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I wonder how this can work in other cases though. After all, if their selling point is very difficult snow trails, and someone basically says that their trails

I wonder how this can work in other cases though. After all, if their selling point is very difficult snow trails, and someone basically says that their trails are too difficult for him, then is it really a 1-star review? It's cool that they can do this, but very few businesses can rely on this extreme segmentation...

betenoire 9y ago
"this food is too spicy" at a mexican restaurant. "The rides made me want to throw up" at a wild carnival. They seem pretty easy to make. Find some feature, make it "intense", make someone whine about the intensity. But yeah, it's not really a 1 star review, the guy just doesn't get it, and we are in on the joke.
- baddox 9y ago
  My favorites are the 1 star reviews of national parks. Such reviews have gotten some coverage lately in online outdoor communities. They tend to be either wilderness aficionados complaining that too many people are there taking pictures, or unprepared visitors complaining about the lack of amenities. To be clear, I can understand both (particularly the former, geez Yosemite), but both are examples of realistic expectations not factoring into the reviews. One example: https://backpackers.com/20-hilarious-one-star-yelp-reviews-of-national-parks/ https://backpackers.com/20-hilarious-one-star-yelp-reviews-o...
  - PhantomGremlin 9y ago
    Those are great. My favorite is for Yellowstone National Park: It's like a bigger version of Central Park, only with bears.
- colechristensen 9y ago
  "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." "If nobody hates you, you’re doing something wrong" Trying to be all things to all people means you'll likely be exquisitely mediocre. Excellence very often comes out of limitations, and designing whom your product is _not_ intended for can be more powerful than the opposite. Using honest feedback from someone you intended to not serve is a clever tactic and building something to get reviews like that might improve your business.
  - betenoire 9y ago
    yeah you said it better :)
- quotemstr 9y ago
  "This post is offensive" on an ideas board...
tyingq 9y ago
I suspect clueless reviewers fill that gap just fine. I've certainly seen some highly downvoted comments here complaining about HN being HN, for example.
dahart 9y ago
> It's cool that they can do this, but very few businesses can rely on this extreme segmentation... The entire sports industry is selling mostly racing gear to consumers who don't do any racing, and it's working quite well. Cars too, they're getting faster and more powerful every year, and most of us just sit in traffic. Snowbird has green runs, so it's not that extreme, it's just a delightful ad. The segmentation is more about positioning: we've got the cooler, tougher stuff, the stuff that real pros use. Look at it that way, and you can see it all over the place, not just cars and sports gear, but computers and consumer electronics. People respond to the 'expert' choices, and it doesn't work as well to sell something as having less cachet, less for experts and more for the you the non-expert. Selling for less money works, but selling for less cool not as much.

betenoire 9y ago

"this food is too spicy" at a mexican restaurant. "The rides made me want to throw up" at a wild carnival. They seem pretty easy to make. Find some feature, make it "intense", make someone whine about the intensity. But yeah, it's not really a 1 star review, the guy just doesn't get it, and we are in on the joke.

baddox 9y ago
My favorites are the 1 star reviews of national parks. Such reviews have gotten some coverage lately in online outdoor communities. They tend to be either wilderness aficionados complaining that too many people are there taking pictures, or unprepared visitors complaining about the lack of amenities. To be clear, I can understand both (particularly the former, geez Yosemite), but both are examples of realistic expectations not factoring into the reviews. One example: https://backpackers.com/20-hilarious-one-star-yelp-reviews-of-national-parks/ https://backpackers.com/20-hilarious-one-star-yelp-reviews-o...
- PhantomGremlin 9y ago
  Those are great. My favorite is for Yellowstone National Park: It's like a bigger version of Central Park, only with bears.
colechristensen 9y ago
"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." "If nobody hates you, you’re doing something wrong" Trying to be all things to all people means you'll likely be exquisitely mediocre. Excellence very often comes out of limitations, and designing whom your product is _not_ intended for can be more powerful than the opposite. Using honest feedback from someone you intended to not serve is a clever tactic and building something to get reviews like that might improve your business.
- betenoire 9y ago
  yeah you said it better :)
quotemstr 9y ago
"This post is offensive" on an ideas board...

tyingq 9y ago

I suspect clueless reviewers fill that gap just fine. I've certainly seen some highly downvoted comments here complaining about HN being HN, for example.

dahart 9y ago

> It's cool that they can do this, but very few businesses can rely on this extreme segmentation... The entire sports industry is selling mostly racing gear to consumers who don't do any racing, and it's working quite well. Cars too, they're getting faster and more powerful every year, and most of us just sit in traffic. Snowbird has green runs, so it's not that extreme, it's just a delightful ad. The segmentation is more about positioning: we've got the cooler, tougher stuff, the stuff that real pros use. Look at it that way, and you can see it all over the place, not just cars and sports gear, but computers and consumer electronics. People respond to the 'expert' choices, and it doesn't work as well to sell something as having less cachet, less for experts and more for the you the non-expert. Selling for less money works, but selling for less cool not as much.