The Value of Reviews

Provider reviews. Love them or hate them, they are a part of our world. Many websites have them, many don’t. What is the real value of reviews?

There is a ton of debate when it comes to reviews of sex workers. Multiple debates, in fact. There are questions as to whether they should exist at all, what their true value is, and whether or not they can ever be trusted. It is a topic that can sometimes become rather heated.

Some sex workers want reviews. Lots of them. Others are fine with having a few reviews. And some sex workers want nothing to do with reviews. The same is true for clients. There are some clients who have written reviews on almost every provider they have ever seen, and yet many clients never write reviews.

So what is the deal? Should we have reviews? Should we avoid them? Should we read them?

Sense of Security

Personally, I find that reviews can be very valuable tools for clients and providers. The first value—and I feel most important aspect—of reviews is that they provide some proof of legitimacy. While nothing is fool-proof, the existence of reviews for a sex worker gives a reasonable assurance that she (or he) is, in fact, an actual sex worker. Multiple reviews further enhance this. When I see a listing for a provider on a trusted website and she has 20 reviews, I do not worry much that she could be a law enforcement trap. This is especially true if I recognize any of the clients that reviewed her. A providers reviews are a safety feature for clients.

The same is true in the other direction. When a sex worker can see that a prospective client has reviewed several previous sex workers, she can gain some measure of security. This is enhanced even more if those reviews have been verified or otherwise corroborated by the reviewed provider. Currently one one website that I use, providers can see that not only have I reviewed several ladies, but that a number of them have replied to and verified those reviews. This serves as confirmation that I am a legitimate client. It gives ladies a sense of security about me.

This sense of security is highly valuable. Feeling comfortable about the safety of a potential companion is a great first step towards having a good time together.

Trusting Reviews

There is certainly a question as to whether reviews can and should be trusted. As stated above, the existence of reviews does provide a certain measure of trust. The more reviews that exist for a provider, the more trust there can potentially be. But can the content of reviews be trusted?

This is one of those areas with a lot of debate. Most clients who write reviews will claim that they are totally honest in their reviews. And many will respond to that by saying “Bullshit”. Many hobbyists believe that most reviews are flawed by containing exaggerations or outright lies. Many feel that if reviews were truly honest, there would be a lot more negative and mediocre reviews written. The expectation of some is that only a small portion of reviews should be excellent, and that the rest should fall on some sort of bell curve, with the majority being “average” at best.

Without going into a long, detailed explanation, this is actually a false assumption. It is perfectly reasonable that reviews would trend towards the positive. Perhaps I will detail this in a future post, but let me just state here that there are many reasons that most reviews fall into the very positive category.

But that doesn’t fully answer the question. Can you trust reviews?

Sometimes. The reality is that reviews are going to be very subjective in many areas. They also will not have every detail. The best you can hope for is that they do not contain any outright lies. In this, it is best to assess the individual reviewer to know if the reviews can be trusted. That, and if multiple reviews agree with each other. There can be little doubt about the trustworthiness of reviews if dozens of clients are all in agreement. Especially if those clients have good reputations.

But this does not mean that good reviews will lead you to good sessions. Every session is different. The best advise is to take reviews with a grain of salt. Over time, anyone can learn whose reviews to trust and whose not to.

Are Reviews a Danger?

Many people are worried about reviews. And that is understandable. There are potential legal issues with reviews, though to my knowledge, reviews have never played a major part in legal action against individual providers or clients. As far as how reviews apply to more recent laws, such as FOSTA, it remains to be seen. That law was written to target advertising and promotion of illegal sex, not the discussion of past events. But the vagueness of the law makes understanding its implications difficult.

Reviews do provide a history. And that history could be used against a person—either a sex worker or a client. This is why there are plenty of both who want nothing to do with reviews. There are some who do not want any record of these interactions to be online. This is very understandable.

What should we do with reviews?

I do feel that the benefits of reviews outweigh the drawbacks at this time. I use reviews. I write reviews. I would say that using them to first check whether a provider or client is legitimate is the best value of reviews. After that, I feel that the value of any review is best determined by it’s consistency. Is it consistent with other reviews for the same provider? Is a clients review of one lady consistent with his reviews of other ladies? There is plenty to check out when looking at and assessing reviews, but in the end I do feel that reviews are generally beneficial to our community and worth taking a look at.

 

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