Another pet peeve - online review sites

[NQAS]

I know. This one is pretty obvious.

I admit that I search the internet for "the best (fill in the blank)." Sometimes I get what appear to be genuine(ish) sites that seem to have done research on the items being searched. There are tech sites that fall into this category that I consider more or less trustworthy. I have no idea if they are, but they've been around a long time and seem to know what they're talking about.

There are outdoor gear sites that claim to have actually used the items being reviewed and refer to very specific instances where an item is particularly good or where it has fallen short. If they sound okay - which means, I suppose, that they fall into the confirmation bias category - I'm fine with that. I'm not climbing Everest, after all. I just want a decent, reliable raincoat (which, by the way, is harder to find than you might think).

Then there are paid sites, which I don't look at because I don't trust them. NYT Wirecutter falls into this category. You get the impression that their reviews consist of stuff their friends might have told them about a particular product. When this went behind a paywall, I chose not to pay.

Then there are the sites that prompted this post. I went looking for the best suet for birds. I came across a site that gave me a list of bird suets and the marketing text from the websites that the writer looked at when writing this review. Well, fuck. I can do that. I want to know what's reliable, what birds eat, what they ignore, the value, etc., etc. I mean, what a waste of time. Look, I know that most of these sites are part of someone's side hustle of making money from affiliate links with Amazon and other sites. But there should be disclaimers that they don't know shit and that this is a poorly-paid side hustle.

And don't get me started on power cables for electronic devices or insulated travel mugs.

First world problems, I know. But it's less stressful to get pissed off about this than about the fact that the official name of the USA ranks 182nd on the alphabetical list countries and that we'd be in the top five if we just renamed ourselves America. Or that people in the WH were in communication with the insurrectionists. Or that we are one month away from a resurrection of democracy in America or further along on the path to fascism.

Just sayin'.

[Kali]

1. the ones barely in English are "fun"