What is a reviewer? Qualifications? Purpose? responsibilities? are they critics? reporters? journalists? marketers? cheerleaders? influencers?
What should there place in the Industry be and how do we get there?
Limits? rules?
What are your opinions?
I read in so many threads comments about all the "reviewers" maybe a place to actually discuss it will be useful
Id say an enthusiast is an enthusiast , maybe a reviewer should be more? IMO being an enthusiast isnt credentials. I love football but Im not a QB in the NFL. Liking to cook doesnt make you a chef. dont you think thats a very low bar?
There was a thread related to this topic a few years ago. In it I said the main criteria to be a reviewer is to be able to say in 1000 words what should take less than 100 words to describe. Of course this is in the space of the written word such as magazines. The first critera of any reviewer that is going to be hired by a magazine is they have to be good writers. Not that they can listen or evaluate. That is probably farther down the list. Reviews are sales tools for the manufacturers. If the review doesn't do a good job of selling the product then why would the manufacturers pay for the review?
