Negative Reviews, Part Deux (Patreon)

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I got a bit of snarky email today that helped me articulate a problem Erika and I have been having with Oh Joy as of late.

We are struggling to be excited with our reviews!

Being excited about sex stuff is what we're ALL about. It’s the heart of what we want to do with Oh Joy Sex Toy. But recently we've been getting toys that are good, not great, not amazing, and it’s been hard to write about them in a fresh, positive light. The issue is that after three years of trying different toys, Erika and I have found what we like, we've found the toys that work best for us. It’s hard to get excited when you’re reaching for a toy that's 'eh' when it’s sitting right beside your old tried and true favorite.

We used to get a lot of feedback along the lines of 'I love reading your reviews even when you’re not excited for a toy, because I LIKE the sensations that you don’t, so I know I’ll probably like a toy even if you don’t’, so we wrote a lot of our reviews with the thinking that we could stick with our guns, still talking about a new toy that may not be to our specific tastes but is still well made and still get people excited for it, while also talking about what we truly want from our sex toys. But I don't think that's been working. 400-500 words is never enough (especially when you want to include some sort of story or slice-of-life content) to really give a toy the room it deserves on the page, while also comparing it to the greatest toys you've ever loved.

I think going forward the answer is that we'll just try and compare LESS. Those references to our favorite toys will always shine a poor light on other toys. I think treating each toy as a singular event will help us stay on track.

It’s a learning process!