I came to the realization that the reason a lot of clubs don't get a lot of reviews isn't because TUSCLers aren't going to those clubs but because we do go and are unable to spend our money for whatever reason.
I probably only write a review about once for every three or four visits to a SC.
Even if I have a really sticky time, I sometimes don’t write a review because I tend to go back to the same reliable clubs over and over and figure TUSCL readers must already be weary of my repetitive reviews of the same four of five clubs.
But I do include some reviews of disappointing club visits.
When I write the most reviews is shortly after a special purposeful clubbing trip, I try to do those a few times each year.
I’ll often write reviews of each new place I find to share my newbie (to that club) POV, but after a few trips to a club, I find that there is little reason to write a review if nothing has changed. I’m not into writing penthouse letters type reviews so if nothing changes, there isn’t much else to talk about.
There's a difference between time and money. We've all walked out of a club with most of our money still in our pockets. But if you didn't stay long enough to buy a single drink, then your review wasn't going to be worth a shit anyway as you weren't there long enough to get the lay of the land.
To be clear, I've had plenty of impatient moments myself where I popped into a club, didn't like the vibe and quickly moved on. But I don't review those clubs because I know that it would be neither fair nor useful.
Rick, I disagree. A review can be a snapshot of a moment in time. It doesn't have to reflect the club in a global sense. I did a review of 4 Play in Pompano. I didn't hang around to see if it got better. Instead I drove 10 minutes to Porthole Pub and had a great time. To me, there is value in knowing at a given day and time one club is dead and the other is hopping. https://www.tuscl.net/review.php?id=3433…
^ Ah, yeah Justin, that fluffernutter bio and itinerary info that you used as filler was super helpful. Next time consider hanging around for a bit longer so that you don't need the filler. There could have been two hot girls tied up in the LD area, two more in the bathroom and a 5th doing a line of coke in the DR. Did you arrive at shift change? You have no clue and neither do we after reading that.
I'm not saying that you were wrong for popping out if you had another place to go, just that not every pit stop provides sufficient intel for an accurate review. You could have given us a more rounded picture of how things were at that time if you had just stuck it out for a little bit longer.
You can still do a review and add something. Can you ask somebody about pricing. Most reviews I read are not clear on pricing at all. Just giving how much cover is, dances,VIP or how mcg any sort of deal is you would be adding something worth posting IMHO
I am never going to win any literary awards. I can't compete with Papi or Sinclair, but I do try to provide useful info. If I had read in reviews that on a Friday evening at 5:30, I had the choice between a dead club with no one dancing and a few street walker quality dancers (4 Play) or a hopping club with 20+ dancers, some 7's 10 minutes away (Porthole Pub), I would not have bothered wasting time at the former. Sure that elusive 9+ dancer could have been hiding or maybe she comes in at 10 PM, but during the time I was there having one beer, it was a waste of time and money, so hopefully I spared someone else. Again, just a snapshot of a moment in time.
"I went in, no cover, got a $5 beer. No dancers appealed to me, and not much was happening, so I left after 20 minutes." This generic review could easily apply to a goodly percentage of clubs in US on an early to mid afternoon visit. At least put some effort into making more lemonade out of a lemon.
I had 1 such visit on a 2007 Monday afternoon visit review to Dallas club. I at least added that I saw a chair and table in the men's room indicating that one could expect to see bathroom troll on night visits.
Sure Justin. I think I'll take a snapshot of a busy road today during a 10 second break in traffic (maybe due to a stop light) and then post the pic and tell everyone to use it as an alt route because it's clear. Gotta' love them 'snapshots." 😉
Look guys, easily 90%+ of the clubs on this site are thinly reviewed and half of the remainder are stuffed with shill crap and hit jobs. Using Justin's example above, which is a very lightly reviewed club, if not for 25's more recent review of the joint (props on a great review btw) we wouldn't have any decent intel on the club at all.
If you're already there, it doesn't take much to nurse that beer or coke for a half hour or so and come to the board with a solid review. Maybe chat up the bartender or a dancer and figure out what's happening. Look around for a bit and get an accurate handle on the crew on shift. Look at 25 - he brushed off the less desirable first wave, which is often necessary in a dive-ish club, and then struck gold. Net-net you're doing both yourself and us a disservice by not letting a club stop develop at least a little bit.
To me, if you provide one piece of good information, it’s a good review. It’s nice when a review is thorough, but if I’m researching a new club, I read several reviews at least. Just add something to the conversation. I guess I am less stingy when I am giving out Founder’s free 4 weeks of VIP. I suppose I’m in the minority.
Everyone has a different take on what makes for a good review, I’m not the most prolific or best reviewer her but Papi gave me some good advice a long time ago and it stuck with me. When you write a review your doing it for the benefit of others, just ask yourself the same questions you’d ask Papi or Rick or Minnow or any other person who’s reviews you admire.
Clubber - we mostly agree. I like well written, entertaining and useful reviews. My own reviews are fairly thorough and I try to make them enjoyable for the reader.
But I expect less from others. I just want something useful. A review is usually based on one man’s opinion on a single night, and therefore is skewed by a lot of subjective factors. That’s why even if the first review I read is a Clubber special, I’m still going to read several to get a feel for the place.
That said, I admire the work you’re doing to hold people to a higher standard. You’re right most of the time.
Common sense should prevail. I don’t need someone to tell me that there are 7 stages at BDD or where to park at Follies, but if it’s a club with only 25 reviews, yeah throw in as much detail as possible. And for BDD or Follies, every so often a refresher on the layout is helpful. Common sense.
You say "Common sense should prevail.", and that is fine, but I will go with what TUSCL says is a good review. When the guidelines change to "use common sense" then I'll be with you.
You see, if founder, or whoever he picked to determine a good review, THAT should be the "guidelines". That's why they are called just that.
One can write a very informative review without spending any money. If you can explain to me why you didn't spend any money, then it probably is a good review of why I may not want to spend any money there either, and won't waste the time. PLs need reviews to tell them where to go, and where NOT to go as well.
===> "PLs need reviews to tell them where to go, and where NOT to go as well."
Agreed. Just be there long enough to be sure that you're right, which IMHO requires more than a walk from the club entrance to the bathroom and then back. Impatience breeds inaccuracy.
@Clubber Actually founder picked all of us VIP members, so obviously there is some validity in the statement guidelines, are just that, not rules, not written in stone and adherence is not compulsory and all of the arguments to the contrary the review system the way it works now isn’t bad at all. Being stubborn doesn’t change the facts it just means you’re stubborn.
^ I dunno if that’s what the host wishes, he’s never rejected any of my reviews only you have and when idled for clarity all you did was point to guidelines For the record I believe I followed those guidelines your insistence is not changing my mind. BTW I have never not had a review published so there’s that
I’ll just point out that despite our difference of opinions, the reviews are much much better now than before the VIP voting system. I am very glad for that. Peace brother
I think the negative reviews are the most important. We may not all agree on what is the perfect club....but I'm pretty sure there's little argument on what a really bad club is like.
I might give a shot to a club with mixed reviews....some guys like different things. But one with bad reviews....you know it just has to be a waste of time.
Reviews of a disappointing visit are of use to me if they provide some indication of why the visit was disappointing, particularly if things in the club have changed or if it is a time of day thing. If you had a disappointing visit, I think the review is most useful if you indicate what you expected when you visited, what you got when you were there, and why the visit did not meet your expectations.
If one were to follow the guidelines to a T, you would absolutely create an excellent review. Does that mean reviews that are good or even barely adequate should be down voted? I think some members tend to overthink it. To quote Founder regarding that crappy "good craic" review that got published " It's a strip club site FFS, it ain't life and death."
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I’m picky.
I probably only write a review about once for every three or four visits to a SC.
Even if I have a really sticky time, I sometimes don’t write a review because I tend to go back to the same reliable clubs over and over and figure TUSCL readers must already be weary of my repetitive reviews of the same four of five clubs.
But I do include some reviews of disappointing club visits.
I’ll often write reviews of each new place I find to share my newbie (to that club) POV, but after a few trips to a club, I find that there is little reason to write a review if nothing has changed. I’m not into writing penthouse letters type reviews so if nothing changes, there isn’t much else to talk about.
I'll probably fold my time with her into a future, more useful review after I've gathered a bit more information.
I don't feel like I have to post a review *every* time I go out.
To be clear, I've had plenty of impatient moments myself where I popped into a club, didn't like the vibe and quickly moved on. But I don't review those clubs because I know that it would be neither fair nor useful.
I'm not saying that you were wrong for popping out if you had another place to go, just that not every pit stop provides sufficient intel for an accurate review. You could have given us a more rounded picture of how things were at that time if you had just stuck it out for a little bit longer.
I had 1 such visit on a 2007 Monday afternoon visit review to Dallas club. I at least added that I saw a chair and table in the men's room indicating that one could expect to see bathroom troll on night visits.
Look guys, easily 90%+ of the clubs on this site are thinly reviewed and half of the remainder are stuffed with shill crap and hit jobs. Using Justin's example above, which is a very lightly reviewed club, if not for 25's more recent review of the joint (props on a great review btw) we wouldn't have any decent intel on the club at all.
If you're already there, it doesn't take much to nurse that beer or coke for a half hour or so and come to the board with a solid review. Maybe chat up the bartender or a dancer and figure out what's happening. Look around for a bit and get an accurate handle on the crew on shift. Look at 25 - he brushed off the less desirable first wave, which is often necessary in a dive-ish club, and then struck gold. Net-net you're doing both yourself and us a disservice by not letting a club stop develop at least a little bit.
Having to NOT do "researching" is the point of a review. Now if one wishes to verify a review, then one researches.
But I expect less from others. I just want something useful. A review is usually based on one man’s opinion on a single night, and therefore is skewed by a lot of subjective factors. That’s why even if the first review I read is a Clubber special, I’m still going to read several to get a feel for the place.
That said, I admire the work you’re doing to hold people to a higher standard. You’re right most of the time.
Common sense should prevail. I don’t need someone to tell me that there are 7 stages at BDD or where to park at Follies, but if it’s a club with only 25 reviews, yeah throw in as much detail as possible. And for BDD or Follies, every so often a refresher on the layout is helpful. Common sense.
You say "Common sense should prevail.", and that is fine, but I will go with what TUSCL says is a good review. When the guidelines change to "use common sense" then I'll be with you.
You see, if founder, or whoever he picked to determine a good review, THAT should be the "guidelines". That's why they are called just that.
Agreed. Just be there long enough to be sure that you're right, which IMHO requires more than a walk from the club entrance to the bathroom and then back. Impatience breeds inaccuracy.
Being stubborn doesn’t change the facts it just means you’re stubborn.
It means that I, as a guest, do what the host wishes or I can get the fuck out!
For the record I believe I followed those guidelines your insistence is not changing my mind.
BTW I have never not had a review published so there’s that
I might give a shot to a club with mixed reviews....some guys like different things. But one with bad reviews....you know it just has to be a waste of time.