How Do You Know You Can Trust Someones Feedback?

[Lee]

Specifically when it comes to paid services, scripts, content purchases, hosting, etc?

For example, lets say you have a program owner, they buy all their content from the same content provider, they have hosted with the same host for years, their program uses a specific affiliate script, etc.

Now lets say you ask a question about one of those items and the program owner says 'yes its shit hot' to whatever your question was.

How do you know that you are being given and honest opinion and not an opinion based on them wanting to either...

1) Make their program seem better based on what 'they' are using?

2) Make their friends product seem better because they are 'friends'?

3) Make themselves seem better by saying something is good even if it isnt, because they dont want to admit they were wrong?

So as an adult webmaster, knowing the there are a bunch of individuals in the business that just say 'positive' stuff all the time, how do you judge whether their view/opinion is based on FACT and not just them trying to make themselves, their friends, their program look better?

Your thoughts?

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

That is an interesting point, that has bothered me lately, after reading some posts around various forums. For myself, I suppose it is more of an overall view of the poster that helps me determine whether to buy into their recommendation or not. I also like to check what I can for accuracy.

The internet is good for that. You can usually find what they have said elsewhere, and if it does't jive with things they tell me, I get nervous, or suspicious perhaps.

I also find that those who try to 'push' their view are usually having a hidden reason for their glowing recommendations. Such as having a financial stake in there somehow.

Trust in this game seems damn hard to obtain, and to maintain.
:kickcan:

[basschick]

you don't, of course. it's best to get a look at the sites and an idea of what that person does and has done on the internet. his/her posts help a lot here. the problem is that people love to give advice - it makes them feel good to think they are helping. they like it so much they often give it without the knowledge to make it actually helpful.

[Pistol]

I think you should always get a few referrals - rather than just one - and then do some testing before you invest too much into anything.

[Lee]

they like it so much they often give it without the knowledge to make it actually helpful.

Thats an interesting point too actually, for example, i know ive bashed Epoch quite a bit in the past few months based on their biz practices but i dont think i have ever said not to use them for processing because of their service and how much money a program can/cant make, as i have never really had a chance to use them as a processor myself for a sustained period of time, i have however mentioned my experiences with CCBill because it is something i have a working knowledge of.

Im wondering if a lot of people actually give 'advice' based on what they have been told, or what they are told by their friends without actually using that advice themselves?

If so, would that be more harmfull than deliberately going out of their way to post about a 'friends' site?

Regards,

Lee

[basschick]

referrals are only useful if you know the amount of knowledge the people giving the referrals have - which is often not as much as you'd think.

I think you should always get a few referrals - rather than just one - and then do some testing before you invest too much into anything.

[basschick]

it's too late for me to edit that last comment, but let me explain it a little. i have worked as a consultant a number of webmasters who used people with great references from folks on this board and others. the problem was that the people giving the references didn't have much knowledge in the areas they hired people for, and they assumed what was done was good work. what they DID know was the work was done in a timely and responsible fashion, but we ran into problems with the work that led to it having to be done over.

things like a video encoder who thought 320x240 at 384k was great video quality - the videos had to all be done over at 640x480 at 1100k. a couple webmasters here had someone with great references tell them that small MPGs were the way to go in their member areas, and when they changed all their videos to the small MPGs, their retention dropped. one person had a very highly recommended consultant tell them that they would make more sales with a censored tour - they left it up just enough days to discover that they were making about 30% less sales.

and i myself was asked by one company to find a member area specialist. most designers and consultants considered member areas their weak point, but i did find one guy with TONS of stellar referrals. after he was done with the member area of the site, the site retention dropped from 33% to 15%.

so references really aren't everything. and if you do use them, be sure and get details!