Woo hoo… it’s time to introduce another great new feature on our site. The idea of having separate LumberJocks section for posting reviews has been bouncing around in many discussions recently. I finally decided to turn it into reality this weekend.
There was lots of brainstorming involved during recent weeks because I wanted to be sure that the system will automatically guide you when posting the review of the product that was already reviewed by other jock(s). This system ensures that we can calculate average ratings for each product and you will be able to browse all reviews of the same product easily. How does it work? Easily… you are asked to specify the product before posting actual review. After choosing the product category and brand the system will do some mining and list all products – matching the selected category and brand – that were already reviewed on LJ. If you spot your product in the list you just need to click on it. Otherwise you will just enter the product name/number and the product will be instantly added to the system.
I already touched categories and brands. Yes… I decided to use predefined categorization instead of tags in the Reviews section. Categories as well as brands are listed on the sidebar when browsing reviews and you can even see how many reviews they contain. Just click on the links to filter the reviews by the respective category or brand. Note that you can easily add new brand when posting the review if your brand is not in the list.
And here is the screenshot of the product details on one of the exisiting reviews:

As you can see there are quick links to view the reviews by brand, category and respective product. Shiny star ratings are displayed too – silver ones represent the actual review rating and golden ones are for the average product rating.
I added Reviews link to the main navigation bar for easy access and if you want to post new review yourself just click on the “Post new…” dropdown in the header.
So let’s start building the largest and most trusted woodworking reviews resource ;) If you has already posted some of your tool reviews on your blog just repost them as reviews. And if you were hesitating to review your tools, woodworking books or DVDs? There are simply no excuses anymore.
ENJOY! And let me know what you think please.
-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://profile.to/msojka






















27 comments so far
Martin Sojka
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1401 posts in 1371 days
posted 685 days ago
oh.. and I forgot to mention that Debbie ad Tom helped me to test things out and even posted first few reviews.. thank you ;)
-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://profile.to/msojka
GaryK
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9537 posts in 887 days
posted 685 days ago
Great job Martin. I’m sure that this is going to be one more great thing people like about LumberJocks!
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.
jockmike2
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7354 posts in 1145 days
posted 685 days ago
Just another great improvement you’ve made Martin. Good Job. mike
-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com
Karson
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25806 posts in 1299 days
posted 685 days ago
Great Job Martin. Another big Plus for this site.
-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
DAN
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6456 posts in 881 days
posted 685 days ago
small step for mankind, but a big step for lumberjocks !
-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever
rikkor
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11335 posts in 773 days
posted 685 days ago
This is great. I’ll bet the manufacturers will be monitoring this now.
Lee A. Jesberger
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3710 posts in 878 days
posted 685 days ago
Fabulous Martin. Great addition to a great site.
Lee
-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com
JoeHeskett
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23 posts in 821 days
posted 685 days ago
Love the idea. No better review than buy actual users.
-- Joe Heskett---Illinois
Dadoo
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1723 posts in 889 days
posted 685 days ago
Excellent Martin! Lookin’ forward to using this feature.
-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!
Grumpy
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14932 posts in 749 days
posted 685 days ago
Great idea Martin. This section will be of great interest to me.
-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python
scottb
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3402 posts in 1225 days
posted 685 days ago
ooh, nice feature.
-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/
jeffthewoodwacker
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487 posts in 702 days
posted 684 days ago
Looking forward to seeing reviews of tools and the reactions of the manufacturers. As woodworkers we are the end users of all the products.
-- Those that say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.
Thos. Angle
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4013 posts in 861 days
posted 684 days ago
Dandy idea, Martin.
-- Thos. Angle
Tony
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813 posts in 929 days
posted 684 days ago
Excelent idea and very useful service – Thank you Martin
-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)
Bob Babcock
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1808 posts in 984 days
posted 684 days ago
Excellent. This is going to be a great addition.
-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org
MsDebbieP
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14174 posts in 1059 days
posted 684 days ago
another successful expansion to the site, Martin.
Brilliantly executed, as always.
-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
Mario
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882 posts in 950 days
posted 684 days ago
That is a great feature. Thank you.
-- Hope Never fails
Martin Sojka
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1401 posts in 1371 days
posted 684 days ago
Thanks for the feedback everybody!
We already have one product with 3 reviews total – Wixey Digital Angle Gauge... congrats to Wixey, their angle gauge has 4.7 average rating so far.
Keep the reviews coming – Debbie is preparing Press Release that will publicly announce our new Reviews feature so we need as many as possible ;)
-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://profile.to/msojka
Martin Sojka
home | projects | blog
1401 posts in 1371 days
posted 683 days ago
I have just added “Reviews” refinement to our search so if you want to restrict your search to the reviews just perform search and click on the Reviews link.
-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://profile.to/msojka
jude
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147 posts in 848 days
posted 682 days ago
Super idea!
-- life can always be weaved into a song.
Jiri Parkman
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603 posts in 711 days
posted 681 days ago
Good idea. I thing.
-- Jiri
Dick, & Barb Cain
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7044 posts in 1198 days
posted 681 days ago
Great feature, I’ve already re-submitted one of my Rikon Band saw.
-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1
lynxsg
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8 posts in 678 days
posted 678 days ago
Incra sells a combo … the 1000se miter guage, and the Incra Miter Express together at a better price.
I have just set mine up recently and agree that the cuts are very accurate. However, the ‘rulers’ they provide for length measurement are poor.
Many of us like to use the miter guage on the left. If you have a left tilt table saw, you will have to use the guage in the right hand slot (if using the fence). Why? Because the sled is set up to hold your miter gauge on the right side if you have a left tilt saw.
You can reassemble the fence on your 1000se for use on the left of the blade (without sled), but this takes time, is a nuisance, and the scale has to be set up again.
The sled and Incra miter guage works better for right tilt table saws for the reasons I’ve sighted. For a right tilt table saw, there is no need to disassemble and setup the miter guage for use in the left slot.
-- Steve G., Kelowna, BC, Canada
gizmodyne
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1679 posts in 988 days
posted 670 days ago
Martin.
Are you able to feature new reviews on the home page?
-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne
Martin Sojka
home | projects | blog
1401 posts in 1371 days
posted 670 days ago
Yes John.. that will be added soon. As you may noticed I’ve added reviews to our “status bar” on the home page today (“Look at us…” text).
-- Martin, http://lumberjocks.com | My Facebook: http://profile.to/msojka
gizmodyne
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1679 posts in 988 days
posted 669 days ago
Thanks Martin. It is a great new feature.
-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne
trifern
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7897 posts in 666 days
posted 637 days ago
Great idea Martin. I am new to Lumberjocks and wished that there were more reviews.
-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.