Hi all. Newbie here, and I'm wondering how much work you all put into clothing reviews and what you consider good enough. I have a tendency with a lot of things in life to stall because I feel like I need to do the thing perfectly, and I'm starting to see myself doing that with the reviews now - waiting to do a review until I have fully tested the item, etc.

I have a pair of pants that I just received yesterday, and I've tried them on and I could say a lot of things about the fit and the color and how they might fit other body shapes and sizes, etc. And I could do that right now and get it off my plate. But then my mind starts thinking - "well, you really should wash and dry them and maybe you should take a photo and put other things in the photo so they can see the true shade of green that the pants are, but right now they are too wrinkled for that, so you really would have to wash and dry them. And really you should take a photo with them on, but there's nobody here to do that for you, so you would have to wait until you see people for the 4th or you'd have to use a full-length mirror, which would require a cleaning up of the guest room where the mirror is ..... " 😂

Clearly, all that's going overboard for a $25 pair of pants. But where do you decide to stop? I'm sure the reason I got picked to do this is because my tendency is to do very thorough reviews for the things I like, thinking up lots of different angles to cover so people can make an informed decision. But I won't be able to keep on top of things if I go all out for every review.

Do you have any guidelines you've set for yourself about how much is enough and what is too much?

It irritates me to no end when people review clothes and talk about the fit being as expected or true to size without saying what their size usually is and what size they ordered.

I just read a romper review for a listing without a size chart that said, "I wanted to make sure it wouldn't be too small so I got a 3x, but I probably could have gone with a 1x." Oookkkk, but what is your usual size?

If you review clothes, include helpful information. It's not that hard. I wear an X size in X brand. I ordered this in that same size, and it fit like _____. Am I crazy? Is that too helpful?

Like many of you, I've been stuck at home with too much free time on my hands. I figured this would be a perfect time to update my summer wardrobe. Since most stores are closed I go the online route. I find an article of clothing I like and start reading the reviews.... which in turn leaves me frustrated.

Why you might ask? It's because how online reviews and the review process are utterly inconsistent.

One reviewer says the item runs large, order a size smaller. Another reviewer (for the same article of clothing) says it runs too small, order a size up. So what am I to believe? Do I order a size up or down? If it doesn't fit, I may get stuck with a return charge and have to drive to the mail carrier to return it (which I'd prefer not to during COVID). Not to mention the bottleneck it causes for mail carriers. Then I have to wait a while before I'm refunded - and by that time the item is sold out or no longer on sale.

So what can we (and companies) do about this? Well first, it would be nice to make women's sizing CONSISTENT across the board. If I buy a size 8 from one brand and the same size at another, it should still fit. The same should go for shoes. I've been measured a size 8, and yet I wear size 8.5 and 9 shoes. Also, items should always include measurements, period.

Second - make it so that you need to enter in your measurements or shape (or typical standard size) prior to submitting a review. That way people who are that shape/size can get a better picture of how the item is going to fit. We all know some clothes look better on certain body types.

Third - get rid of the low effort and dumb reviews. I was reviewing a sandal that stated in the item description "item runs small, order 1/2 size up." I go and read the reviews, "I ordered my regular size and the item is too small." No kidding. Not very helpful. Your bad reviews flood out the helpful reviews and in turn lower the star rating of the item.

Fourth - we need to get to know our bodies better. If we know our bodies (like shape and foot width, etc.) we can give better reviews.

So, what are your thoughts? Do reviews frustrate you too? What can we or companies do better to make the review process more helpful?