If I want to see what a plugin or whatever is like, I demo it and make up my own mind. No 0's or 10's, just a yes or a no. No demo? Shame, GTFO...

Fact of the matter is, you have no idea what the guy who's writing the review's experience is, so how can you trust it!!?!... waste of time if you ask me

Imo the only reviews that really matter describe the functionality (or the lack of) of a Plug-In without expressing any kind of enthusiasm or obviously biased point of view. The whole rating system is totally obsolete...

That's why it's hard to believe those who have bought the product or are even working for the company who made it and rave about it all over the forums. They got the best sound ever from it and sold all their vintage gear because it's useless now. If you ask for sound samples of that perfect sound they of course forgot to record it and the session is gone too. I've began to suspect that certain posters (not saying any names) are agents of a certain Italian company. Their presence definitely seems to be overhelming in here. I bet they will comment this too. I'll put my helmet on.

members of companies or even beta testers/affiliates are not allowed to write reviews afaik.

Too subtle for me - which Italian company?

Something like Alfa Romeo, no wait, Multi Romeo, nah, Multi Ferrari - ah I forgot...

Now who would that be I wonder....

I think I Know!

There are marketing agencies with freelancers whose only target is to write good reviews, comments, forum posts in social networks. It's a common practice.

They are trained to do this - you can't recognize them immediately.

I even got a job offer to do this - but I didn't want to lie to other people and so I rejected it.

even the army does it -
http://www.pcworld.com/article/220495/army_of_fake_social_me dia_friends_to_promote_propaganda.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367535/U-S-military -using-fake-online-profiles-spread-propaganda.html

(pointing it out to create a realistic appreciation of the practice - please start a thread in the appropriate forum if you wish to comment on this topic)

let the buyer beware, and remember ppl, demo before purchase!

Of course, the US army has one of the biggest marketing budgets of the world (but beware of the upcoming Chinese!), and they permanently need new soldiers. Even some of the most successful Hollywood (action) movies are sponsored by the US army (with helicopters, aircrafts, tanks, weapons etc.).

So I think they're using the most modern practices of marketing...

But back to topic:

Personally I always use the demos and test the plugins if they suit me. I have never bought any plugin just because of a good review. Reviews often are a sort of advertisement, there is rarely real truth in them.

surprise, the pessimistic review prevents astro-turfing because no company will ever write a completely negative review about it's own product.

the purpose of reviews is to identify what you don't want, not what you want. you want to go through a list of things it doesn't do, can't do, or does poorly and ensure you don't care about any of those things.

you should care absolutely zero about any positive remarks.

for example, you're buying a cutter and you're worried it won't cut 1.5" hardened plate. someone reviews it and mentions how much it warped his piece of 1.5" plate while only scaring the surface. the specs claim it will rough cut up to 1.5" in three passes. you realize this means the edge will look like an unfinished jig-saw puzzle and that isn't what you want. successful review.

That could also mean the user is not capable of doing something with said plugin.
Not the plugin is incapable of doing it.
There are simply too many kvr members that say this (plugin) can't do that, and such...(sounds or dynamics etc)
What they really are stating is "they can't do that" with whatever plugin.
So the negative criticism, can be just as useless as the positive review.

Not to mention, if we reviewed products, and were blatantly honest with some harsh criticism. The developer of said product, might dislike us.
It might just hurt the dev-customer relationship there.

If I came up with a review of X-Hip synth, and it had some bad criticism of it.
Then I'd think you'd probably be p!ssed off at me.
So I'm not gonna be honest in a review of it. I'd just mention the good qualities. Guess I could slip in some subtle criticism in there though, but...you know.
note: I haven't tried X-Hip, as I only do music on my mac, so can't comment.
I also haven't done a review, because of the reasons listed above.

AT nobody specifically

I'm not afraid to give a negative review at all. If there is something glaring that pisses me off I want others to know about it. Thing is, what might not work for you could be a treasure to someone else (studio one is a great example, or reaper as the reverse)