1

I’m finding that the review and rating portion of the spiceworks portal is good in principle but lacks a little finesse in practice.

What Spiceworks scans and finds does not necessarily relate to the product in question. For example, we have a HP LaserJet 3380 that is connected to a 3 port External HP Jetdirect print server. Spiceworks allows you to review the print server, but not the printer that is associated with it!

In addition I also notice that depending on how Spiceworks has named network devices that there will be several entries in the reviews database that relate to the same product!

I think we need the ability to change product titles that appear in the reviews section, and also the ability to report on duplicate items so that they are removed.

I’d also like the ability to add products directly to the review area that aren’t scanned by Spiceworks (for example our SDSL router sits the other side of our firewall and won’t ever get scanned, I’d still like to review it!)

What say Ye?

9 Spice ups
2

ya it would be great if we could just enter the product that we want to review… I have several items that “can not” be scanned… for security reasons… and a few software titles that are on test boxes that dont get scanned as well… but id like to review products that are on thos unscanned devices… if we could manually add those products that would be great…

3

Sounds like a good idea. If you put in a feature request I’ll vote it up.

4

Several of us were sitting around this weekend discussing the review system and how it is totally useless for someone actually looking up info about a product. It’s just a last ditch place to grab some bit points in order to reach the next spice level. The reviews are often worthless and the points system doesn’t tell you enough about the product to be useful.

Having reviews be worth so many points is a problem as lots of people just jump in and start reviewing willy nilly to get points so the review quality isn’t so good on top of all o fthe logistical issues mentions above which are extremely valid.

5

Scott Alan Miller wrote:

Several of us were sitting around this weekend discussing the review system and how it is totally useless for someone actually looking up info about a product. It’s just a last ditch place to grab some bit points in order to reach the next spice level. The reviews are often worthless and the points system doesn’t tell you enough about the product to be useful.

Having reviews be worth so many points is a problem as lots of people just jump in and start reviewing willy nilly to get points so the review quality isn’t so good on top of all o fthe logistical issues mentions above which are extremely valid.

This is true. I know I do it when I am close to the next “level”, although my reviews are seldom one liners and offer a genuine experience of the product. That said I do find them useful for finding products/software that previously I have never heard of that might provide a solution I need. I found Purgos that way for example

Maybe it should be ditched in favour of something more meaningful. In which case, what form does that take?

6

Yeah, our ratings and reviews system could definitely use some improvement.

So, here’s the question for you guys: In an ideal world, how would reviews work for you? This doesn’t have to be limited to the community, by the way. We are working hard to bring content like this directly in the workflow of the application.

What is your routine like for comparing products via reviews, etc. What other kinds of information would be helpful beyond what we have?

7

I have used the review section in SW to look up product reputation. (I gather reviews from different sources before make a decision.) There are some products that I wonder why they are even there. Halo? Sid Meier’s Civilization? I would rather see business related products.

Just my $0.02.

8

John8791 wrote:

I have used the review section in SW to look up product reputation. (I gather reviews from different sources before make a decision.) There are some products that I wonder why they are even there. Halo? Sid Meier’s Civilization? I would rather see business related products.

Just my $0.02.

I agree, the lack of direction and just a huge pool of “discovered” items works very poorly for a business product review system. The items should be hand selected, not discovered.

9

Scott Alan Miller wrote:

John8791 wrote:

I have used the review section in SW to look up product reputation. (I gather reviews from different sources before make a decision.) There are some products that I wonder why they are even there. Halo? Sid Meier’s Civilization? I would rather see business related products.

Just my $0.02.

I agree, the lack of direction and just a huge pool of “discovered” items works very poorly for a business product review system. The items should be hand selected, not discovered.

My question Scott is “How do you do this effectively?” There is a ton of stuff out there let alone being discussed or recommended just in the SpiceWorks discussion threads alone.

Suggestion:

Perhaps SW scanning the software and after having met some kind of base installation metric/benchmark include as an item to be available for review? (Maybe this is already happening.)

10

John8791 wrote:

Scott Alan Miller wrote:

John8791 wrote:

I have used the review section in SW to look up product reputation. (I gather reviews from different sources before make a decision.) There are some products that I wonder why they are even there. Halo? Sid Meier’s Civilization? I would rather see business related products.

Just my $0.02.

I agree, the lack of direction and just a huge pool of “discovered” items works very poorly for a business product review system. The items should be hand selected, not discovered.

My question Scott is “How do you do this effectively?” There is a ton of stuff out there let alone being discussed or recommended just in the SpiceWorks discussion threads alone.

Suggestion:

Perhaps SW scanning the software and after having met some kind of base installation metric/benchmark include as an item to be available for review? (Maybe this is already happening.)

The “quote original post” function hasn’t been working correctly the last few days. Argh.

There is no real easy answer for this. I am not aware of any successful review site that is not also selling product causing the reviews to be tied to the product SKUs making it easy.

A good review site is a lot of work. I think that that is just the answer. It wouldn’t take too long to have a huge volume of real stuff to review (far better than we have now) and a simple system for community members to submit new items.

11

You hit the nail on the head - maintaining the reviews section would be a huge amount of work. Right now we keep people from reviewing their local burger joint by the fact that they can only review things that have been scanned into inventory.

That doesn’t catch all the cruft, though, as people will review silly things, and reviews can end up getting forked into a couple of different entries for the exact same product.

Finding a way for the community to collaborate on managing that workload is the hardest part of the problem, from my point of view.

12

That’s what the moderators are for!

13

Nic (Spiceworks) wrote:

You hit the nail on the head - maintaining the reviews section would be a huge amount of work. Right now we keep people from reviewing their local burger joint by the fact that they can only review things that have been scanned into inventory.

That doesn’t catch all the cruft, though, as people will review silly things, and reviews can end up getting forked into a couple of different entries for the exact same product.

Finding a way for the community to collaborate on managing that workload is the hardest part of the problem, from my point of view.

Here is my suggestion:

Firstly when reviews are submitted they should go through some kind of approval process to determine both the worth of the individuals review and the worth of the product being reviewed (A moderator could do this)

The reviewer would rate the product/software etc on a number of criteria which would be determined by product type. The rating could be a scale of 1-10 where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent.

As an example for Printers:

Type of Printer: Inkjet, Mono Laser, Colour Laser, Thermal Transfer, other

Printer Target Duty Cycle (Prints per month): Under 2000, 2000-5000, 5000-10000, 10000-15,000, 15000-25000, 25000-40000, over 40000

Ease of installation 1-10

Ease of Network Configuration 1-10

OSes Supported: Windows, MacOS, Linux

Print Speed 1-10

Quality of Text Based Printer Output 1-10

Quality of Photo based Printer Output 1-10

Features: 1-10

Purchase Cost: (give price paid)

Running Costs (consumables, power etc): 1-10

General comments:

The review would then need each item rating and a significant portion of user text to describe how it has worked for them in their environment. The moderator would then decide whether the review was “worthy” and approve or reject (with comments/reasons perhaps)

Spiceworks and the mods could decide which criteria need rating for each product type and initially to get it off the ground you could limit the product types to a small subset to see how it all works. Over time release more product types as you get a feel for how well it is working.

Finally allow mods to award however many points they deem fit for a worthy review. If it is clear someone has invested a good deal of effort into a quality review then give them plenty of reward points.

What think ye???

14

In the example you give the jetdirect card is a print server add-on for the printer and the scan can’t determin the printer type exactly as it can’t detect printers attached to PCs. This network ‘add-on’ is commin to lots of printers and SW does seem to properly detect printers with embedded network support rather than a Jetdirect type device not native to the printer, sounds like the gripe lays with the manufacturers of the printers not SW.

15

The printer is attached to the 3 port print server. It isn’t attached to a PC at all.

That’s by the by, I think there is enough evidence and support within the community to see the review and ratings system overhauled. I’d appreciate more suggestions as to what you would like to see within the ratings and review system if you’d be willing to give your thoughts on it.

16

I would recommend using the KISS method. The method that Amazon uses might be worth looking into. 1 point for a review. But each review would have a “Was this helpful?” vote attached to it. 2 additional points for every helpful vote, -1 for every no vote (not to go less then 1 point).

But the biggest barrier right now is how scattered it is. 3 or 4 different objects that all represent the same thing. The only thing I can see here is a moderator (or group of) to keep things straight.

17

Tino Todino wrote:

The printer is attached to the 3 port print server. It isn’t attached to a PC at all.

That’s by the by, I think there is enough evidence and support within the community to see the review and ratings system overhauled. I’d appreciate more suggestions as to what you would like to see within the ratings and review system if you’d be willing to give your thoughts on it.

Sorry I was making the case that a printer downstream of a print server is exacly like SW trying to see printers attached to PCs, which it is. The ratings in the inventory will/would have dificulty rightly providing a link to review attached printers it can’t detect.

I’m sorry again to upset you.

My opinion of the Review system itself is not something I’ve considerred and there are so many devices, software, etc, as a result of the thousands of environments being scanned making much improvement would be a dificult thing indeed. It would be useful though for some products to be able to evaluate them negatively like the spice value on threads. Say the five gold stars for positive votes as it is now and then black stars of trash bins to represent peoples dissatisfaction with a product.

18

Lawrie, I’m not at all upset! :slight_smile:

All opinions on the review system and how to improve it are welcome

19

Thankyou Tino… :slight_smile:

20

"Lawrie5252 wrote:

In the example you give the jetdirect card is a print server add-on for the printer and the scan can’t determin the printer type exactly as it can’t detect printers attached to PCs. This network ‘add-on’ is commin to lots of printers and SW does seem to properly detect printers with embedded network support rather than a Jetdirect type device not native to the printer, sounds like the gripe lays with the manufacturers of the printers not SW."

Well, I think that that is a bit extreme. Should every peripheral in the universe become networked just to support SpiceWorks scanning it? That is not practical from a security or support standpoint. Should desktop printers, monitors, etc. all have their own IP addresses all of the time even when they are not shared devices? I think that that is a poor solution and that having SpiceWorks handle more than just network devices would make the most sense.

The real issue is that SpiceWorks is not an inventory system and is a “network discovery and change management” system basically. So the real issue is that SpiceWorks doesn’t really do what people often want from it. It falls into a niche that works well for SMB but leaves a lot of gaps for real world use (no real time monitoring, no agents, not stable for inventory purposes, only handles networked devices, etc.)