I love how so many people are like “these reviewers are paid off” and this guy’s like, “nah, it’s malpractice for a reviewer to actually give a bad review.”
A historically bad tech take that should be put in a museum.
@matt I was just reading a story about this and I could not understand...why...there was a story about this. (Also, that guy's bio definitely disqualifies him from any commentary whatsoever.)
@jsnell@dmoren@flargh Yeah, just speaking for myself, but brands reach out to me daily to “review” their product, and a good number of them either say outright or strongly imply that the “review” should make them look good. It’s like they view critics as just a marketing arm for them.
@matt@jsnell@dmoren@flargh I don’t want to sound snide, but that’s precisely what it is — and appropriately so. Product Marketing exists to get positive exposure for their product. Reviews are just that. If they don’t try to get positive coverage for their product, they’re not doing their job.
That being said, like anything, it can be done ethically or not, but that’s a separate point.
@michaelrjohnson@jsnell@dmoren@flargh I hear what you’re saying, but I’m not talking about marketing or sponsored content, I’m talking about someone telling me they’ll pay and give me free stuff if I post a “review” that must not mention I was paid, must not say anything bad, and must mention their talking points as if they were my original thoughts.
That not marketing, that’s breaking FTC guidelines for endorsements, and there are plenty of companies who don’t do that.
@jsnell@matt@dmoren I saw someone accusing another Mastodon user of "bullying" Eugen Rochko and mastodon.social last week for something or other, I forget.
Some people get really confused about punching down vs punching up depending on which team they're rooting for.
@flargh@matt@dmoren here's what really bugs me. That dude is right in a way. I was always aware at Macworld that we could crush a company and a product if we wanted to. It leads to a feeling of responsibility. But ultimately it is your job to inform the audience of what you really think. Some valley people think making tech workers sad is the ultimate crime.
@jsnell@flargh@matt@dmoren When I was asked to review something for Macworld, if it was really bad, I told my editor I didn’t want to review it. I didn’t feel it was worth reviewing something that sucked. Same when I reviewed classical CDs.
I don’t think the Humane gizmo is important enough that someone like him absolutely had to review it.
@tommertron For real. Marques is always a fair reviewer in my book, and if anything he’s more generous to what companies were trying to achieve than he strictly must be. This one really made him sound more frustrated at how poor it was.
@robb Marques Brownlee is one of the few tech reviewers I actually watch. I've not watched this video though as I really have zero interest in that Humane pin thingy. @matt
@andycarolan@robb@matt their company exists until Apple get up on stage “Ayo so we made Siri actually smart and 100% of her features work from your Apple Watch”
“oh and one more thing, Siri has image recognition as well now”
@nicolas Probably! It would of course be on hardware that many people already own, or at least own from that product class and would be more willing to upgrade to the supported version. @robb@matt
@matt I mean, if Marques, probably the fairest reviewer out there, is giving your product this bad a review, maybe it’s you that’s the problem, not him.
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