Reviews

[writepen]

Dear Fellow Members,

In response to multiple concerns from multiple people about my Review posts, please note the following: Nobody scripts the content..I write my own text/copy. The over-enthusiastic tone is consistent with my personality. This has been true my entire life, especially during my enjoyable, 40-year career in sales. I get excited talking or writing about my two hobbies...magic since age 13, and pen collecting since 1988. I can appreciate why someone would question my Reviews--they are all positive and glowing. There is a reason. I do not post Reviews of pens I do not enjoy. It is a conscious decision not to bash or criticize a product or a Company if I can avoid doing so. Yes, some people consider this to be unfair because I am not offering a balanced story, and maybe I will change that...time will tell. As is the case with everyone participating in online forums on a multitude of topics covering a variety of products, what I share is predominantly subjective, i.e., my opinion, although some of the content is 100% objective. I am not compensated for posting Reviews. I am not an employee of any Pen Maker/Manufacturer, and not paid to advertise/market/promote/etc. I, like almost everyone buying pens, receive a discount. In today's competitive marketplace, very few Dealers/Retailers generate full Retail price. Discounting is common, and I do negotiate price. But I also do that with everything else I buy, excluding groceries. 🙂

I apologize in advance for not responding to individual replies to this post.

Best wishes to everyone for fun fountain pen experiences, and more importantly, for good health, free of the coronavirus.

Respectfully,

writepen

P.S. I have photos for all the pens I post. Have tried many ways*** to upload, but all unsuccessful. ***Examples...minimize file size, change Browser, etc. Any suggestions?

 

[Jamerelbe]

Dear Fellow Members,

In response to multiple concerns from multiple people about my Review posts, please note the following: Nobody scripts the content..I write my own text/copy. The over-enthusiastic tone is consistent with my personality. This has been true my entire life, especially during my enjoyable, 40-year career in sales. I get excited talking or writing about my two hobbies...magic since age 13, and pen collecting since 1988. I can appreciate why someone would question my Reviews--they are all positive and glowing. There is a reason. I do not post Reviews of pens I do not enjoy. It is a conscious decision not to bash or criticize a product or a Company if I can avoid doing so. Yes, some people consider this to be unfair because I am not offering a balanced story, and maybe I will change that...time will tell. As is the case with everyone participating in online forums on a multitude of topics covering a variety of products, what I share is predominantly subjective, i.e., my opinion, although some of the content is 100% objective. I am not compensated for posting Reviews. I am not an employee of any Pen Maker/Manufacturer, and not paid to advertise/market/promote/etc. I, like almost everyone buying pens, receive a discount. In today's competitive marketplace, very few Dealers/Retailers generate full Retail price. Discounting is common, and I do negotiate price. But I also do that with everything else I buy, excluding groceries.

I apologize in advance for not responding to individual replies to this post.

Best wishes to everyone for fun fountain pen experiences, and more importantly, for good health, free of the coronavirus.

Respectfully,

writepen

P.S. I have photos for all the pens I post. Have tried many ways*** to upload, but all unsuccessful. ***Examples...minimize file size, change Browser, etc. Any suggestions?

 

 

@writepen, it's possible to upload pictures directly to FPN, but I find the process a bit clunky, so I only do it if I'm uploading a single photo. For fountain pen reviews (where I tend to have several pics to show), I've set up an account with imgur.com. This allows me to copy and paste the BBS links imgur generates into my review, and it shows up as a full-sized photo.

[txomsy]

I have had no issues uploading pictures using the "Upload" button on the top menu and following the instructions. I resize photos to meet the requirements (I think I normally make the longest side ~1000 pixels to be sure) and in the last page I copy the URL to past it in the dialog that pops up after clicking on the "image" button of the message text editor.

 

As for the tone of you reviews, they are your reviews and you are fully entitled to make them the way you like. From my most humble point of view, I can only be grateful for them and the additional info you freely give away. I should be mature enough to take everything I pick from the Internet with a grain of salt, check facts myself and contrast different opinions. That is not your, but my responsibility.

[A Smug Dill]

@writepen They're your reviews, and nobody can reasonably fault you for focusing on whichever aspects of the products interest you and in which you want to share your discoveries and opinions with your fellows. Where I make a conscious decision to completely ignore and/or disregard parts of your review content is where it looks like something copied, lifted and/or parroted from the product manufacturer's or retailer's marketing copy — and, more specifically, statements that seem to be puffery to me — and when the proportion of such content overwhelms the part that relate what you've discovered or encountered, good or bad, through first-hand experience as a user, in my view such a review article discredits the relevance and validity of what you say about the product in question. I myself was an analyst by trade, and always an analyst at heart, so if you're not offering new information (in evaluation, praise or criticism of a product) for me to add to my analysis, then I feel there is no point in my reading your reviews at all; but I would never question your prerogative to post them, because that is between you and the forum's administration (including the rules, by-laws, moderation policies, and so on).

As for posting photos, see this article from 2015:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/blog/2/entry-22-the-images-upload-tab-what-is-it-how-to-use-it/

This is an example of a particularly image-heavy thread I started recently:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/354655-how-does-exposure-to-moisture-increase-an-inks-apparent-water-resistance/

and I have not encountered any problems using the Upload and posting method described.

[Estycollector]

Anecdotal evidence, regardless of how enthusiastically given, is limited. That said, my experience with Amazon reviews, are useful because some useful information can be gleaned.

 

In my type of sales experience, objectivity and being evidenced based was expected where both benefits and risks are communicated.

 

To the OP, I wouldn't be too concerned about the criticism of your posts. Everyone has an opinion and you're as welcome to yours as they are to theirs.

[inkstainedruth]

@ writepen -- You certainly have the prerogative to write reviews as you see fit. But....

And this is a heavy "but".

You are doing a disservice to others by not writing *objective* reviews. Glowing, bubbly "puff piece" reviews may be more comfortable to you to do, but new people (in particular, but NOT exclusively) need to know the "cons" as well as the "pros" of a pen. And only doing reviews of pens you like, and only writing the "pros" does make it sound as if you're writing ad copy rather than a review, and that's only going to turn people off. Because if someone buys a pen that you've reviewed and DOESN'T like it, that is going to reflect on you as much (or more) than on the pen itself.

Several years ago I was one of the beta testers for Pierre Miller when he started Desiderata Pens. I had a couple of fairly long phone discussions with him about what I liked and what I didn't like about the pen I had. Giving objective feedback instead of just going "OOH! AHH!" was better for HIM in the long run and I think probably helped him improve his product (I've since met him at a couple of pen shows and is a lovely man, but at that point he was just some random person on FPN and then some random guy in Chicago talking to me on the phone). One of the things I particularly didn't like about the Daedalus prototype was the Zebra G nib, which tore into nearly every paper I used it on. But when he had a table at DCSS the last year it was in the old hotel in Tysons Corner, he had some tester pens and I discovered that the issue was that specific nib, because the tested pens did not have the same issues my pen does (the only paper that my pen did well on was Clairefontaine). But the flexing of the nib was great for several different inks: Noodler's Bay State Blue and also one of Pharmacist's old IG inks Terra Incinerata (the sepia black one).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Beechwood]

Good advice from Ruth. There have been reviewers on FPN who have said that everythng was wonderfull, we buy the product on the strength of the recommendation and find that our expectations have not been met.

 

You may also need to develop a thick skin if you post reviews of anything on FPN or almost anywhere else. There will always be people who will disagree with your opinion or even just post an opposite view 'just because they can'.

 

Be impartial, be truthful and if you are supplied with a free pen/ink/paper by anyone else then declare it in the opening line.

 

Please scale back the font, the large print and bold is a bit much.

 

Posting pics on FPN is very easy but bear in mind that you have a 2mb limit.

 

1. Click More Reply Options

 

2. Where it says Attach Files click Browse

 

3. A new screen will open, you then need to find the image on your computer that you want to upload

 

4. Click on that image

 

5 The name of that image will appear next to the Browse box

 

6. Click attach this file and your image will be in your Post

 

You may need to resize your image which I cannot help you with unless you use Microsoft Picture Editor which is the software that I use.

 

Best Regards

 

 

 

 

[Jamerelbe]

Good advice from Ruth. There have been reviewers on FPN who have said that everythng was wonderfull, we buy the product on the strength of the recommendation and find that our expectations have not been met.

 

You may also need to develop a thick skin if you post reviews of anything on FPN or almost anywhere else. There will always be people who will disagree with your opinion or even just post an opposite view 'just because they can'.

 

Be impartial, be truthful and if you are supplied with a free pen/ink/paper by anyone else then declare it in the opening line.

 

Please scale back the font, the large print and bold is a bit much.

 

Posting pics on FPN is very easy but bear in mind that you have a 2mb limit.

 

1. Click More Reply Options

 

2. Where it says Attach Files click Browse

 

3. A new screen will open, you then need to find the image on your computer that you want to upload

 

4. Click on that image

 

5 The name of that image will appear next to the Browse box

 

6. Click attach this file and your image will be in your Post

 

You may need to resize your image which I cannot help you with unless you use Microsoft Picture Editor which is the software that I use.

 

Best Regards

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm... Just tried this, and got an initial warning at the bottom of the page that:

 

You can upload up to Uploading is not allowed of files (Max. single file size: 100MB)

 

When I ignored the warning, browsed for a file, and tried to upload anyway, I got the following message:

 

Error This upload failed

 

I've managed to upload pictures to the site using the "Upload" link at the top of the page, and following the instructions there - but maybe this is why @Writepen is having some difficulty?

[Beechwood]

 

Hmmm... Just tried this, and got an initial warning at the bottom of the page that:

 

You can upload up to Uploading is not allowed of files (Max. single file size: 100MB)

 

When I ignored the warning, browsed for a file, and tried to upload anyway, I got the following message:

 

Error This upload failed

 

I've managed to upload pictures to the site using the "Upload" link at the top of the page, and following the instructions there - but maybe this is why @Writepen is having some difficulty?

 

 

This is the process that I use each and every time.

 

Could it be possible that you have rwched your limit in terms of uploads? If that is the case then you will need to go into Settings and Manage Attachments, this will show you what you have have uploaded in the past, you may need to delete some images to provide some new capacity.

[Jamerelbe]

 

 

This is the process that I use each and every time.

 

Could it be possible that you have rwched your limit in terms of uploads? If that is the case then you will need to go into Settings and Manage Attachments, this will show you what you have have uploaded in the past, you may need to delete some images to provide some new capacity.

 

Just checked, and you're right, I've reached my limit. Question though: if I delete some images, do they disappear from the posts I've added them to, or only from my list? If the former, there'll be a fair few broken links scattered through FPN, which would be a shame...

[A Smug Dill]

Just checked, and you're right, I've reached my limit. Question though: if I delete some images, do they disappear from the posts I've added them to, or only from my list?

 

FPN has provided a new image hosting facility for years — since no later than 2015 — for good reason. Sometimes it's useful and important to take note that the environment has changed, the ways in which one is used to operating are limiting and out of favour, so just accept and acknowledge change that has already happened (without necessarily consulting with or pending approval from "old-timers") in this world, and move on to how things work these days and encourage others to do so too.

 

The way @wimg himself described in the article at http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/blog/2/entry-22-the-images-upload-tab-what-is-it-how-to-use-it/ works for me every single time and with no preset limits; I'm up to 36 index pages of uploaded images now. There is absolutely no reason not to go with what the forum administrator advocated and explained in detail.

 

 

Edit: grammar

Edited July 7, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[Paul-in-SF]

Posting pics on FPN is very easy but bear in mind that you have a 2mb limit.

 

1. Click More Reply Options

 

2. Where it says Attach Files click Browse

 

3. A new screen will open, you then need to find the image on your computer that you want to upload

 

4. Click on that image

 

5 The name of that image will appear next to the Browse box

 

6. Click attach this file and your image will be in your Post

 

You may need to resize your image which I cannot help you with unless you use Microsoft Picture Editor which is the software that I use.

 

Best Regards

 

OK, I am confused. Is this what they call Uploading? Or is it attaching photos to a specific post? Because I follow this method (and it works every time) but all the photos show up at the bottom of the post. Other posters are able to place photos next to relevant text, so they can get Text - Photo - Text - Photo and so on as often as they want. I assumed that was using the Upload methodology. Maybe they are using the link methodology that jamerelbe mentioned earlier in this thread.

 

Note: I am not asking how to Upload (assuming that's not what I am already doing). I have found a method that works well enough for me. I am just confused (and I suspect other people are as well) about the different methods and what they are called.

 

I also find that I was able to actually Upload 6 photos about a year ago, I don't remember if I actually used them, but I was able to do it, and I believe it was a very different process from the description above.

 

Edited to add: sorry to continue this hijack; as it happens I don't have anything to offer about the OP other than what has already been said.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Paul-in-SF

[A Smug Dill]

OK, I am confused. Is this what they call Uploading? Or is it attaching photos to a specific post?

 

In the way described in @wimg's blog article, uploading an image file to FPN's "new" hosting facility is a logically separate step to "attaching" it to a post.

 

When you upload a photo to FPN's "new" image hosting facility, you get a URL to that online resource in return. It is then up to you to embed access and/or a link to the online image resource in the post using the [url] and/or [img] tag brackets in your post (while you're editing it).

[TheDutchGuy]

A review is meant to provide meaningful information about a product, which may help others to determine whether or not that product is relevant to them. Fortunately, there are many truly excellent reviews here on FPN and elsewhere, so anyone seeking such information is likely to find it with a mere two or three mouse clicks.

 

“The need to share” seems to be higher when people are either super enthousiastic or when they are disappointed. In the former case, they might wish to share their happiness or to express that they’ve now joined an inner circle of owners of a highly desirable product. In the latter case, they might wish to “warn” others. On a hobby forum like FPN, thankfully everything goes and I enjoy reading other people’s adventures with pens. This is a happy place. But content labeled as a review should be a review, at least in my opinion.

[Beechwood]

 

Just checked, and you're right, I've reached my limit. Question though: if I delete some images, do they disappear from the posts I've added them to, or only from my list? If the former, there'll be a fair few broken links scattered through FPN, which would be a shame...

 

 

Yes, the images will disappear. Therefore it would make sense to start with the largest uploads, the most inconsequential or the oldest.

 

Not sure about your use of the word 'links' , if you post a link to a site or thread then this will not count towards your attachments limit which is made up of images, typically .jpgs and the like.

[Beechwood]

 

OK, I am confused. Is this what they call Uploading? Or is it attaching photos to a specific post? Because I follow this method (and it works every time) but all the photos show up at the bottom of the post. Other posters are able to place photos next to relevant text, so they can get Text - Photo - Text - Photo and so on as often as they want. I assumed that was using the Upload methodology. Maybe they are using the link methodology that jamerelbe mentioned earlier in this thread.

 

Note: I am not asking how to Upload (assuming that's not what I am already doing). I have found a method that works well enough for me. I am just confused (and I suspect other people are as well) about the different methods and what they are called.

 

I also find that I was able to actually Upload 6 photos about a year ago, I don't remember if I actually used them, but I was able to do it, and I believe it was a very different process from the description above.

 

Edited to add: sorry to continue this hijack; as it happens I don't have anything to offer about the OP other than what has already been said.

 

I suspect that other people use an image hosting site such as Imgur which allows you to post a pic as a line in the middle of text, and then continue with text if you so wish.

 

At the beginning of the Chatter forum there is a pinned section on uplading images.

 

Out of respect to the OP I suggest that any further questions or discussions on how to upload images should be outside of this thread.

 

Thank you

Edited July 7, 2020 by Beechwood

[praxim]

To writepen, Jamerelbe & Paul-in-SF: The posts by A Smug Dill are detailed and correct. Do not use "Attach Files" within reply options. Use only the "Upload" button at the top of the page, then copy and paste your link. This is hosted on FPN, not some external image service, and you will not have to fiddle with any limits. "Attach Files" is a limited and superseded method.

Given writepen raised the question in post #1, this is no digression.

 

To writepen: Default font and size work quite well. Regarding reviews, I agree with the sentiments from a few posters. Perhaps you could note on each review that your reviews are strictly positive, to the point that you do not even review pens you do not like. People will, over time, make their own estimate of review value. There is nothing especially wrong with a review reflecting your thinking.

[Fermata]

To writepen, Jamerelbe & Paul-in-SF: The posts by A Smug Dill are detailed and correct. Do not use "Attach Files" within reply options. Use only the "Upload" button at the top of the page, then copy and paste your link. This is hosted on FPN, not some external image service, and you will not have to fiddle with any limits. "Attach Files" is a limited and superseded method.

Given writepen raised the question in post #1, this is no digression.

 

To writepen: Default font and size work quite well. Regarding reviews, I agree with the sentiments from a few posters. Perhaps you could note on each review that your reviews are strictly positive, to the point that you do not even review pens you do not like. People will, over time, make their own estimate of review value. There is nothing especially wrong with a review reflecting your thinking.

 

 

Typical Praxim post.

 

 

 

Given that the OP has a problem uploading images it seems obvious that the simplest way would be to start using an Attach system and progress from there. I see by the OPs latest review that he has made some attempt at following your suggested path and failed.

[Beechwood]

Without wishing to follow the confrontational path my strategy was that if someone is asking for help on how to upload an image directly from their computer then the simplest method, not neccessarily the best method, is to attach the file as I described.

 

I am sick and tired of one individual being at the centre of a good many arguments on FPN, spoils the positive atmosphere that should pervade.

[Estycollector]

@praxim's instructions are the same I received when I was having the same issues as discribed. Again, I do not see his/her posts to be a problem.

 

I have noticed by just a quick glance that many or most reviews have few or no responses, Some reviewers are not the most experienced. I do not feel I have the experience to properly write a review which might be useful to others. I just know what I know, which isn't much.

 

So, I have to ask myself why I wanted to experience a Parker 51 and a vintage Sheaffer. It was because of posts praising those pens. I began to decide which of those pens I preferred aesthetically, and then I bought a couple.

 

These old relics are fun and enjoyable. It is natural to be happy about your pen, especially for me if I've brought it back to life myself or paid an expert to do it for me. This allows me to side with the OP a bit. Maybe we are putting to much pressure on others to only produce objective reviews when we are more influenced by users singing a pens praise.