well that set up, will give it more thought