Just to let you all know that we’ve just re-launched and updated the Member review section on RCUK and introduced a heap of changes that will make the system easier to use. Here we’ve tried to explain it in simple steps but there are so many features that it’s best that you just have a go. However there are, no doubt, going to be some glitches – please report in if you find anything.
So what’s new? A quick guide…
1. Go to the Gear page via the ‘Gear’ tab and find the member review section, it’s half way down the page so you will have to scroll down a bit. It looks like this:
2. Choose a category from one of the drop down menus e.g. Rims or tyres etc. it will automatically go through (only once, so you need to refresh each time) to that product category section, so you can select the product you want to review, it looks like this:
A selection of brands are listed, with the number of member reviews alongside also listed are any forum discussions there may be around this category and finally, listed at the bottom of this page are any second hand products we have on our system. Then click on a product, this will take you to the review pages – click on one – e.g. Michelin Pro race 2…
3. Here you’ll notice all the RCUK reviews are at the top and as you scroll down the page the second block is the member reviews. This will take you through to the product page with a description, any RCUK reviews on this tyre and at this point you can add a review of your own.
4. Click through to read member’s opinions. Click on ‘see all’ and the member reviews will stack up as follows for useful reference:
Alternatively (if in a hurry) you can go straight to the brand drop down menu on the homepage and this will (eventually, once we’ve loaded all the reviews into it!) take you straight to the brand you want.
Do you need more detail?
Glossary of tech terms:
A Category is a component, bike or accessory
A Brand is the manufacturer or product name
Product ratings overview
New ratings – We’ve changed the way the ratings work so you can now rate different types of product according to different criteria. For example, if you’re reviewing a bike you can now rate it for and comfort as well as quality and value. On the other hand if you’re rating a changing bag you can rate it for layout and accessories and ease of cleaning, as well as quality and value.
Category summary pages – Summary pages for categories show you an overview of all the different types of content we’ve got for a particular category or product, whether that’s user reviews by RCUK readers, forum threads, RCUK articles or items for sale in the secondhand section. This page highlights a few products from the entire category list. You can use the navigation bar at the top of the section to flick between content types.
Product summary page
Summary pages for products show you the key information for that product, as well as how users have rated the product in different categories, extracts from the latest reviews, relevant forum threads and adverts and any relevant RCUK articles. From this page you can add your own review or read all the reviews by other RCUK members. You can use the navigation bar at the top of the section to flick between content types.
Secondhand
If a product is for sale in the secondhand section, then a ‘2nd hand’ link will appear in the navigation bar at the top and the ads will be displayed on the product summary page at the bottom.
Archiving
So that the reviews aren’t cluttered with old products, we’ve introduced an archiving feature. From time-to-time we’ll archive old products to keep the system manageable. However, you can still view the old products by changing the filter at the top of the product list from ‘Current products’ to ‘Full archive’. So if you want to see 2004 reviews of stuff because you are buying something old stock or secondhand – no problem.
• Brand filter
If you only want to look at products from one brand in a category, say you only want to look at Colnago bikes, then go to the full list of their products in the bikes category and use the brand filter to select just the one brand you’re interested in.
• Product (brand) images on category list
Where we have product images, you’ll now see small images of products displayed alongside the full list of products in a category. If you want to speed the page download time up then click the link at the top of the column to ‘hide images’.
We’ve tested the system extensively already, but as with most complicated technical things there may well be a couple of bugs in there that we need to squash. If you see something not working as it should, or have any comments on the new set up for us then please let us know by posting on the forum thread at the end of this article. Thanks all and hope you like it!
