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The only people that should be able to leave reviews for a product are people that have purchased it from that listing. I’ve found that the only reviews worth r

by a2tech 9y ago

The only people that should be able to leave reviews for a product are people that have purchased it from that listing. I’ve found that the only reviews worth reading are the ones that are from verified purchasers.

ascorbic 9y ago
The article mentions the way they're even able to abuse that: giving gift cards to users who can then buy the product and leave a fake review as a verified purchaser.
- Shivetya 9y ago
  well the next step is to have a required number of unrelated purchase from other vendors/etc. all sorts of ways to put a brake on it. give buyers history similar to how ebay does, once you pass a number of unrelated purchases your rating actually affects the items score. another method is that before the score is counted your account has to be XXX days old.
  - pilsetnieks 9y ago
    There are review programs that act as a middleman between the buyers/reviewers and sellers that aggregate multiple items to review from many sellers. They could easily circumvent something like that (for example, if you want to participate, you get to buy 5 cheap shit items with a 90% discount from different sellers and have to leave 5-star reviews.) I think the first step would be not accepting reviews, or downranking them, similarly to unverified purchases, if the purchase was discounted with a promo code given by the seller.
asdfologist 9y ago
Merchants and their friends can buy their own products...
- smelendez 9y ago
  Still helps with the problem of downvoting competitor products, which seems more insidious.
Mediterraneo10 9y ago
> The only people that should be able to leave reviews for a product are people that have purchased it from that listing. That might make sense for electronics and other items, though even here sellers have found ways to get around it by offering to reimburse their shills who bought the product just for a 5-star shill review. However, Amazon's introduction of the Verified Purchase tag on reviews and recent changes that make non-VP reviews difficult to view, has had a deleterious effect on reviews for books, films and music. There were a lot of great well-written and insightful reviews written by people who got the media in question from the library (or a filesharing community). For books and films, that reviewing culture lives on at Goodreads and IMDB, but both are now owned by Amazon and who knows how long those reviews might last. There is however no analogue for reviews of music (Allmusic has strict character count limits and few ever go there, Discogs reviews seem mainly meant for vinyl enthusiasts). Yes, in retrospect it was silly for fans of music, books and films to create a rather non-commercial community of enthusiasts on the basis of a site whose sole aim is to make lots of money, but I still regret what has been lost.
- mcphage 9y ago
  > That might make sense for electronics and other items [...] Amazon's introduction of the Verified Purchase tag on reviews and recent changes that make non-VP reviews difficult to view, has had a deleterious effect on reviews for books, films and music. Surely Amazon could control this on a category-by-category level...
- bitexploder 9y ago
  As long as there is a profit interest to game the reviews people will try. At least with Goodreads there is some, but less, interest.
- WalterBright 9y ago
  > it was silly for fans of music, books and films to create a rather non-commercial community of enthusiasts on the basis of a site whose sole aim is to make lots of money Nothing silly about it at all. I've written many such reviews and I'm well aware that I'm giving my work for free to a profit making entity. The thing is, I also benefit a lot from reviews on Amazon, even for things I'd never buy. Amazon is my go-to site for reviews on books and music. (Not so for films, I use IMDB for that.) I enjoy writing and posting the reviews, and enjoy getting "likes" on them from others that find them useful.
stordoff 9y ago
> I’ve found that the only reviews worth reading Losing the useful reviews in the noise is a definite problem. Even if you filter those from fake accounts, you end up with some reviews like this one, which is of basically no use to anyone (yet 3 people marked it as helpful...): > Delivery status is still pending. This laptop has decent specs but a lack of SsD really makes me sad. I will update this review when i receive the product

by a2tech 9y ago

ascorbic 9y ago

The article mentions the way they're even able to abuse that: giving gift cards to users who can then buy the product and leave a fake review as a verified purchaser.

Shivetya 9y ago
well the next step is to have a required number of unrelated purchase from other vendors/etc. all sorts of ways to put a brake on it. give buyers history similar to how ebay does, once you pass a number of unrelated purchases your rating actually affects the items score. another method is that before the score is counted your account has to be XXX days old.
- pilsetnieks 9y ago
  There are review programs that act as a middleman between the buyers/reviewers and sellers that aggregate multiple items to review from many sellers. They could easily circumvent something like that (for example, if you want to participate, you get to buy 5 cheap shit items with a 90% discount from different sellers and have to leave 5-star reviews.) I think the first step would be not accepting reviews, or downranking them, similarly to unverified purchases, if the purchase was discounted with a promo code given by the seller.

asdfologist 9y ago

Merchants and their friends can buy their own products...

smelendez 9y ago
Still helps with the problem of downvoting competitor products, which seems more insidious.

Mediterraneo10 9y ago

> The only people that should be able to leave reviews for a product are people that have purchased it from that listing. That might make sense for electronics and other items, though even here sellers have found ways to get around it by offering to reimburse their shills who bought the product just for a 5-star shill review. However, Amazon's introduction of the Verified Purchase tag on reviews and recent changes that make non-VP reviews difficult to view, has had a deleterious effect on reviews for books, films and music. There were a lot of great well-written and insightful reviews written by people who got the media in question from the library (or a filesharing community). For books and films, that reviewing culture lives on at Goodreads and IMDB, but both are now owned by Amazon and who knows how long those reviews might last. There is however no analogue for reviews of music (Allmusic has strict character count limits and few ever go there, Discogs reviews seem mainly meant for vinyl enthusiasts). Yes, in retrospect it was silly for fans of music, books and films to create a rather non-commercial community of enthusiasts on the basis of a site whose sole aim is to make lots of money, but I still regret what has been lost.

mcphage 9y ago
> That might make sense for electronics and other items [...] Amazon's introduction of the Verified Purchase tag on reviews and recent changes that make non-VP reviews difficult to view, has had a deleterious effect on reviews for books, films and music. Surely Amazon could control this on a category-by-category level...
bitexploder 9y ago
As long as there is a profit interest to game the reviews people will try. At least with Goodreads there is some, but less, interest.
WalterBright 9y ago
> it was silly for fans of music, books and films to create a rather non-commercial community of enthusiasts on the basis of a site whose sole aim is to make lots of money Nothing silly about it at all. I've written many such reviews and I'm well aware that I'm giving my work for free to a profit making entity. The thing is, I also benefit a lot from reviews on Amazon, even for things I'd never buy. Amazon is my go-to site for reviews on books and music. (Not so for films, I use IMDB for that.) I enjoy writing and posting the reviews, and enjoy getting "likes" on them from others that find them useful.

stordoff 9y ago

> I’ve found that the only reviews worth reading Losing the useful reviews in the noise is a definite problem. Even if you filter those from fake accounts, you end up with some reviews like this one, which is of basically no use to anyone (yet 3 people marked it as helpful...): > Delivery status is still pending. This laptop has decent specs but a lack of SsD really makes me sad. I will update this review when i receive the product