The state of Parfumo - answer to Aromi's blog article

My answer to AromiErotici's blog entry has become a bit lengthy, so I put it here.

At first, I want to thank Aromi for his thoughts and his sympathy for this project. I think it is important to consider once in a while where we are standing at the moment.

I really like the small community that has already come together at Parfumo.net. All take their hobby seriously, and one can only be impressed by the high quality of the perfume reviews that are posted here. And they are already many! We will soon have 5000 + well thought out reviews here, and considered this is a much smaller community than Parfumo.de, we are more active!

A big thank you to all of you who made this possible!

The main focus of Parfumo are the users' reviews. There will be more discussions in the forum as well, but as a prerequisite, Parfumo has to attract more people. I would really love to see the forum become more crowded (not necessarily overcrowded and chaotic as you might blame some other boards). So, please spread the word! Link Parfumo to your site if you have one, tell your friends, and place a link once in a while at your Facebook groups.

In addition to the logged in users, Parfumo.net has many visitors every day. We are having readers!

Until Parfumo.net will become bigger, we can enjoy the benefits of a smaller community. Whatever you do here – it will be noticed by the other users. (I started my perfume hobby on BN in 2008, and I was getting hardly any feedback for my activities there.)

Having said that – may I remind you once again to give each other feedback? Please answer to the reviews you read, or at least tick the Award button if you liked them. Also, please welcome new users! Do not let anybody stand aside!

Don will continue to develop new features, and Parfumo is far from being finished! A big project coming soon will be the update of the adding new perfumes process. I am really looking forward to it, and I hope you all will like it. It will be a unique concept that nobody else has. Enhancing this site step by step is Don's way to promote Parfumo.

I want Parfumo to grow because I want more nice people to share this hobby. But we are not in a hurry! We do not have to have a maximum amount of clicks in minimum time in order to get as much money out of some ads as possible. We are all volunteers and make our living elsewhere.

We cannot expect everybody defecting to Parfumo from the older sites and give up the environment they are used to - no matter how brilliant our additional features might be. And this is good as it is: we do some things differently, and so we can attract a different type of perfume lovers.

There is one big obstacle for a newcomer like Parfumo.net, and its name is Google: You need many clicks for your site to get top positions in the perfume search results – but if you are not listed in the top positions, you presumably do not get lots of clicks. I have become aware that Google is not at all supporting the public by providing access to interesting content – they are rather obstructing it, but this is a different story...

So, Parfumo users spreading the word to other passionate perfume lovers is all the more important!

Sounds good Apicius.

I understand the search engine dilemma, but time will eventually take care of all that. Yes, I'm enjoying the "smallishness" of Parfumo at the moment, but I do not wish for it stagnate and cease to evolve.

I wish there was a formula for enlarging the interaction on forums with new members and keeping the elitism out. I left my original community because of that and because of the way a certain head moderator threw his weight around. One was compounded by the other and I no longer desired to put any effort forth in the community itself.

What drew me there in the first place was reviews. In a few years, Parfumo will have a superior review section. Build it and they will come. Yes indeed......

The reviews at Parfumo are of exceptionally high quality. I honestly love reading all of them. It's basically the opposite of Fragrantica, where one scans a long list of short possibly interesting comments to find something really worth reading...

When a perfume on this side has no reviews, I click over to the German side, where nearly always there is something thoughtful written by someone...

Parfumo is a wonderful atmosphere in which to participate in the discussion of perfume topics and to read some of the best perfume reviews around. Thanks to the genius behind Parfumo and for making my experience a great one.

I disagree. We all perceive scent differently, whether it be due to differing skin chemistry, olfactory acuity, or something else. As a result, someone's well-intentioned assessment of a perfume's specific notes may run contrary to my perception of the fragrance, even though I enjoyed reading the review. Which is why I welcome all reviews, whether they happen to be note-specific or less concrete, comparing the perfume to music, color, or landscape, for instance. Perfume appreciation is wholly subjective and far from a science in my view. I don't think the "faults" you mentioned are a question of not taking the review process seriously; it's simply a different perspective. I happen to agree with what Apicius wrote in another thread along the lines that we should award a review if we enjoyed reading it. He also wisely observed that it's healthy for the site to encourage newcomers in their efforts.

Yes, please reward the reviews that you enjoyed reading, and maybe also drop a line as a comment. Everybody who takes effort in contributing his or her thoughts in a review deserves some feedback!

Also: taking some effort in writing good quality reviews is a very good way to encourage others to do the same!

We invite everybody to share his or her thoughts on perfumes, and no matter if newbie or expert: every personal style is welcome and should be respected as long as it shows some engagement. We can all learn from each other, and in the end, quality will prevail.

Time to give you an update about Parfumo's current status:

The number of visitors is slowly, but steadily increasing. Especially now before Christmas we have a new visitor record every few days. Currently 1000+ people are visiting Parfumo.net at each day.

I also look at the new users queue, and I have the impression that we are now attracting new users more regularly. I think we are on a good way.

Our visibility in Google searches will continue to be a problem for a while. I guess, Parfumo.net is rather an insider's tip! We rely on the support of all of you, so please spread the word and recommend this site to the people you know.

I enjoy writing reviews here. My tastes may differ than other members, but I do like that my review is not lost at sea compared to other fragrance reviews sites like Sherapop said.

Everything looks clean, neat, and no ads to clutter my screen is a nice feature. I personally don't sense any elitism; everyone has been kind and well-mannered since I joined about a month or so ago.

Well said, Cryptic. We all have our preferences and our pet peeves about people's style of expression and content in reviews, (me, for example, I can't stand it when people use overly melodramatic words like "gag" or "vomit" - let's face it, that perfume did NOT make you gag or vomit, please! And the images those words conjure up just don't belong on a civilized perfume board IMO) but unless we're going to turn this place into another high school mentality Fragrantica-type board by complaining and singling out for criticism other people's phrasing, we need to just be adult about things and keep our mouths shut. Unless something is blatantly or universally offensive, of course, then it's worth complaining about.

Speaking as a newcomer, I must say I have been very impressed with the quality of the reviews I have read from many of the folks who have posted on this thread and others. The multitude of review options and the ability to exchange feedback on a given review is particularly helpful and appreciated (both as a review writer and as a reader).

My guess is over time people will start to gravitate to the site for reviews as you can just do so much more here than elsewhere, IMO.

That said, I would love it if the discussion boards picked up a lot... I enjoy writing and reading reviews, but I love to discuss fragrances in general, and the board is the best place for it, IMO. Hopefully as traffic increases to the site, so will board participation...

Speaking as a newcomer, I must say I have been very impressed with the quality of the reviews I have read from many of the folks who have posted on this thread and others. The multitude of review options and the ability to exchange feedback on a given review is particularly helpful and appreciated (both as a review writer and as a reader).

My guess is over time people will start to gravitate to the site for reviews as you can just do so much more here than elsewhere, IMO.

That said, I would love it if the discussion boards picked up a lot... I enjoy writing and reading reviews, but I love to discuss fragrances in general, and the board is the best place for it, IMO. Hopefully as traffic increases to the site, so will board participation...[/quote]
I am so glad you brought this up Drsied, I too would like more activity on the discussion forum. If members would take time to post daily to a thread or start a new topic, the forum would stay active. We had a game thread going on guessing perfumes, several members said it was there favorite thread but hasn't had any posts in several days. Yes, this is a busy time of year for everyone, but lets have fun with the forum and post more often.

I agree, the comment feature within the reviews is fantastic! Sometimes I just have a quick comment or question about the review or the fragrance, and the comment feature is perfect for that!

Is it posted somewhere what can and cannot be posted in a review?

Should every review be a carbon copy of the one before it?

Where are the rules posted as to when a review can be rewarded and when it cannot be?

What constitutes a "serious" review?