Shisha Review App (website)?

[lowspeedchase]

Hey guys (and girls if either of you two are reading)

Here is the thing... I was looking at trying some new shisha brands/flavors. Naturally the first place I checked out was our review sub-forum.

It's difficult to use. It's hard to get an accurate feeling for how people faired. Some people rate it on a scale of 1-5, some out of 10, some don't rate it numerically at all.

Would anyone else besides me find a web application for rating/reviewing shisha helpful?

We could standardize the rating (1-10 stars) and also have ratings based on structured categories (flavor, clouds, longevity, etc).

This just popped into my head - I have the skills to make this happen; however, I don't want to create something that won't be used.

[mushrat]

Hey guys (and girls if either of you two are reading)

Here is the thing... I was looking at trying some new shisha brands/flavors. Naturally the first place I checked out was our review sub-forum.

It's difficult to use. It's hard to get an accurate feeling for how people faired. Some people rate it on a scale of 1-5, some out of 10, some don't rate it numerically at all.

Would anyone else besides me find a web application for rating/reviewing shisha helpful?

We could standardize the rating (1-10 stars) and also have ratings based on structured categories (flavor, clouds, longevity, etc).

This just popped into my head - I have the skills to make this happen; however, I don't want to create something that won't be used.

this comes up from time to time. check out this thread.

http://www.hookahforum.com/?showtopic=22120

[Chaz1337]

I say go for it man! I would use this NONStop. I love reading the reviews in the subforums but have always wish they were standardized for ease of use and to make things look more official. Im fairly new to smoking hookah and am always trolling looking for the newest popular flavors or maybe a secret find that proves to be amazing!

But Yea I say go for it and Good Luck! I will certainly throw my 2 cents in on some of the shisha I smoke

+1

[Sherwood]

This seems like the only workable solution to the problem of non-standard reviews. People won't always willfully follow a template, for whatever reason, so make it impossible not to and they'll be set.

[Scalliwag]

a web form would seem to make it much easier. It would kinda force the template.

[mushrat]

Keep in mind not everyone grades aspects of shisha the same way. I put little interest in "clouds" because all shisha can produce great clouds if you heat it right. Longevity, too subjective, a lot of people smoke their hookahs hot and thus will kill a bowl faster. Taste, well, considering half the people who smelled a tub of AF grape in my place said they smelled Ketchup, and the other half, smelling the same tub, say they didn't, again, too subjective to be objectively quantified.

The problem is you are trying to take a completely subjective subject, a PERSONAL review of a particular shisha, and force it into an objective, quantifiable, format that just isn't made for it. Read what people SAY about the tobacco, how they describe their set ups, what they did to prepare the hookah, not the numbers they attach to it if you want to get the most out of the reviews.

See my old thread of "brief reviews" and tell me you learned more real information from a l;ong drawn out review.

[gunsboy]

Do it up brother.

Adding things like pictures of cloud thickness and shisha cut thumbnails or pictures to help people rate it would make the site look more appealing.

Also, create one for Hookah and Coals, Vendors, Hoses, Bowls, and other accessories.

If you need a hand drop me a line. I am ok with web development but I suck in creating pictures or designing anything.

[Vladimir]

I have had this very thought myself, though I have worked with things like PHP it would be outside my immediate knowledge. I find the review section to be great for leaving reviews, not so much for reading reviews. Granted with what was available there would have been no other way to do it. And I have used it when making online purchases, but if you want to read some quick reviews on a flavor before buying it at the store it isn't great.

[juice]

Would be extremely helpful, especially a sortable and searchable matrix-style app.

For example, I want a watermelon flavor --> filter on watermelon across brands. Returns prices & reviews.

I also think a Netflix-style star rating would encourage more ratings if people don't feel like any write ups, just choose a number... 1 to 5.

[lowspeedchase]

Thank you all for the great replies...

Well let's try this as an experiment mush, if it all comes crashing down I give you my full permission to call me out

Ok guys so here is a sample product page I whipped up over the last 2 hours (slow day at the office)...

You can vote on it and see your votes in real time. This is SUPER ROUGH and is just a proof of concept, so any and ALL suggestions are welcomed!

Let me know what you think, be brutally honest too, that's how progress is made.

Shisha Review Sample

P.S. on the vote popup you can see I put a placeholder for comments... the idea would be to list, underneath the ranking on top, all the user comments and how each individual ranked the shisha. Edited June 5, 2009 by lowspeedchase

[Sherv]

Nice work so far, dude! A few very preliminary comments...

*Will a vote of 0 count at all or is it the same as N/A? The reason I ask is because suppose someone can't really judge how much of a buzz a given shisha gives or similarly they can't gauge how to rate the clouds, etc. I'd like an N/A option that wouldn't detract from the overall score, if possible

*It'd be great to have some descriptors per category....but I'm not sure what one should use. As this is all very subjective and there is no way of calibrating everyone on the same level, perhaps this is a moot point.

*A breakdown of the votes would be sweet to see, as well

*Lastly, it may just be my slow-as-poops internet connection, but if one were to start rating many different shisha in one sitting, the loading post-vote may get annoying. Maybe later on there can be a "bulk voting" option?

I don't think we really have to worry about it here, but is there a prevention for vote-spamming?

Great work man, this will be exciting to follow!

[mushrat]

as ive said before, 2 of your ratings are meaningless. Smoke and longevity vary depending on how well you control your heat.

You want to search a flavour, go to the search function in the review forum and type in watermellon. Use the advanced search to have it come up with posts instead of threads.

If you are planning on launching a web site, remember we don't really like people advertising competing forums on this forum. Kinda considered bad manners.

[lowspeedchase]

Nice work so far, dude! A few very preliminary comments...

*Will a vote of 0 count at all or is it the same as N/A? The reason I ask is because suppose someone can't really judge how much of a buzz a given shisha gives or similarly they can't gauge how to rate the clouds, etc. I'd like an N/A option that wouldn't detract from the overall score, if possible

*It'd be great to have some descriptors per category....but I'm not sure what one should use. As this is all very subjective and there is no way of calibrating everyone on the same level, perhaps this is a moot point.

*A breakdown of the votes would be sweet to see, as well

*Lastly, it may just be my slow-as-poops internet connection, but if one were to start rating many different shisha in one sitting, the loading post-vote may get annoying. Maybe later on there can be a "bulk voting" option?

I don't think we really have to worry about it here, but is there a prevention for vote-spamming?

Great work man, this will be exciting to follow!

Thanks for the input!

Let me address your points:

1.) There will be vote-spamming protection in the future, by way of usernames... for now it's still just in-development so it will allow anonymous voting
2.) The after-vote loading is another quick and dirty thing I did just to get it up on the net faster, in the future the only load time would be the first page view.
3.) Breakdown of votes is def what I had planned!
4.) Hmmmm I will think about the n/a option, right now it's a linear table so we'll see ;-)
5.) Descriptors, no problem. Lets all agree on them and they go in.

Thanks again.

[lowspeedchase]

as ive said before, 2 of your ratings are meaningless. Smoke and longevity vary depending on how well you control your heat.

You want to search a flavour, go to the search function in the review forum and type in watermellon. Use the advanced search to have it come up with posts instead of threads.

If you are planning on launching a web site, remember we don't really like people advertising competing forums on this forum. Kinda considered bad manners.

hahahaha mush...

The plan was just to develop the php/mysql and give it to you guys to use... I have no aspiration to make some sort of ad-fueled costs more money than it makes shisha review website...

I am just trying to contribute to the community... all I can offer is sex or code, and I have chosen code lol

[mushrat]

Cool. I just don't think it will be any more useful or meaningful than what we already have. BUt that's just my personal opinion.

[lowspeedchase]

Cool. I just don't think it will be any more useful or meaningful than what we already have. BUt that's just my personal opinion.

I'm leaning towards agreeing with you man

There wasn't a lot of interest in the demo. Next time I am listening from the get-go...

[freeOS]

I thought both the design and purpose were awesome. I have a hard time finding much use in the review sections beyond product pictures, and the outing of horrible products.

[lowspeedchase]

I thought both the design and purpose were awesome. I have a hard time finding much use in the review sections beyond product pictures, and the outing of horrible products.

Wow thanks man... hopefully I'll keep working on it this coming weekend