2023: Want To Be a MGS Forum Tester? Read Here!

[GolfSpy_APH]

Just now, FallenSaber said:

Thank you. I just found a section that had some more questions in the account settings so that might help.

Perfect, if you have more questions just let me know! 

[FallenSaber]

1 minute ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Perfect, if you have more questions just let me know! 

The additional questions kept me at 50% but completing the Twitter and handicap sections seemed to do the trick. Thank you for your help and hopes this helps others who might be in a similar boat.

[ORIGINAL SCARP]

On 5/7/2023 at 10:11 AM, GolfSpy_APH said:

Did you know that if a member only ever posts in testers Wanted or signs up for testing opportunities they chances of being selected are slim to none?

Just being honest.

We look at recent activity, forum participation and over several periods of time to ensure we have the best possible candidates for each test!

I would like to know exactly how to add my profile picture as I really don't know where and how. Maybe that is why I am never selected?

 

[DaveP043]

8 minutes ago, ORIGINAL SCARP said:

I would like to know exactly how to add my profile picture as I really don't know where and how. Maybe that is why I am never selected?

In a web browser, click on your name in the top right, then click profile from the pull-down menu.  Once your profile page comes up, next to the picture of the "O" there should be a box to click for "Picture" that will allow you to drag and drop your photo.

As for getting selected, the photo is one step, but it seems like the biggest criteria is your continued involvement with the group.  Keep posting, stay involved, I hope your chance will come.

 

[GolfSpy_APH]

25 minutes ago, ORIGINAL SCARP said:

I would like to know exactly how to add my profile picture as I really don't know where and how. Maybe that is why I am never selected?

 

FAQ also has more Info on this for you.

[ORIGINAL SCARP]

On 5/11/2023 at 1:43 PM, DaveP043 said:

In a web browser, click on your name in the top right, then click profile from the pull-down menu.  Once your profile page comes up, next to the picture of the "O" there should be a box to click for "Picture" that will allow you to drag and drop your photo.

As for getting selected, the photo is one step, but it seems like the biggest criteria is your continued involvement with the group.  Keep posting, stay involved, I hope your chance will come.

 

I followed your directions exactly and got my pic on my profile Dave P043, but it doesn't show up with my name when I post anything.

 

[GolfSpy_APH]

1 hour ago, ORIGINAL SCARP said:

I followed your directions exactly and got my pic on my profile Dave P043, but it doesn't show up with my name when I post anything.

 

Looks like you put it as your cover photo.

Don't worry tho I've added it for you as your profile photo so it is all there for you now!

[ORIGINAL SCARP]

Thanks a lot.....all this technical stuff on computers is a bit of a pain for us older folks. lol

 

[Dennis Webb]

I've seen the ads. Curious as to the claims of this shoe brand and the durability.   I walk 9 holes 3-4 times per week.  I breakdown shoes within a year.  I currently rotate wearing 4 pairs.

I look forward to the reviews.

[tommc23]

10 minutes ago, Dennis Webb said:

I've seen the ads. Curious as to the claims of this shoe brand and the durability.   I walk 9 holes 3-4 times per week.  I breakdown shoes within a year.  I currently rotate wearing 4 pairs.

I look forward to the reviews.

Dennis this isn’t the place to apply to be a tester. This is a thread telling you how to become a tester. If interested in applying go here to apply 

 

[JJames]

I have a question concerning tests reserved for US members only. I do not live in the US but I do have an address there that redirects my parcels to my country, does it counts as being in the US for the test as I would receive my parcel just the same. Thanks.

[GolfSpy_APH]

9 minutes ago, JJames said:

I have a question concerning tests reserved for US members only. I do not live in the US but I do have an address there that redirects my parcels to my country, does it counts as being in the US for the test as I would receive my parcel just the same. Thanks.

Due to timing and how we organize our tests as well as it is the OEMs that determine the Geo restrictions no, unfortunately this would not work or allow you to be eligible for US only tests.

[GolfSpy_APH]

I think this is worth mentioning as we have had a few tests completed and more coming in the next week or so. 

All tests are graded. We take into account not just the review itself, but the overall participation with the thread over the testing period and the timeliness of meeting deadlines. 

We are pretty fair when it comes to grades and new for this year we are actually sending testers a quick survey to complete which is to help us get better at what we are doing as well. It also asks testers to give themselves a grade or evaluate how they feel they did. 

Now the important part of all this. If someone fails to complete a review or is consistently late on providing updates, replies or completing the review and is given a shotty grade (1 or even 2 out of 5) the chances of them getting another review anytime soon if at all are slim to none. 

To be frank, we put a lot of care into our selection and the OEMs trust us to make these selections appropriately. If someone bails, does just a trash job or just fails to complete the review it not only looks bad on them, but also us as Forum Staff and MGS. It sucks for the community and everyone involved in testing when this happens. 

In the end we have too many stellar members, too many new members coming into proving their worth and value to the community to select anyone again who has had a bad grade on testing or just gone mia. 

We as Forum Staff are very understanding and lenient to family situation, life situations and whatever else is happening to make accommodations when necessary, however when no communication happens and a null review happens it truly sucks and for us why should we risk that happening again for future reviews?

[BKervin]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

I think this is worth mentioning as we have had a few tests completed and more coming in the next week or so. 

All tests are graded. We take into account not just the review itself, but the overall participation with the thread over the testing period and the timeliness of meeting deadlines. 

We are pretty fair when it comes to grades and new for this year we are actually sending testers a quick survey to complete which is to help us get better at what we are doing as well. It also asks testers to give themselves a grade or evaluate how they feel they did. 

Now the important part of all this. If someone fails to complete a review or is consistently late on providing updates, replies or completing the review and is given a shotty grade (1 or even 2 out of 5) the chances of them getting another review anytime soon if at all are slim to none. 

To be frank, we put a lot of care into our selection and the OEMs trust us to make these selections appropriately. If someone bails, does just a trash job or just fails to complete the review it not only looks bad on them, but also us as Forum Staff and MGS. It sucks for the community and everyone involved in testing when this happens. 

In the end we have too many stellar members, too many new members coming into proving their worth and value to the community to select anyone again who has had a bad grade on testing or just gone mia. 

We as Forum Staff are very understanding and lenient to family situation, life situations and whatever else is happening to make accommodations when necessary, however when no communication happens and a null review happens it truly sucks and for us why should we risk that happening again for future reviews?

All I can say is - if you were this kind of employee, would you expect to have a job?

This is sad  

[GolfSpy_APH]

6 minutes ago, BKervin said:

All I can say is - if you were this kind of employee, would you expect to have a job?

This is sad  

It sucks if and when it does happen. It does not happen often. That is for sure and we are very upfront with our expectations for all testers. 

We do our best to get new members involved, because well I like seeing new members involved in testing. It is fun, exciting and their level of nervousness and enthusiasm is contagious and they often do a stellar job. 

[injectedcutty]

23 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

It sucks if and when it does happen. It does not happen often. That is for sure and we are very upfront with our expectations for all testers. 

We do our best to get new members involved, because well I like seeing new members involved in testing. It is fun, exciting and their level of nervousness and enthusiasm is contagious and they often do a stellar job. 

Hopefully I'll get to test stuff eventually! I'm a gearhead with golf and hotrods, and having a decent public course in my backyard would make testing pretty easy! No joke, because of MGS I spent alot of time last year fiddling with different golf balls to find what fits my game the best! It was fun for me, and the knowledge gained has helped me since knowing I only game several balls now versus just hitting whatever prior. Thanks for what y'all do!

Scott

[CB Lobo 4 Life]

2 hours ago, injectedcutty said:

Hopefully I'll get to test stuff eventually! I'm a gearhead with golf and hotrods, and having a decent public course in my backyard would make testing pretty easy! No joke, because of MGS I spent alot of time last year fiddling with different golf balls to find what fits my game the best! It was fun for me, and the knowledge gained has helped me since knowing I only game several balls now versus just hitting whatever prior. Thanks for what y'all do!

Scott

I can relate to this entirely! I have yet to do a test but excited to get on a formal one. One thing that was advised to me was to try doing an "unofficial" test, almost like a proving ground opportunity. I am looking to wrap up a Maxfli Tour X golf ball review by the end of this week. Best of luck to you @injectedcutty, and happy to have you!

[GolfSpy_BEN]

3 hours ago, CB Lobo 4 Life said:

I can relate to this entirely! I have yet to do a test but excited to get on a formal one. One thing that was advised to me was to try doing an "unofficial" test, almost like a proving ground opportunity. I am looking to wrap up a Maxfli Tour X golf ball review by the end of this week. Best of luck to you @injectedcutty, and happy to have you!

This is good advice. I would add that if you take a look at the recent activity of any of the current or former testers you will notice that they are all actively engaged in multiple threads. They create and/or contribute to the things they are curious about or want to discuss and find out more about. There is no magic formula that will guarantee a testing opportunity, but showing the forum staff what you’re capable of can only help your chances of being selected. Welcome to the forum, we look forward to your contributions!

[billpierce]

Can we use chatgpt here ️‍‍

[GolfSpy_APH]

Pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but wanted to add this in as well.

We have a ton of tests this year... as in we are roughly half way through what we have scheduled. This means there are still a lot of opportunity to test, but also for some who have applied and have yet to be selected there are times we feel there are tests that would be better fits down the line plain and simple. 

It is truly a very difficult balancing act for us, but want to assure everyone that gets engaged and involved in the community that we do our best to make sure everyone gets a chance at testing. This also means that we do our utmost best to ensure that a member does one test per season, so before signing up for any testing opportunity be sure that it is one you really want to do, because if selected it will likely be your selection till the following season!

[GolfSpy_APH]

For those of you who want some quick hit points to being selected here are some tips we look for!
1. Profile photo - no photo no selection its that simple
2. Get involved - we want to see that you going to do a good review for our community so having some posting history even if brief is important!
3. Complete your profile: Even if it is 75% complete that is considered completed (the other 25% is for additional questions which you can answer by going into profile settings) however having a profile completed to the 75% shows interest in the forum.
4. Follow the forum instructions! (ie please do not apply here ... if anything it will hurt chances)
5. Finally ask questions, start a thread of your own, introduce yourself or any of that! 

 

We often select one new tester per test and there are many of them here in this thread that can attest to that or some that will hopefully chime in after seeing this post!

If you have questions just ask! Whether here or via the PM system to the Forum Staff we will be happy to assist where we can!

[Woody83]

9 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

For those of you who want some quick hit points to being selected here are some tips we look for!
1. Profile photo - no photo no selection its that simple
2. Get involved - we want to see that you going to do a good review for our community so having some posting history even if brief is important!
3. Complete your profile: Even if it is 75% complete that is considered completed (the other 25% is for additional questions which you can answer by going into profile settings) however having a profile completed to the 75% shows interest in the forum.
4. Follow the forum instructions! (ie please do not apply here ... if anything it will hurt chances)
5. Finally ask questions, start a thread of your own, introduce yourself or any of that! 

 

We often select one new tester per test and there are many of them here in this thread that can attest to that or some that will hopefully chime in after seeing this post!

If you have questions just ask! Whether here or via the PM system to the Forum Staff we will be happy to assist where we can!

How do you get your clubs listed on your profile?

[GolfSpy_APH]

5 minutes ago, Woody83 said:

How do you get your clubs listed on your profile?

The FAQ has a ton of great info if you have questions!

[Woody83]

Thank you

[GolfSpy_APH]

Wanted to provide a little more insight as we get later in the testing season. 

Activity and engagement for us as Forum staff during the selection process is critical. Thankfully we have some tools at our disposal to look into this. 

One is simple, post count and reactions. However that gives a very broad view and one that can be misleading. For example being a member who has been around for a long time and use to be active and has racked up over 1k posts and now is never on or active on the Forum. 

Another is recent activity. It is something we check to see where and what members post in. There are some that only post in one thread and while that is fine, it isn't always the best for testing purposes. 

This is a graph of daily posts from my account. I will be honest with all that goes on I don't post as much as I would like, but you can see it goes by each day and will show a consistent level of activity. 

Here is someone over that same time period who hasn't posted at all. This is what I call Flatlined... and just like what it would mean in real life, it means the same thing to your chances at testing. 

Another example of a member on the forum staff who is active, but you can see doesn't post every day. Nothing wrong with this, but it shoes us that there is actual activity. 

A newer member and as you can see spikes in posts, not daily, but we can clearly see they have a decent activity record. 

We also understand that there are lots of members who are hesitant to post or just getting the lay of the land. Unfortunately we don't have as many tools to use to track this. All I can say is I have been there and know this is a very welcoming community. Just look at the Good Morning thread. 

For those who are more lurkers or readers, if you have questions please reach out to any of the Forum Staff and we would be more than happy to help where we can. 

Hope this helps give a little insight to our process and just another additional piece that we look into. 

[Wmyoungiv]

Trying to post and get reaction, thanks for the tips. 

[ScramblinMan]

I thought the likelihood of being selected for a test were slim to none. However, I am currently involved in my first review (Sqairz Bold golf shoes) and really enjoy reading about other testers reviews of several products. Those reviews encouraged me to purchase the Callaway Paradym woods and irons about a month ago. 

[richk9holes]

1 hour ago, ScramblinMan said:

I thought the likelihood of being selected for a test were slim to none. However, I am currently involved in my first review (Sqairz Bold golf shoes) and really enjoy reading about other testers reviews of several products. Those reviews encouraged me to purchase the Callaway Paradym woods and irons about a month ago. 

Your username is great. "Lord I was born a scramblin' man. Tryin' to find my tee shot, then I'll hit it the best I can."

[Javs]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Wanted to provide a little more insight as we get later in the testing season. 

Activity and engagement for us as Forum staff during the selection process is critical. Thankfully we have some tools at our disposal to look into this. 

One is simple, post count and reactions. However that gives a very broad view and one that can be misleading. For example being a member who has been around for a long time and use to be active and has racked up over 1k posts and now is never on or active on the Forum. 

Another is recent activity. It is something we check to see where and what members post in. There are some that only post in one thread and while that is fine, it isn't always the best for testing purposes. 

This is a graph of daily posts from my account. I will be honest with all that goes on I don't post as much as I would like, but you can see it goes by each day and will show a consistent level of activity. 

Here is someone over that same time period who hasn't posted at all. This is what I call Flatlined... and just like what it would mean in real life, it means the same thing to your chances at testing. 

Another example of a member on the forum staff who is active, but you can see doesn't post every day. Nothing wrong with this, but it shoes us that there is actual activity. 

A newer member and as you can see spikes in posts, not daily, but we can clearly see they have a decent activity record. 

We also understand that there are lots of members who are hesitant to post or just getting the lay of the land. Unfortunately we don't have as many tools to use to track this. All I can say is I have been there and know this is a very welcoming community. Just look at the Good Morning thread. 

For those who are more lurkers or readers, if you have questions please reach out to any of the Forum Staff and we would be more than happy to help where we can. 

Hope this helps give a little insight to our process and just another additional piece that we look into. 

Great stuff! Interesting breakdown of the activity levels. I will admit when I first joined I was more a reader. Then really wanted to get more out of the site. So, I read your tips and started getting more involved. I can personally attest that the more involved the more information I received. Example: I learned a lot about balls and equipment I have never thought about using. This led to my purchasing Red Rooster gloves, various balls and a putter. Interaction with Bob from SQAIRZ has changed the shoes I sport. I now have three pairs of SQAIRZs. Then the big break came when I was granted the opportunity to test the Callaway Paradym irons. I wanted to do the best I could to provide good feedback and information to my fellow forum members. So, I purchased a MLM to assist with the test. This has made my practice sessions more productive. This further led to my purchase of a Paradym TD driver. Reading about wedges has recently led to my purchasing Vokey wedges (can’t wait for them to arrive). Bottom line moving from reader to active member has totally changed my equipment, practice and approach to the game this year. The best part is my game is solid and my handicap is dropping! I love this site and want to thank the Administrators and fellow active members for all the incite, tips and assistance in making the game more enjoyable. I can only hope that I can offer assistance and incite to others whenever possible. 

[ScramblinMan]

11 hours ago, richk9holes said:

Your username is great. "Lord I was born a scramblin' man. Tryin' to find my tee shot, then I'll hit it the best I can."

Huge Allman Brothers fan! I love your lyrics @richk9holes