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Thats exactly the answer though, more authoritative reviews. It's the same reason Rotten Tomatoes differentiates between a score and a top critics score. You

by basch 7y ago

Thats exactly the answer though, more authoritative reviews. It's the same reason Rotten Tomatoes differentiates between a score and a top critics score. You can have a consumer reports score, and an amazon verified buyer score. Professional reviewers and aggregate buyer reviews. Theres actually lots of wirecutter type sites for different things, however there are just as many sites that seem to praise EVERY product they list, and sometimes there can be hundreds of sites all saying the same thing. https://electricbikereview.com/ https://electricbikereview.com/ is one where I have trouble telling which ones he likes more than others, because he is so positive about every features. Mattress and credit card / financial review sites have spun up like the plague. This is also one of the few places where I think the government could step in, where it currently isnt, and the Attorney General should run their own version of https://www.slant.co https://www.slant.co , wirecutter, consumer reports, yelp, better business bureau, https://thesweetsetup.com/picks/ https://thesweetsetup.com/picks/ etc. Some combination of government reliability and safety ratings, mixed with verified purchase reviews. It's a perfect place for the government to help cut through the paradox of choice and misleading or loud advertising, and help consumers find good products from the rough. As far as restaurants go, even just a nice aggregation app would be nice that could pull together and normalize scores from yelp, facebook, google, trip adviser, foursquare, zomato, opentable, zagat. It would be really nice to be able to see which restaurants end up popular on which sites, how scores compare across sites, An additional benefit of aggregation would be, if the app can find "like reviewers" that you should follow, people who vote similarly to you.

99052882514569 7y ago
> It's the same reason Rotten Tomatoes differentiates between a score and a top critics score. You can have a consumer reports score, and an amazon verified buyer score. With sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, I almost always completely ignore the "top critics" reviews and go with user reviews. In almost 100% of cases where the scores for TV shows significantly diverge, I find the user score to be spot on. I think the user scores on these sites aren't horribly out of whack with reality because there's not much to be gained by gaming them. I'm sure only a small minority of consumers go on such sites to pick what to watch next.
- basch 7y ago
  Im not even bringing in the user reviews. Im not saying the top critics are better. All I am saying is that rotten tomatoes differentiates between casual movie bloggers, and long standing paid journalists whos day job it is to review movies. Lion king has 388 critics reviewing the movie, and only 46 are considered "top." It's nice to be able to contextualize scores. For me the presence of users reviews doesnt negate the benefit of critical reviews. I enjoy being able to see discrepancy between groups.
  - ilikehurdles 7y ago
    I think it matters a lot more to know the reviewer than to understand what portion of critics like/dislike a thing, and I find that aggregators are accurate only when signaling the same scores that the majority already expects before they check the aggregator. Every reviewer has a consistent voice and set of tastes, and it matters if a reviewer you generally agree with falls into the positive 40/300 on one movie or the negative 260/300 on another. Maybe your favorite media reviewer Bob Obert can't stand historical drama movies or mockumentary series, or the Meater blog you read is consistently biased toward giving BBQ joints high scores. When you see Obert give a The Office episode a 4/5 that is mediocre by Generic Yahoo Contributor standards, or Meater feature a seitan food truck in Portland while being critical of an artisan brisket restaurant, you're going to value those reviews much more over the majority of others.
    - basch 7y ago
      If we are talking more about product reviews, a certain percentage of my opinion will be based on build quality and glitches, which PARTIALLY can only be determined by a large portion of users. It is helpful to compare expert reviews (like rtings) with a crowd sourced aggregate to look for manufacturing, design, or supply chain issues that might not pop up in a single review.
gnicholas 7y ago
> This is also one of the few places where I think the government could step in If we could prevent regulatory capture and flat-out bribery, sure. Not sure that’s possible though.
zippergz 7y ago
I don't know about electricbikereview.com, but the reason all of those sites love everything they list is because all they care about is getting that sweet affiliate cash when you buy something. In my experience, the VAST majority of "specialized review sites" are really nothing more than spam trying to drive sales in affiliate programs. This is a different but related problem.
- basch 7y ago
  I used that as an example of a somewhat middle ground. Its obvious hes being somewhat nice so the bike companies keep inviting him to try products, but he does give pros and cons, and the reviews appear generally unbiased. Like other people, I think I use the negatives more than the positives to make consumer decisions, and his site is so positive its saccharineness gives it the scent of pay to play, even if its not (in fact he charges every company he reviews a fee to be reviewed, so its equally pay to play. He mentions it at the beginning of every video and review.)

by basch 7y ago

99052882514569 7y ago

> It's the same reason Rotten Tomatoes differentiates between a score and a top critics score. You can have a consumer reports score, and an amazon verified buyer score. With sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, I almost always completely ignore the "top critics" reviews and go with user reviews. In almost 100% of cases where the scores for TV shows significantly diverge, I find the user score to be spot on. I think the user scores on these sites aren't horribly out of whack with reality because there's not much to be gained by gaming them. I'm sure only a small minority of consumers go on such sites to pick what to watch next.

basch 7y ago
Im not even bringing in the user reviews. Im not saying the top critics are better. All I am saying is that rotten tomatoes differentiates between casual movie bloggers, and long standing paid journalists whos day job it is to review movies. Lion king has 388 critics reviewing the movie, and only 46 are considered "top." It's nice to be able to contextualize scores. For me the presence of users reviews doesnt negate the benefit of critical reviews. I enjoy being able to see discrepancy between groups.
- ilikehurdles 7y ago
  I think it matters a lot more to know the reviewer than to understand what portion of critics like/dislike a thing, and I find that aggregators are accurate only when signaling the same scores that the majority already expects before they check the aggregator. Every reviewer has a consistent voice and set of tastes, and it matters if a reviewer you generally agree with falls into the positive 40/300 on one movie or the negative 260/300 on another. Maybe your favorite media reviewer Bob Obert can't stand historical drama movies or mockumentary series, or the Meater blog you read is consistently biased toward giving BBQ joints high scores. When you see Obert give a The Office episode a 4/5 that is mediocre by Generic Yahoo Contributor standards, or Meater feature a seitan food truck in Portland while being critical of an artisan brisket restaurant, you're going to value those reviews much more over the majority of others.
  - basch 7y ago
    If we are talking more about product reviews, a certain percentage of my opinion will be based on build quality and glitches, which PARTIALLY can only be determined by a large portion of users. It is helpful to compare expert reviews (like rtings) with a crowd sourced aggregate to look for manufacturing, design, or supply chain issues that might not pop up in a single review.

gnicholas 7y ago

> This is also one of the few places where I think the government could step in If we could prevent regulatory capture and flat-out bribery, sure. Not sure that’s possible though.

zippergz 7y ago

I don't know about electricbikereview.com, but the reason all of those sites love everything they list is because all they care about is getting that sweet affiliate cash when you buy something. In my experience, the VAST majority of "specialized review sites" are really nothing more than spam trying to drive sales in affiliate programs. This is a different but related problem.

basch 7y ago
I used that as an example of a somewhat middle ground. Its obvious hes being somewhat nice so the bike companies keep inviting him to try products, but he does give pros and cons, and the reviews appear generally unbiased. Like other people, I think I use the negatives more than the positives to make consumer decisions, and his site is so positive its saccharineness gives it the scent of pay to play, even if its not (in fact he charges every company he reviews a fee to be reviewed, so its equally pay to play. He mentions it at the beginning of every video and review.)