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As I am sure many dotTechies have noticed, I have been writing less and less GOTD/Shareware reviews recently. There are multiple reasons as to why this is happening but by far the biggest reason is lack of time; I am just more busy nowadays than I have been in the past. And now I have to split my time between different sections of dotTech (freebies, freeware reviews, etc.) whereas in the past I would primarily only be doing GOTD/Shareware reviews. At one point I was thinking I will drop GOTD/Shareware reviews altogether, but have come up with an idea that I am sure most people will appreciate: Rapid Reviews.
It takes time to evaluate a software, write the good/bad about it, rate it, provide free alternatives, and give the verdicts but without a doubt the part of GOTD/Shareware reviews that takes the longest is the full review. Depending on the complexity of the program being reviewed, it can take anywhere from one to three hours to write just the full review section (on top of the time it takes to conduct the other activities I just mentioned). This is where Rapid Reviews come in.
Rapid Reviews are reviews on GOTD/Shareware software without the full review section. All software featured in Rapid Reviews are still evaluated fully and graded fairly as they have been in the past; and Rapid Reviews still has the program overview, the good and the bad, ratings, quick verdict, free alternatives, and final verdict. But, Rapid Reviews will no longer have a full review section.
The emergence of Rapid Reviews will help free up time for me and prevent the drop of GOTD/Shareware reviews altogether. Of course, Rapid Reviews are a new thing and they will be carefully monitored to see what dotTechies think about the idea: Do dotTechies like Rapid Reviews, hate them, would like to see something improved, etc. Hopefully, Rapid Reviews will be successfully merged into dotTech’s growing portfolio of techie goodness and help grow this site as opposed to hurt it.
Please provide any thoughts, comments, and feedback in the comments below. Your feedback will make dotTech better!
I think it is an excellent idea considering the amount of time needed for you to write your full reviews.
I was very happy to see ALL positive responses so far. Everyone has already said it all… so I will just mention that I’m glad you found a clever way to reduce your work load; so dotTech will still be fun for you in spite of all the hard work you put in to it. Thank you.
Sounds good to me :)
Go for it Ashraf – I’m sure most of us are summary-level types anyway; and your thumbs up/down is about as close as I get to be my last word.
So many positive comments on here already. I like your full reviews a lot, and appreciate the great effort that goes into them. The Rapid Reviews will still be very valuable. I see no reason to repeat information that is already on the publisher’s site or in the program’s help file – just point us in the right direction. I mostly want to know if you think a program is good or bad and why, a general description of its purpose and any special features that make it stand out.
Many people like the hand-holding of the full reviews, the detailed description of how to use it. There’s a simple solution… if someone needs help with a particular aspect of the program, they can post their questions here. Then the whole DotTech community can chip in and provide help. It’s something a lot of us enjoy anyway – helping each other. It would also be valuable for the publishers to see what kinds of questions are asked. You might want to end each Rapid Review with a statement about posting questions and inviting everyone to help answer (instead of the “I’ll try to help” kind of statement you wrap them up with now).
Keep up the great work, your site, helpers, and all the people that visit are a great resource!
Hi Ashraf-
I have come to count on your full reviews but I guess until someone puts 28 hours in a day ‘Rapid Reviews’ will be great. You give so much already and have helped so many of your ‘dotTechie’ followers I am amazed you still have a life outside of this website (you do, don’t you?).
There is alot of information and help available other than your reviews, we just need to ask. Your step-by-step instructions are invalueable but your overall opinion is what I look at first and Rapid Review takes care of that.
Thanks for all the work, time help, etc. You truly are a man for all seasons!
That sounds like a great idea! But, your first sentence:
Should have been:
Sorry, I had to to that :D
As someone mentioned above:
“most people are interested in quick pros and cons, scorecard, quick verdict, final verdict and most importantly freeware alternatives.”. This helps us evaluate before downloading.
I have never been able to understand how you could afford to spend so much time reviewing each individual offering.
Just the time required to type it all up seems staggering.
Over time I have come to move quickly to “the answer please”. I have more confidence in your reviews than I would have in my own, and I think that you should absolutely streamline the amount of labor you put into each review.
We all know that you will provide sound and ethical evaluations, regardless of the format – And please know that they are of great benefit.
Thank you – Profusely!
# 11 Rob Cr may be on to something