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Content
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| Quality : |
15.0 / 20 |
| Quantity : |
15.0 / 15 |
| Entertain : |
13.0 / 15 |
| Updates : |
10.0 / 10 |
| Exclusive : |
4.5 / 05 |
| Download : |
2.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
60.0 / 70 |
| Navigation |
| Easy : |
7.5 / 10 |
| Features : |
3.0 / 05 |
| Design : |
3.0 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
13.5 / 20 |
| Other |
| Originality : |
4.0 / 05 |
| Hard Facts : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
7.5 / 10 |
Scoring Criteria New
New Update!
As of Aug 15th, 07, price of a site is no longer factored into the overall score/rank. |
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1. Lots of sites, with tons of content.
2. Very cheap, especially for what you get.
3. Unique niche compared to other networks.
4. New community should be fun.
1. Individual webmasters means varying quality.
2. Amateur content can be lower than other sites.
3. Tougher to get around than some, but it's the nature of it.
"A fantastic value in networks, especially since it's the only one in the amateur niche." |
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Since we've been looking at some of the sites in this network lately, it's about time we take a look at the network itself. Wild Rose Network is brought to you by the people behind Carol Cox's site, which is one of the oldest running amateur sites there is. The network focuses on amateur sites as well, and represents an awesome deal if you're into this type of content. About 90% of all amateur sites charge $20 a month to get in, and that gets you their content and usually access to a cam show network or two. Here, you're paying the same amount, but you get access to over 30 girl's sites, as well as some bonus niche sites.
Each site is run by themselves, so each site is setup pretty differently from one another. This presents a bit of a problem from a reviewer's standpoint, but for the surfer it's great because you know you're not getting some corporate BS amateur sites, but the real deal. Along with the sites come some plugins, cam networks, parties list, a forum, and more.
By far the biggest site here is Carol's, which is one huge reason to join the site. If you're not into her, though, there's quite a few other chicks to check out with your membership. Browsing around the sites is pretty easy from their list, although you don't get a ton of info on the sites from there (just a small icon and the title). If everything worked as planned, going to each site wouldn't require you to re-enter your login. This works a lot of the time, but it doesn't work on the others. There's a lot of different subdomains and members URL's going on here, which causes the problems. It'd be great if they could unify everything to make getting around easier.
All of the content available runs the gamut of the options it seems. Pictures range from below average to pretty good-looking. With so many people bringing in their own content, you really can't pigeon-hole it at all. An average picture size would be in the 800x600 range, or just a bit less, but it really varies a ton. The same goes for videos. Some amateurs really utilize their video cameras for content, while other focus mostly on pictures. I wish I could comment more on the content, but since the site is setup differently than most networks are, there's just not much similar between the participating sites. The good news is that most of these sites were actual paysites on their own before the network was around, so you won't get into crummy AVS-type sites for the most part. Each site can (sometimes barely) stand on its own, as compared to some networks with half-assed sites included.
You get access to a few cam networks, sometimes through individual sites rather than the network homepage - but they're there. There's also an updates page you should check out, which usually isn't a huge deal, but somehow they tapped into all the site's updates and list them all in one place (with links to the new content). For some reason they skip some dates, but otherwise you have 5-10 updates listed for each day which is fantastic.
All this for $20 a month is an awesome deal. There's a lot of sites you get access to, and some of them are pretty damn good. The content quality may not score as well on here as some sites, but it's the nature of the sites you're getting. Overall, they offer up something no one else really does, for a great price - what more could an amateur fan ask for?
| 1st Follow-Up Review |
Review: 10-21-05 |
I know their last makeover was a pretty big deal, so it's no real surprise that the look and feel of the network is much the same here. With Carol's site being as massive as it is, I don't think they'll be touching that one again for a while. The network itself is much the same, with a few changes in the supporting characters but more sites overall than last time we checked in. It's a little more messy than I'd like, but I guess that's what you get when a lot of these sites are independantly run. They added a big community to your membership here a while back, which is worth a look if you enjoy interacting with like-minded people. Still good here, just as expected :)
Score increased from 81.7 to 82.0.
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