I'm starting to go through and rate a bunch of the reviews I missed rating during the write off and I've come across an issue...

I've noticed a few reviews of similar products (like different colors of the same products) that are almost word for word exactly the same. These are from people involved in the write off who write really great reviews and whom I honestly like. I really don't want to give anything less than a VH, because they are all very helpful. But they violate the duplicate post rule and therefore rightfully don't deserve it, right?

All of these reviews have already received many VH ratings from all kinds of people, including advisors and leads. So who am I to come in with my 38 reviews and 12 people on my WOT to be the only person out of 15 or more to rate NH?

So here I am, a lowly newbie.... wondering what is the right thing to do? Advise me oh venerated epinions gurus!

(and if you recognize yourself in this post... I BEG you to put me out of my misery and go change one of said duplicate reviews by the required 100 words!)

In my opinion it is wrong since you said they are word for word the same. I mean it's possible that someone could write (legitimately) on a product in red and the same product in blue - it's possible they would have very similar wording. But if they are word for word it is blatantly copy and paste - not even an effort to write the second review. That is not good practice :(

**Update: I think there is nothing wrong with reviewing both products, but both reviews should be original - ie you should take the time to write each from scratch. This is why I don't write about two similar products back to back because it's hard to think of new words/phrases the second time. But if you are going to do it, at least write the whole review each time. Don't copy and paste :(

Chances are, the entries were read by Amy and Helen, and either were accepted as entries (or not) already.

W/O aside, though, you could go ahead and email them seperately with your comment (as opposed to having the comment public first) and rate NH on the duplicate (the one that was posted second) and see what kind of a response comes back from your email.

If there is no response after a day or two, I would probably leave the comment publicly and look at some of their other reviews because it probably isn't the first time they've done it.

There are lots of potential reasons why they did it and what their philosophy was, but they shouldn't have a problem explaining them to the membership.

Yeah. Well. Here's how I look at that kinda thang... and it likely doesn't mesh with the view of others, but oh well...

If a product is listed under multiple colors, well, that's just stupid. Nothing changes with each item except that color. Same quality, etc....

Tell me, which color will a consumer look up reviews on first?

No clue? Me either...

I consider the Listing to be duplicate, and personally see nothing wrong with covering the bases of the various colors... having said that, it is within site policy to do this as long as each review be changed by a mere 100 words....

On the other hand... to do that as contest entries is a bit smarmy. (you know, mainly cuz I didn't think of it first...)


SmallStuffDoc

Lotsofjoy, please email me the links to the reviews in question so that I can give them a thorough going over.

It's the same conversation we had recently about reviewing perfume - in different sized bottles. Ask 10 Epinionaters and you'll get 10 different opinions about whether a reviewer SHOULD review the same product (in different size, different color, etc) and if they should, then should the reviews be completely different or is merely changing 100 words adequate. Same conversation here. Same opinion here. Mine's just different from yours, I guess.

Like I said... they are very helpful reviews and the only differnce between the listings is the color. Which is why I am reticent to just down rate it.

*sigh* I'm conflicted.