Does anybody read reviews?

I do think A'gon has indicated they are intending to do something like what you suggest in your last sentence. I too have mostly read reviews of equipment I either own or am interested in, but I think this is only natural. Also like you, I haven't read a whole of them in total; I think this is mostly due to the lack of previous knowledge of the reviewing writers, the lack of a format like that of Audioreview.com where one can scan several reveiws of any item of interest without having to open many individual web pages, and also to there not having been a high percentage of good quality work on display in the reviews I've read here so far IMHO.

Jadem6, I fear that you misapprehend the thrust of these reservations. Let me say right away (and as I have posted in the past about your contributions) that if all the work contributed to the A'gon reviews was as thorough, thoughtful, and well-written as for instance your own article about your Plinius amp was, I don't for a moment think that I or the others would be spending our time on a thread like this one right now.

Unfortunately, many of the "reviews" I have read can literally teach the reader *nothing* at all. No one here is suggesting that a positive review is automatically invalid. What we are saying is that "reviews" that contain no critical commentary whatsoever - or no context, no specific examples, no comparisions, no detailed descriptions, or are just not communicative or interesting - do not make for particularly worthwhile bedtime reading; no effort and/or ability = no value. No one is making blanket statements about *all* of the reviews; I am surprised that you would even suspect that your own writing might be lumped in with the lackadaisical toss-offs that you undoubtedly must have also seen littering the reviews as of late. You have no reason to take ummbrage, believe me.

Frankly, it seems to me that it is precisely the folks such as yourself who will suffer the most from such "reviews" diluting the overall quality of the work archived, because your obvious hard work will become overlooked, swamped in a sea of mediocrity that discourages interested parties from digging further. I just *know* that you don't mean to defend those quickie slobs who simply submit a scribble stating that their Symphonic Bombast Mega-Sonic X-15 Rev. 2 is absolutely the greatest thing they've ever heard, and how much they really, really love it the most, period the end! I for one hope that you will truly stand up for yourself, not by taking offense where none is intended, but by joining us in trying to offer some much-needed constructive criticism on the subject, in an attempt to protect the integrity and usefulness of the genuinely valuable reviews like yours. I can only try my best to ensure that when I submit my first formal review under the new format (I've done similar posts in the past, before the catagory existed), my own work will be up to the standards set by your excellent example, but in the meantime, let's all encourage everybody to try their absolute best when they post a review. IMHO, to give any less is insulting to the readers, and damaging to the whole enterprise.