My first three years of hobbying I basically saw some by-referral ladies and had never heard of online review sites.
I think that, overall, TER is a good resource. In fact, since moving from referral ladies to those I book myself, every woman I have seen has been ter-listed; and was initially contacted via ter.
I do not like their review system; and there are other things I don't like. I wasn't using it back when the ... uh ... rumored ... activities were taking place. But overall I would say it has been a valuable resource as it has put me in touch with some really fabulous women.
I don't usually read reviews. I've written a few, but seldom read them. They don't really figure into my selection process because I like providers to have a blank slate with me.
So the review portion of the site isn't that useful to me. What IS useful to me is the general info page about a provider that lets me see a lot of important things at a glance -- like her website, rates, etc.
One thing that should be kept in context is what the ter ratings for performance mean. 8 is a hot time, 9 is so good you forgot it was a service, 10 is once in a lifetime. On that scale, 8 is NOT a bad score.
I mean, seriously, how often does a guy walk into a session that was so incredible he forgot that he actually paid for it?
Still, I hate that they tie scores to specific sex acts or even automatically giving bisexual providers an edge over heterosexual providers. That's B.S., even though most of the providers I see happen to be bisexual.