How Our Readers Made Wirecutter Better in March 2020 Wirecutter
Real Talk
Advice, staff picks, mythbusting, and more. Let us help you. Share this postSaveWe’re perpetually thankful for all of you: the readers who compose the kind, thoughtful, meticulous collective that is the Wirecutter community. Even though we can’t always respond to every comment, tweet, or email, we’re always listening, and we’re always grateful. Here are just some of the most useful, interesting, and thought-provoking messages we’ve gotten from you recently.
Coverage you inspired
: Your comments and questions have guided our service on the evolving crisis, and they continue to shape our guidance during this tough time. Thanks to questions you asked, we’ve covered , , and . In we’re also addressing your other questions, about the virus, about sanitizing and disinfecting, and about life while sheltering-in-place. (We’ll continue to update these as more of your questions come in.) : We’ve gotten a ton of questions about California’s Prop 65 warnings over the years, and especially in recent months as online retailers have gotten more diligent about labeling. There’s a recent Prop 65 discussion in in our review of . These warnings are a source of confusion and worry for a lot of people, Californian and non-Californian alike. Thanks to your questions, we addressed the . In short, you probably shouldn’t worry about the warnings, but feel welcome to post more questions you may have in the comments there. Changes we made thanks to you
: Commenter let us know that Tile’s one-year warranty for its products applies only to purchases through authorized resellers. We added links to our review to purchase from Tile directly, and we updated the “Flaws but not dealbreakers” section to let future readers know. : Thanks to a request from a reader, we added a to the review to allow readers to quickly compare minimum and maximum height, as well as cost, length of warranty coverage, and amount of available desktop options. Good questions
On : about the best headphones for sleeping. “Would you consider publishing an article specifically on headphones, earbuds, and similar audio devices that are good for sleeping? I suffer from moderate to severe tinnitus (ringing in the ears) 24 hours a day, and must often take special measures to get to sleep at night. Soft music at a low volume works well, as does the myNoise white noise app, but my partner prefers silence, so I must use headphones most of the time.” We shared this question with our headphones expert, Lauren Dragan, who says that the best headphones for sleeping—“by far”—are the . Lauren has of headphones, and she says that she’s never encountered other headphones that work nearly as well for sleeping. On Commenters and recently asked us about the mysterious metal disk in the photo we used at the top of our grill tools and accessories review. It’s not some secret searing strategy, we promise—it turns out that the disk was a relic of past experiments in grill testing. At one point, we thought we might be able to use steel disks to map out “heat zones” on grills using infrared thermometers. We bought 12 of the disks so that we could place them all over the grills, like hamburgers. But that approach didn’t end up working. The metal was too reflective for us to get good readings. Now only stray photos remain to testify to that phase in our thinking—well, photos and the 12 steel patties rusting in the reviewer’s backyard. Excellent contributions
Shoutout to !: for stellar comments on our reviews of and . From to , Matt has been donating his time and attention regularly. We deeply appreciate it when people take the time to help others and share suggestions. Shoutout to !: for sharing some excellent advice in the comments on our list of . Learning the rules of a new game can be a pain at the best of times, and cuts through a lot of the confusion and helps even first-time players focus on having fun: (1) Emphasize that there is no winner. The more players try to “win”—especially if they’re trying to compete with one another—the more they’ll feel slighted when there’s a discrepancy with the rules. (2) Pick someone familiar with the game to run it as the Spirit. That role has the most control over the game. (3) Treat the Spirit like a Dungeon Master (à la Dungeons and Dragons). Focus on storytelling and moving the game forward, not following the rules correctly. (4) When you screw up a rule, make something up to cope and move on. Don’t get hung up on your rule-following mistakes. Engaging story and interaction can overcome a multitude of rule blunders. Mentioned above
Further reading
by Wirecutter Staff We share 2020’s top guides, recommendations, reader comments, deal stats, and more. by Liam McCabe We’ve tested dozens of robot vacuums, and recommend the sturdy, strong, smart-enough first, followed closely by the super-clever . by Janet Towle We’re featuring a few of the most useful, interesting, and thought-provoking messages we got from our readers last month. by Janet Towle We’re featuring a few of the most useful, interesting, and thought-provoking messages we got from our readers last month.