Thoughts about Bigwinboard
Beginner Hello Community, hello Daniel,
first of all, this is not a personal attack. Please do not take it the wrong way. I simply felt the need to share my thoughts openly, and maybe some silent readers feel the same.
I have been a daily silent reader for about 1.5 years now. Bigwinboard is a great platform to stay up to date with upcoming slots, and the reviews are generally a big plus. The main reason I keep coming back is to read honest and detailed opinions from real players about slot XY. These experiences are extremely valuable.
However, over the past few months I have noticed a development in the slot reviews that I personally find rather negative. Because of the monthly giveaway, it has become increasingly difficult for me to take the seriousness and honesty of many reviews seriously. Even though spam is officially not allowed, a lot of content still feels like spam, just very well packaged. I strongly suspect that some slots are being reviewed without having actually been played properly, let alone with real money.
That is why I especially appreciate reviews like those from HXLohar. In my opinion, he is one of the most important reviewers here, because you can clearly feel the experience and substance behind his posts.
Another thing that stands out to me is how often very old slots are reviewed, with the core message being something like great music or great theme. These reviews may be nicely written and somewhat inflated in length, but they lack real depth. Only a few reviews actually focus on mechanics, features, and overall gameplay. In my view, you can only begin to evaluate a slot after at least 500 to 1000 spins, whether in demo or with real money, to get a proper feeling for it.
What I am trying to say is this: well written and meaningful reviews are getting lost among these spam like reviews. After a long day at work, nobody really wants to read that someone liked the sound of slot XY when that is essentially the only takeaway. At that point, it is fair to question whether visiting Bigwinboard is still worth it.
Again, this is absolutely not an attack, just my personal opinion. It is simply noticeable that some slots are being reviewed purely for the sake of ranking, even if they are irrelevant, just to climb the leaderboard. This pattern becomes obvious every single month.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Although I think I agree with your underlying sentiment I think the idea that these reviews make visiting Bigwinboard not worth it is very unfair. User reviews are just a tiny slice of what this site has to offer and writing off the whole site because some reviews are bending the meaning of the word spam is a bit disingenuous.
It is a bit of a domino problem though, people wanting to partake in the monthly review leaderboard may find themselves writing more spammy, less in-depth reviews because that is what they are competing against for the higher prizes. There is also the element that if you begin to type in depth reviews on every game you leave a review on you may just find yourself repeating what others have already said.
The way I see it, this is a small price to pay for what hopefully in the future will be that most games have a decent amount of user ratings and therefore have a user score that is indicative of the public's opinion of the game.
The major downside of this in my opinion is that the 'recent posts' section becomes a bit redundant because there is often not much substance in the posts that appear there. Perhaps I could suggest a 'see more' button on that section of the homepage so I can browse more than just the past 7 posts.
For what it's worth also I don't think it came across as an attack on the site. I do think this is a minor issue at the minute but I don't particularly see any good solutions and I'd rather have reviews without much depth than have no monthly leaderboard at all. The idea that users can make a bit of money by reviewing games is frankly incredible and I imagine many people including myself are very grateful for it even if I don't always participate.
@jordqka Thank you for your response, and yes, you are right. I may not have expressed myself clearly enough in some parts, as my native language is German, so please excuse that.
I never intended to be unfair with my comment. On the contrary, what Daniel has built here is truly impressive, and the many giveaways are also a great addition. That should not be questioned in any way.
Every user visits this site with their own intention. My personal motivation is mainly related to the slot reviews. That is exactly what I was referring to in my previous post. It is simply disappointing when you are genuinely interested in the topic and mostly encounter reviews that appear to be written primarily for ranking purposes.
For this reason, I would appreciate a better and clearer overview of all written reviews, so that well structured and meaningful contributions are easier to find and do not get lost among the rest
@pneumatic Completely understand and your english is perfect mate, no stress.
Perhaps us as a community need to make sure we are upvoting the good reviews so they're always at the top of the comments on a game. Maybe some kind of system where there could be a 'Highlighted Reviews' page that we can vote on great user written reviews and they be easily browsable?
Just thinking out loud, i'm sure others would have better ideas than I could come up with.
Hello Community, hello Daniel,
first of all, this is not a personal attack. Please do not take it the wrong way. I simply felt the need to share my thoughts openly, and maybe some silent readers feel the same.
I have been a daily silent reader for about 1.5 years now. Bigwinboard is a great platform to stay up to date with upcoming slots, and the reviews are generally a big plus. The main reason I keep coming back is to read honest and detailed opinions from real players about slot XY. These experiences are extremely valuable.
However, over the past few months I have noticed a development in the slot reviews that I personally find rather negative. Because of the monthly giveaway, it has become increasingly difficult for me to take the seriousness and honesty of many reviews seriously. Even though spam is officially not allowed, a lot of content still feels like spam, just very well packaged. I strongly suspect that some slots are being reviewed without having actually been played properly, let alone with real money.
That is why I especially appreciate reviews like those from HXLohar. In my opinion, he is one of the most important reviewers here, because you can clearly feel the experience and substance behind his posts.
Another thing that stands out to me is how often very old slots are reviewed, with the core message being something like great music or great theme. These reviews may be nicely written and somewhat inflated in length, but they lack real depth. Only a few reviews actually focus on mechanics, features, and overall gameplay. In my view, you can only begin to evaluate a slot after at least 500 to 1000 spins, whether in demo or with real money, to get a proper feeling for it.
What I am trying to say is this: well written and meaningful reviews are getting lost among these spam like reviews. After a long day at work, nobody really wants to read that someone liked the sound of slot XY when that is essentially the only takeaway. At that point, it is fair to question whether visiting Bigwinboard is still worth it.
Again, this is absolutely not an attack, just my personal opinion. It is simply noticeable that some slots are being reviewed purely for the sake of ranking, even if they are irrelevant, just to climb the leaderboard. This pattern becomes obvious every single month.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
I think this is a fair and thoughtful take. You are not attacking anyone, you are pointing out a pattern. And it is noticeable. Incentives always change behavior, even when the rules are good on paper. When reviews become a way to rank instead of to inform, quality suffers. You can feel the difference between lived experience and rushed impressions. Depth matters, especially with slots. Mechanics, volatility, flow, not just vibes. Otherwise it becomes noise. Your point about good reviews getting buried really hits. That is bad for readers and for the platform long term. Saying this openly is healthy. Silence would be worse.
Perhaps it would be better to remove rewards for reviews. This is to avoid people giving fake reviews completely for future onwards.
Let people provide review base on full honesty and with their own opinion. Some may agree and some won't, thats just normal.
At least we won't get to see people using Chatgpt to provide the reviews for them.
@24septs I don't mean to be rude but you are one of the worst offenders of what is being spoken about here. Your reviews are typically 1-2 lines and provide no insight into what the games actually are. Many of your reviews are just 'this game cant pay good 3/10' or 'big potential here 7/10'.
It's a bit rich for you to come in and suggest they should remove the prizes to stop fake reviews lol. Perhaps maybe put some more time into playing the games you are reviewing and more effort into providing more in-depth reviews and this wouldn't be an issue.
Much like everyone in this thread, i don't mean this as a personal attack but your reviews are the reason that more detailed reviewers won't get prizes. You do 200 reviews in a month, so no one that is actually providing in depth reviews is able to win any of the prizes. So to post suggesting you think the prizes should be removed because of yours and a few others exploitation of the system is quite hilarious. Will you still be doing 200+ short, spam reviews in a month if there are no prizes?
Again, not intended to insult you but your position is packed full of irony and is honestly quite funny.
Yes I agree my reviews are short and honest. And it's mostly through experience of playing.
But since I don't have to write an essay on the review as what was mentioned, hence I only provide my personal experience playing most of the slots.
Also I didn't do 200 reviews, just 162. And I just found out about the rewards this month.
If you think my reviews are fake and not honest, then I apologise. Maybe I can improve from there onwards. But do give tips on what is supposed to be commented, probably like the visual, music? Or just tell review on if the slot is doing good or not.
I've seen others doing the reviews and way more worst than what I'm doing. But at least I'm telling it base on my experience. Not some using chatgpt to make and essay to seem as legit.
And yes, it's better to remove rewards so that we all don't face fake reviews as we wish not to see.
And you're telling me because of my reviews are the issue that we all don't get rewarded? Gee, when I look back your reviews, is practically the same type of reviews I'm giving. Isn't that a cliche? The only most lengthy review you provided is the latest post. Most of it is practically the same thing as my review, simply short and honest.
And you're telling me you know me better if I don't play the slots previously and thinking I just review after a short try. How much do you wager lifetime? @jordqka
I don't care how anyone reviews slots all I did is point out the insane irony of asking for the prizes to be removed because of 'fake reviews' whilst posting your mostly nonsense reviews.
My reviews are also sometimes short, yes. If there isn't much to say on a game I won't say much. I also have reviews that are pages long you are welcome to sift through my history and find them. I have also been guilty of doing short, few line reviews though, yes.
And you're telling me you know me better if I don't play the slots previously and thinking I just review after a short try. How much do you wager lifetime?
Now you're just making up things that I didn't say. Not sure what lifetime wager has to do with anything. None of your business.
And you're telling me because of my reviews are the issue that we all don't get rewarded? Gee, when I look back your reviews, is practically the same type of reviews I'm giving. Isn't that a cliche? The only most lengthy review you provided is the latest post. Most of it is practically the same thing as my review, simply short and honest.
Again, not at all what I said. If you post 170 short 1 line reviews, people who write detailed long reviews will never be able to get prizes because they aren't going to write 170 long in-depth reviews.
I pointed out the ridiculousness of asking for prizes to be removed because of fake reviews, whilst simultaneously posting short spammy reviews.
You instantly go on the defensive, try go through all my reviews to find ones that are also short and use that as some kind of gotcha? I didn't say there was anything wrong with short reviews. If you are going to respond to me at least respond to things i've said and not make up things to create a fake argument out of.
And yes, it's better to remove rewards so that we all don't face fake reviews as we wish not to see.
Or, how about as a community we be grateful for the opportunity to earn cash for free for reviewing games? And in return we could ensure that if we are going to write hundreds of reviews in a month we make sure they actually have some substance to them?
Again, I must re-iterate. I do not care how long or short peoples reviews are. I do care when someone comes on the forum asking for the whole promotion to be removed because of a problem they are creating.
Overall though, my opinion is just that, an opinion. I am grateful to BWB for providing the facilities to leave reviews as well as prizes for top contributors.