Reviews, moderators, advertising and the like...

[airboatr]

thats right

[Pielstick]

Why does the name Pielstick sound so familar

'Tis the name of a four stroke medium speed diesel engine originally designed by the Germans many years ago, and subsequently produced under license in various countries (although some grumpy old rivet counter might wish to correct me).

CHEERS

[DispatchDragon]

Little light comes on

:think:

Used as stationary generators and for things like driving lifting equipment in Copper Mines maybe????

Normally a rather sickly pale green colour???


Plink!!! - I used to see them all the time - hauled them down to N'dola and Lusaka for Roan Copper in the mid 70s
from Saarbruken


Thanks for the memories Piel

Leif

[Pielstick]

Well I'm more familiar with their application as main engines used on ships, but I think you've got it! We use them on the Rover Class, Leaf Class, the new Fort Class, and I'm pretty sure they were used on the old LSLs of Falklands (in)famy.

I spent most of this year on a Rover boat, and we had big probs with one of them when we were in Brazil earlier this year. I spent about 3 weeks getting very familiar with the anchor bearing, gearbox and clutch arrangements. I realised how little I actually know about these engines so I'm off to the Rolls-Royce Crossley plant next month to do a course on them

And yes, they're painted a very sickly green colour

[Nigel H-J]

Even bloody PC Pilot went through a phase last year when they seemed to give everthing glowing reviews

Hi Pielstick I think from your remark above that the real problem with reviews in magazines be it flight simulation, motoring, household products etc is that they are protecting their own long term interests.

Can you imagine a magazine which is sold nationally writing a review on product and giving it slating while at the same time demanding thousands of pounds from the manucturer for advertising?........They would soon lose customers. :roll:

I have been with CBFS for just over two years now and on first joining felt that I was really welcomed into the fold (they may now be regretting that move)

During my time here there have been heated discussions but at no time were they deleted (except where it may have become personal) instead, they just used the parental rule....."That's it, I've heard quite enough.....We'll have no more of this nonsense....Thread Locked....Now go and do something else"!!

Equally, criticism does not appear to be treated here with contempt after all, how can you expect some-one to produce an aircraft or airport scenery without it and expect it to be perfect? But more than anything, the criticism given here is done more as an appraisal than an act of criticism itself and should other Forums follow this example then much improvement can be made.

Nigel.

[Pielstick]

Hi Nigel, I think there's quite a lot of truth in what you are saying about protecting their market. There are magazines available catering for other sections of the PC games and entertainment interests, and they quite regularly give pretty harsh reviews of new products and it doesn't seem to harm their advertising revenue? I would guess a magazine that is packed with glowing reviews and loads of ads for everything they are reviewing would soon get a poor reputation. Then again I suppose the PC flight sim market is far more limited than the wider PC games market, and the publishers of that magazine may rely quite heavily on advertising revenue due to the relatively small circulation of their mag.

It just hit me last year when leafing through one edition of PC PIlot I noticed the same reviewer had written nearly all the reviews, and had given an awful lot of very high scores and "Gold Awards" to products that I wouldn't really regard as deserving that award. Whether its a case of editorial bias (i.e. "give great reviews to anything published by JustFlight because they advertise heavily in our mag"), an overly enthusiastic reviewer, or just me not agreeing with the scores they were giving out... I just lost interest in the magazine. I saw back catalogues of Computer Pilot (pdf versions) were available on Simmarket, and I purchased some of them. It's not a bad mag at all, and has quite a bit more content than PC Pilot, and the reviews seemed to be a bit more in depth. I also noticed the advertising was even heavier I suppose it just goes to show a specialist publication like that will be subject to this sort of stuff.

CHEERS

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Andreas, you have smacked it on the head with your reply, I used to read PC Pilot at one time and that is how I got to know about DMs' aircraft for they did an excellent review on all four of his Classics.

Now however, I rely on what I read from here regarding what is on the market as you know that what is written here is written genuinely with no favours attached.

Regards Nigel.

[airboatr]

I dare say the only way a higher review of ones own view reviewing their own reviews
could be viewed woulb be from the original reviewers own view.


ahhh HA !
beat that!

:dance:

[Trev Clark]

I met Derek, the editor of PC Pilot, just after his appointment and the take-over of the title from the original publishers who were indeed connected to Just Flight. He was keen to get away from that type of review/advert style of writing, but I have since been told it has actually got worse! The only connection is now a advertiser/publisher relationship alone.

I gave up buying the mag (having been a subscriber at first), as they were always behind my knowlege by about 6 weeks, talk about old news! He also wanted me to write for them, but then failed to return my calls on two occasions, so I took the hint....they said he was a very, very busy man :roll:

[Pielstick]

After the new management took over there certainly was a lot more content in the mag, especially reviews (and especially Just Flight products!). They also switched to a percentage based scoring system to more accurately reflect the product. Then in that very same issue they gave a high percentage and a "PC Pilot Award" to the Just Flight F-Lite Airbus (aka the CLS Airbus A330/A340 package). Bearing in mind this product doesn't attempt to model such Airbus things as fly-by-wire, has no type of FMS, systems modelling, etc. By giving it such a high percentage and an award I think they elevated it to the same status as the Level D 767 or PMDG 747, which doesn't really accurately represent the product, but to be fair they did point out it was a "lite" product and doesn't feature much in the way of systems modelling.

Later in that same issue Flying Club X was given a similarly high grade, and an award too. The reviewer was singing its praises, but I fail to see how they can give such praise and recognition to a product that features aircraft with the default MS gauges/radios in their panels. I always thought the awards and really high (85% and over) scores should be reserved for the very best stuff.

But, if the magazine raises the profile of the hobby and brings new people in then it can't be a bad thing.

I know exactly what you mean about the old news