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Regarding bad reviews, I feel for you. I am close to someone who is a good person, but seems unable to stop himself from leaving scathing reviews. If it's any c

by b6 9y ago

Regarding bad reviews, I feel for you. I am close to someone who is a good person, but seems unable to stop himself from leaving scathing reviews. If it's any consolation, I really believe that 1) trauma he experienced at a young age contributes to this behavior and 2) if he knew the person who produced the product and understood the difficulties they faced during its production, he would not do it.

chrisseaton 9y ago
I don't understand - do you think it's wrong to leave a critical review? Why should be stop himself leaving them if the product was bad? And whatever difficulties caused a product to be bad are irrelevant in a review of the product. People just want to know if it's bad or not.
- sn41 9y ago
  The tone matters, I think. Think of how teachers leave a critical review of an assignment, versus the rants you see online. Both are often unpalatable, but the scale of the first kind often seems justified. Often one feels that one aspect of the product underperformed, while the others were on target, but the reviewers fly off the handle.
  - mnw21cam 9y ago
    Is the review for the benefit of the manufacturer in order to improve the product, or for the benefit of prospective purchasers, to inform them of the quality of the thing they are considering? Whether a review should be constructive depends on which of these it is.
nailer 9y ago
This is a really odd statement. I occasionally leave scathing reviews if I've had a genuinely bad experience. Most recently it was with a smart speaker (the UE Blast) that was obviously rushed to a Christmas 2017 release with major software issues that, according to their forums, are hitting many customers with no or poor response from the vendor. As a software engineer I can imagine the circumstances around the rushing of the product before the software was finished, and can empathise, but ultimately (pun unintended) nothing will change (and more people will waste their time buying and returning the device) unless the company realises their products are getting worse.
- drsim 9y ago
  (This does not sound like your experience but) I'm very surprised when a bad reviewer has a resolvable problem, makes no attempt to contact support and simply writes a bad review. Or, sends a support email and 30 seconds later writes a bad review. Bad reviews sometimes indicate not a willingness to resolve a problem but wanting to shout and be heard. I hear this often with restaurant reviews too. Something is wrong with the food but they quietly seethe rather than grabbing their waiter, waiting until the taxis home to write a scathing review. How odd.
drsim 9y ago
> if he knew the person who produced the product and understood the difficulties they faced during its production, he would not do it So true for many. One thing I always try to do is go out of my way to make that personal connection. Anonymous hit-and-run reviews are, in my opinion, cowardly. If you're going to scrutinise something publically you should be open to talk to the creator of what you're scrutinizing. Speaking to these kind of users can be invaluable or it can be an awkward hour of disagreeing. Either way, putting a human face on it and letting them know where I'm coming from and the impact of their review has yielded good results.

by b6 9y ago

chrisseaton 9y ago

I don't understand - do you think it's wrong to leave a critical review? Why should be stop himself leaving them if the product was bad? And whatever difficulties caused a product to be bad are irrelevant in a review of the product. People just want to know if it's bad or not.

sn41 9y ago
The tone matters, I think. Think of how teachers leave a critical review of an assignment, versus the rants you see online. Both are often unpalatable, but the scale of the first kind often seems justified. Often one feels that one aspect of the product underperformed, while the others were on target, but the reviewers fly off the handle.
- mnw21cam 9y ago
  Is the review for the benefit of the manufacturer in order to improve the product, or for the benefit of prospective purchasers, to inform them of the quality of the thing they are considering? Whether a review should be constructive depends on which of these it is.

nailer 9y ago

This is a really odd statement. I occasionally leave scathing reviews if I've had a genuinely bad experience. Most recently it was with a smart speaker (the UE Blast) that was obviously rushed to a Christmas 2017 release with major software issues that, according to their forums, are hitting many customers with no or poor response from the vendor. As a software engineer I can imagine the circumstances around the rushing of the product before the software was finished, and can empathise, but ultimately (pun unintended) nothing will change (and more people will waste their time buying and returning the device) unless the company realises their products are getting worse.

drsim 9y ago
(This does not sound like your experience but) I'm very surprised when a bad reviewer has a resolvable problem, makes no attempt to contact support and simply writes a bad review. Or, sends a support email and 30 seconds later writes a bad review. Bad reviews sometimes indicate not a willingness to resolve a problem but wanting to shout and be heard. I hear this often with restaurant reviews too. Something is wrong with the food but they quietly seethe rather than grabbing their waiter, waiting until the taxis home to write a scathing review. How odd.

drsim 9y ago

> if he knew the person who produced the product and understood the difficulties they faced during its production, he would not do it So true for many. One thing I always try to do is go out of my way to make that personal connection. Anonymous hit-and-run reviews are, in my opinion, cowardly. If you're going to scrutinise something publically you should be open to talk to the creator of what you're scrutinizing. Speaking to these kind of users can be invaluable or it can be an awkward hour of disagreeing. Either way, putting a human face on it and letting them know where I'm coming from and the impact of their review has yielded good results.