Most if not all artist who sell products here at Renderosity work alone at home. We dont work in large studios where we get lots of feedback from fellow employees. The only way we get feedback as to wether we are on track with our products is if customers graciously take the time to write reviews. Without them we work in a vacumn.

Years ago I developed a payroll system and billing system in Access and spent weeks considering every aspect of usability and function. When installed and ran for the first time users would do things within 5 minutes I never counted on. People think and see things differently from one another. Reviews and feedback on products are vital so that artist can produce product that is desirable and functional. Providing your feedback on items you have purchased will serve to improve products you purchase in the future. Without feedback producers are basically working in the dark. As a community in which our connection to each other is the computer screen in front of us, feedback is vital to improve and provide customers with the best products possible.

Well said! 

Yep, I love feedback and it always results in me making changes to how I do things.

But do you really want criticism on a paid item? IF that paid item works. I mean - if it DIDN'T work it shouldn't be in the MP in the first place, so..

I'm just curious. I LOVE feedback on my stuff, but so far, 99% of what I've got is things like "great idea, just what I needed" ect. Which is nice because it tells me I was right in doing it in the first place, but I won't say it halps me do anything differently (other than keep on track with what I did)

OTOH a feedback like "this is nice but if the toilet had been a kitchen I could have used it more"... is rather pointless when the product IS a toilet.

So I think I'm missing the point here (wouldn't be the first time...)

Usually, no feedback means everything is fine ;-)

People are much more communicative when they're upset.

General question. Who would you be looking to provide the feedback; your peers or customers or anyone in the community?

Well I would be a bit surprised if someone who didn't buy my product was still able to talk about how it worked ;)

General feedback as in "this looks great, I put it on my wishlist" is nice.. but not REALLY useful other than as ego stroking (which, mind you, is also important!)

I try to leave a review on things I buy, whenever possible. However it sometimes works out that I don't use whatever it was for a long time - maybe it was on sale and I snapped it up to put away for later - so when, if ever, I do use it I've forgotten about reviewing it. Sorry to anyone who's been affected in that way. :)

Other times, the product turns out not to be very useful for some reason. If there was an actual fault, I'd bring it to the vendor's attention, maybe help them to fix it if I knew the solution - but I'd do that privately, not through the review system. But there have been times when the product has just not been very inspiring, and I don't see much point in writing a review along the lines of "didn't like it very much, meh" since that isn't exactly helpful.

Once or twice, I've posted tips and tricks in a review in the hopes of helping others; not actual faults, just things that can be done to make it better.  

I agonize over everything I create. I'm my own worst critic. It has been my experience on Rendo that people always tend to tell an artist how great or fabulous an image or product is, even when it leaves a great deal to be desired. This is not useful to ANYONE. I think people do this just by rote, always fearful of pissing off the artist or vendor. This does no good for the vendor or the end user. If I feel something is great, I don't hesitate to say so, but if something really sucks (and I have seen this, especially in the galleries) I tend to keep this to myself. Chris mentions the fact that we are only connected by a computer screen, and unless you are some kind of troll, I think that much goes unsaid. Don't get me wrong - there are some great artists and vendors whose work is amazing to me, and which I try to emulate. I've spent the past year learning to model in Blender, and would be ashamed to present anything I have modeled for sale or even as a freebie. It is rare for me to see any good feedback on just about everything, and that is just too bad as far as I am concerned. Chris also mentions that we tend to work alone, and feedback from peers is most valuable. I oftem wonder what goes through some people's minds when they see something that just isn't right...

C~

Quote - Well I would be a bit surprised if someone who didn't buy my product was still able to talk about how it worked ;) General feedback as in "this looks great, I put it on my wishlist" is nice.. but not REALLY useful other than as ego stroking (which, mind you, is also important!)

"Added to Wishlist" is all I would put, since I have not bought anything in years.  The only other thing I might put would be questions about possible future options - textures for clothing, props for a location, theme specific poses, etc.

Which I would then add to my Wishlist and not buy for a while.

I know this sounds a bit bleak but reading members comments on feedback people have a very wide view on wether its good or bad. Would it not be simplier to divide the problem in two. Form a private group with people who understand how to model and whose opinion you trust to develop your skills and form another group with people who understand how to promote and sell ideas (sorry for the bad spelling). I like the points method used by a few coding sites to encourge feedback but the problems they face tend to be easier to identify.

The relationship between customer and vendor is not as close as it used to be.

The marketplace forum used to be a hopping forum. Now, it's tumbleweeds in there and very few customers post anything. I suppose that's why some vendors have begun to post their next product 'WIPs' here in the Poser forum instead... because they realize no one reads the marketPlace forum anymore. It may be a symptom of the times... folks don't have time to visit 8 different sub-forums, keep up on the gallery and make comments and leave reviews for every purchase.

Especially when the vendors themselves don't interact with customers much anymore either. It used to be I'd buy a product and the vendor would send me a PM thank you. I've left tons of product reviews and to be honest only a handful of vendors even acknowledge it. I'm not dumping on vendors... I just think the whole Poserverse has gotten so large that's it's rare to get a lot of one-on-one customer-vendor interaction. It's no one's fault really.

I think if a vendor truly wants feedback, they have to dangle a carrot. Some vendors used to offer a freebie to any customers who left reviews ( good or bad ). I think it's kind of up to the vendor now to invent some way to get their customers to give feedback.

The other thing is competition is getting higher and higher every year.  It used to be ONE vendor released a cool lingerie set for Vicki2 and it sold like hotcakes. Now, every week 15 lingerie sets for Vicki4 are released. The prop creators have gotten better as well. They have learned what Poser users need... walls that can be hidden... doors that open, etc.

I think customers want to be able to send a vendor a PM without feeling awkward. Most customers probably don't know how something was made. the vendor may not explain all the capabilities of a product in the promo pages.

If you're selling a product... it's really up to the seller to entreat the buyer. I do think buyers will respond though if they get to know a certain vendor.

And I'm totally guilty  :P  ... just left a review of your Valerie character which is excellent!

In my opinion, for really serious and meaningful feedback, one has to organize a group of beta-testers for the product. This forum can be a good place to get in touch with some.

Basically, I only leave a review if I love the product.  I'm in this for fun, I don't want to piss people off.  People get pissed off enough if you criticize their gallery images.  I'm afraid to find out what they'll do if you criticize something they're selling for actual money.

Quote - In my opinion, for really serious and meaningful feedback, one has to organize a group of beta-testers for the product. This forum can be a good place to get in touch with some.

^

The culture here seems to oppose giving negative reviews, so they are very rare. As a result of that rareness, though, the few that do appear stand out like red flags. In that environment, even a four star rating will look very bad, and might provoke a hostile reaction. It's a vicious circle.

For that reason, I only give reviews when I'm honestly moved to rate something 5 stars.

If I thought vendors really desired my opinions, I'd be glad to offer them privately, where I could be honest and not worry about negatively affecting their sales. But it never occurred to me that vendors might want to know what I'm thinking or that they would even have the time to read what I wrote.

I guess if a vendor does want a specific kind of feedback, s/he could include a link on the product page or in the readme to an anonymous survey asking specific questions: did everything work okay, did the textures have a high enough resolution, was it easy to install, how much have you used it, are there any additional features you would have liked to have, etc. I suggest specific questions because if you just let people comment without some guidance, they're likely to be unhelpful in precisely the ways that TrekkieGrrrl described.

I do get feedback on features they'd like me to implement or if there is an inaccuracy (esp in historical models like our Divco Milk Truck). In fact, starting several years ago, we reassessed how we did everything in supporting Poser / DS, then started the process of upgrading all our products to the new standard.

Also, our free figures Slim and Chunk elicit a lot of direct feedback, esp what batches of dials to add next.