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No, but I imagine sponsored reviews aren't supposed to look like sponsored reviews. The three it flagged as suspicious for the ethernet cable above were all ve

by Zak 9y ago

No, but I imagine sponsored reviews aren't supposed to look like sponsored reviews. The three it flagged as suspicious for the ethernet cable above were all very short, like "Great product!" or "A++++". I'm not sure what to think of that. I write reviews (of flashlights) as a hobby and wouldn't call something that doesn't describe how the product was tested or include any technical or performance analysis a review. On the other hand, the average buyer doesn't usually have the knowledge to write a useful technical review and just wants to report that the product met their expectations.

mehrdadn 9y ago
> No, but I imagine sponsored reviews aren't supposed to look like sponsored reviews. I mean, yes, but that wasn't the point. If the sponsored reviews seem to blend in with the normal reviews and and seem to be at least as accurate as normal reviews then how in the world are they "fake"? Where is the tangible distinction for me as a customer? (Why in the world would I avoid such products?) > I write reviews (of flashlights) as a hobby Funny you mention that! Flashlights seem like just about the worst-marketed products I've seen on Amazon, so they indeed definitely need great reviews. At the risk of going off-topic, do you have any tips on figuring out what the lumen output of a flashlight actually is (or even what LEDs they use)? I keep seeing Cree LEDs being claimed to output 2-3x as many lumens as they're even capable of.
- Rapzid 9y ago
  You are probably correct to be skeptical. Anyone engaging this company for real business would likely question how they determined fake/not-fake for the training data, what the performance of the model is, etc.
- Zak 9y ago
  Flashlights on Amazon are mostly horrible. Thrunite and their offshoot Wowtac are the only brands I'd buy there, because they sell direct. It's usually better to order from specialty dealers. It's often cheaper too, as they tend to do outreach on forums, /r/flashlight, etc... and offer standing coupon codes. Visual identification is usually the best way to tell what LED a light really uses. Here's a chart with photos of a bunch of common ones: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/26665 http://budgetlightforum.com/node/26665 While the lights you find on Amazon making extreme claims about output are almost certainly lying, LED manufacturer datasheets tend to be conservative about how much power LEDs can handle. Typical mains-powered fixtures don't have the sort of heatsinking and thermal paths good flashlights do, and LED manufacturers base their limits on a service life of tens of thousands of hours. You will not use your flashlight for 50,000 hours. Overdriven LEDs aren't rare, especially in enthusiast-oriented lights. Measuring lumens is hard because you need a way to collect all the light, or at least average it, then put that average on a sensor. Commercial integrating spheres for this purpose cost thousands of dollars. It's possible to estimate using a shoebox and a smartphone though, assuming you have a light source of known output with which to calibrate it. I wrote an app for that: https://github.com/zakwilson/ceilingbounce/ https://github.com/zakwilson/ceilingbounce/
  - mehrdadn 9y ago
    That's awesome info, thank you! :)
    - Zak 9y ago
      I should also mention that a lot of reviews of flashlights found on Amazon praising things I would rate as absolute junk are probably entirely honest. If your last flashlight used alkaline batteries and an ancient LED, or even an incandescent, anything using an LED from this decade and a Li-ion battery is going to look pretty impressive. That Li-ion cell might well be taken from a laptop battery sent in for recycling, and the charger it comes with might burn your house down, but it's still impressive to the average person. On the other hand, I've seen a one-star review for not including a battery. It never said, or even suggested that a battery might possibly be included. My conclusion is that Amazon reviews for most kinds of products aren't useful for much more than determining if a product has an unreasonably high failure rate.
      - mehrdadn 9y ago
        Yeah, I definitely did find these impressive for the same reasons you mention... hopefully my house won't burn down with the charger I got (it hasn't yet)!
        Zak 9y ago
        Just make sure it's not this one: http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Bowei%20HC-103W%20UK.html http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Bowei%20HC-10... And ideally, see if you can find your charger tested here: http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers%20UK.html http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers%20UK... If it is the first one, break it so nobody else finds it and tries to use it, throw it away and replace it. The Xtar MC1 is the cheapest safe charger commonly sold in the US; they're about $5.
        mehrdadn 9y ago

by Zak 9y ago

mehrdadn 9y ago

> No, but I imagine sponsored reviews aren't supposed to look like sponsored reviews. I mean, yes, but that wasn't the point. If the sponsored reviews seem to blend in with the normal reviews and and seem to be at least as accurate as normal reviews then how in the world are they "fake"? Where is the tangible distinction for me as a customer? (Why in the world would I avoid such products?) > I write reviews (of flashlights) as a hobby Funny you mention that! Flashlights seem like just about the worst-marketed products I've seen on Amazon, so they indeed definitely need great reviews. At the risk of going off-topic, do you have any tips on figuring out what the lumen output of a flashlight actually is (or even what LEDs they use)? I keep seeing Cree LEDs being claimed to output 2-3x as many lumens as they're even capable of.

Rapzid 9y ago
You are probably correct to be skeptical. Anyone engaging this company for real business would likely question how they determined fake/not-fake for the training data, what the performance of the model is, etc.
Zak 9y ago
Flashlights on Amazon are mostly horrible. Thrunite and their offshoot Wowtac are the only brands I'd buy there, because they sell direct. It's usually better to order from specialty dealers. It's often cheaper too, as they tend to do outreach on forums, /r/flashlight, etc... and offer standing coupon codes. Visual identification is usually the best way to tell what LED a light really uses. Here's a chart with photos of a bunch of common ones: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/26665 http://budgetlightforum.com/node/26665 While the lights you find on Amazon making extreme claims about output are almost certainly lying, LED manufacturer datasheets tend to be conservative about how much power LEDs can handle. Typical mains-powered fixtures don't have the sort of heatsinking and thermal paths good flashlights do, and LED manufacturers base their limits on a service life of tens of thousands of hours. You will not use your flashlight for 50,000 hours. Overdriven LEDs aren't rare, especially in enthusiast-oriented lights. Measuring lumens is hard because you need a way to collect all the light, or at least average it, then put that average on a sensor. Commercial integrating spheres for this purpose cost thousands of dollars. It's possible to estimate using a shoebox and a smartphone though, assuming you have a light source of known output with which to calibrate it. I wrote an app for that: https://github.com/zakwilson/ceilingbounce/ https://github.com/zakwilson/ceilingbounce/
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  That's awesome info, thank you! :)
  - Zak 9y ago
    I should also mention that a lot of reviews of flashlights found on Amazon praising things I would rate as absolute junk are probably entirely honest. If your last flashlight used alkaline batteries and an ancient LED, or even an incandescent, anything using an LED from this decade and a Li-ion battery is going to look pretty impressive. That Li-ion cell might well be taken from a laptop battery sent in for recycling, and the charger it comes with might burn your house down, but it's still impressive to the average person. On the other hand, I've seen a one-star review for not including a battery. It never said, or even suggested that a battery might possibly be included. My conclusion is that Amazon reviews for most kinds of products aren't useful for much more than determining if a product has an unreasonably high failure rate.
    - mehrdadn 9y ago
      Yeah, I definitely did find these impressive for the same reasons you mention... hopefully my house won't burn down with the charger I got (it hasn't yet)!
      - Zak 9y ago
        Just make sure it's not this one: http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Bowei%20HC-103W%20UK.html http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20Bowei%20HC-10... And ideally, see if you can find your charger tested here: http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers%20UK.html http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers%20UK... If it is the first one, break it so nobody else finds it and tries to use it, throw it away and replace it. The Xtar MC1 is the cheapest safe charger commonly sold in the US; they're about $5.
        mehrdadn 9y ago