HarveyMushman I think our own humility probably encourages us to sugar-coat opinions for fear of hurting someone. Understandably. If someone’s developed a conversation, handed out a free product, excitedly asking you to try it, you’re going to naturally feel uncomfortable saying negative things.
I get where you’re coming from, and if were a tiny, startup business and a product given to a friend to try …. well, yeah.
But when it’s often large (* see note) companies and supposedky ‘professional’ reviewers/influencers, then no, I don’t think that’s the dynamic at all. The company, unsurpisingly, has an agenda - get publicity, sell stuff. But contrary to the popula saying, there really is such a thing as bad publicity. The only thing any company has a right to expect from a review is that it’s fair, competent and professional. If the product has faults, flaws, weaknesss etc, then they should see having them pointed out as an opportunity - an opportunity to get experienced outside feedback, and to use that as input into the development process.
I had one company, a US software house, contact me after a review that was pretty detailed (a major feature, and cover feature at that) where I’d been largely complementary but I’d pointed out a brief list of areas that could stand change or improvement, and because I’d nailed pretty much every single point they’d already identified as needing work, and been fair, about both the positives and negatives, their CEO wanted to meet. I ended up in San Francisco, talking to him and senior developers, on my way to a show in Vegas.
A proper review absolutely should include criticisms, provided they’re justified. But the reviewer needs to remember they COULD end up getting sued …. so check, double-check and triple-check before lashing out, and when you do criticise, be sure it’s for good reason, and that you keep notes and records demonstrating why you criticised.
Only once did I get threatened with a lawsuit. After a discussion with the mag editor, who’d had a chat with their lawyers, it came down to “Do I stand by my criticisms, in court if need be?” I did, and said so, and yes, I had notes, photos, screenshots, test and benchmark resuts etc, should it become necessary to justify the criticisms. The mag told the complaining company, if they wanted to sue, see you in court.
That is annother possible difference between my day and today - the upset company would have been suing a large and powerful multinational publishing corppration, not an individual Youtube reviewer. But EVERYBODY, private or company, doing a review or just mouthing off online, ought to remember you COULD (unlikey though it is see Note 2) end up trying to justify what you said, in front of a judge. An awful lot of keyboard warriors would come badly unstuck at that pont. It applies to “inluencers”, but it also applies to everybody posting, for example, on this board. If you “publish” damaging or defamatory remarks, depending on quite what you say, you could end up having to justify them. So, a good rule is don’t say it if you can’t justify it, especially in a review. But that’s a long way from saying reviews should only say good things - in my view, if they do that, they’re just marketing, not a review.
(* NOTE - in my day, and largely in computers, it was companies like Microsoft, IBM, HP, Lexmark, Canon, Epson and so on that I was dealing with most of the time, and professional press and marketing managers/directors) I dealt with, “Excited”, if it appeared at all, would be seen as artifice.
Note 2) - while getting sued is possible, it’s unlikely, in part because it can get very expensive, very quickly. But that applies to both parties, so if you don’t have deep pockets, be very careful what you say about someone that does.
