I totally agree. Reverb does show ratings resulting from buyers' reviews of Reverb's sellers, but those reviews are carefully checked by Reverb to insure that they are fair & factual.
IMO, reviews of sellers should be carefully reviewed by forum moderators before they are posted on UU. Otherwise, unfair reviews can get posted, with headlines such as, "Why I no longer recommend brand x." And then, in reading the OP's review of brand x & its seller, it might turn out that the poor review stemmed from a minor issue such as personal preferences not being met, even though the seller was given no opportunity to fix the problem.
A careful reading of a negative "review" might make it clear that the negativism is baseless. However, damage to the seller & the product is already done by the wording of the topic's headline alone, and some folks don't take time to dig into details and assess a review's fairness & accuracy.
If UU's moderators are too overloaded to check negative reviews, I feel that allowing unmoderated reviews of non-UU sellers is an accident waiting to happen, and a possible invitation to vitriolic contention between UU members..
Well said, bellgamin; I agree with the sentiments you have shared.
I do also agree that folks should be allowed to share their experiences. Yet, in the past, and I’ve been on this forum for almost 8 years now, I find that when people do post negative feedback or criticism re: brands of ukuleles or experiences at companies that sell ukuleles, etc., it is my impression that, often times, these sorts of issues tend to lead to more harm than good. Things can escalate quickly and get very ugly on such threads. It’s both upsetting and sad when this happens as, more often that not, rifts are created amongst members, and furthermore, reputations of good people with good intentions, trying to do good things, get tarnished.
Remember that once something is out there in cyberspace, it’s out there, for good, forever.
We all make mistakes; I feel that people should do their best to resolve issues within parties concerned, thereby allowing a chance for corrections to be made. Often times, when this is done, those feelings of wanting to post criticism often dissipate as the matter is resolved.
I do understand that, sometimes, unfortunately, things may not resolve and that those feelings of wanting to share public criticism remain. If this is the case, I would only say that, if it were me, proceeding with caution in sharing critical feedback publicly is the best route. If the feedback is shared as information in a helpful way, than, hopefully, it will be taken at that, and not as a means of causing harm to anyone.
This thread is generating helpful, important points of view; I hope that the OP will hopefully find some clarity in how to move forward. Healthy, productive conversations are good things to share on the forum. I realize that folks may not agree with me, here, in what I’ve written, and that’s ok. We can still all enjoy being together on the UU for ukulele and community.
Peace, everyone.