I’m in the process of gathering up reviews and testimonials for PageFour. As it stands, there are quite a few reviews out there, scattered across download sites, forums, and various personal and writing blogs. It’s always useful for people to hear what others have to say before trying out new software, but at the moment these reviews are a little hard to find.

In the past, I linked directly to PageFour’s review page on Download.com, but this is no longer possible. Due to a recent site redesign, only 1 of the 9 PageFour reviews can now be read. On querying this with their helpful support staff, I was informed that such deep-linking is not allowed on Download.com. I was then threatened with the removal of PageFour should I ever again carry out such a diabolical act as linking to a web page.

What I would like to do, is publish user reviews and testimonials myself on the PageFour website. Now, I freely admit that this opens me up to the charge of censorship and of cherry picking favourable reviews, and I would be lying if I said I’d post every comment, but I am prepared to commit to the following:

  • Published reviews and comments would not be edited. They would appear in their entirety, complete with spelling mistakes, poor grammar, and any criticisms of PageFour the writer should wish to raise.
  • The author would be credited in any way they choose, preferably with a full name, though this would not be necessary.
  • A link back to the authors website or blog would be added next to their name.
  • If the review already exists on a blog or website, this review would be linked to directly.

If anyone has a review they would not object to having publishing or linked to, please contact me. And if you have any comments you would like to make about PageFour that you would be happy to see quoted, do drop me an email.

I’d like to encourage people to offer honest feedback - warts and all. Testimonial pages that do nothing but sing the praises of a product without mentioning its faults or possible areas for improvement, always read a little false.

And unlike Download.com, I have no objection to anyone linking to the new reviews page after it goes live.