5 ms·

Something that has been lost is genuine reviews. First you have all the sponsored reviews and then all the equally worthless "I don't know how to use it so it'

Something that has been lost is genuine reviews. First you have all the sponsored reviews and then all the equally worthless "I don't know how to use it so it's junk" or "it never arrived" 1 star reviews. And so many "review" sites look like they've been procedurally generated then SEO optimized and filled with ads.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
umvi 7y ago
Currently I only trust reddit for "genuine" reviews. Seems like Amazon reviews these days are gamed to the max. Once companies figure this out and reddit has a high degree of astroturf it will be impossible to find out what normal, unbiased (as in don't have an agenda) humans think about a product.
- kaibee 7y ago
  I suspect that once that fails, the next step is going to be having to join the Discord server or whatever chat-group exists for that niche. Then asking for a recommendation from some weirdo whose super obsessed with gloves or whatever. The future is weird.
  - arkitaip 7y ago
    Super niche forums have existed for this need for many years and cover everything from multi-tools and flashlights to makeup and perfume. It's just that they require more effort to use and many are disappearing due to social media.
    - ip26 7y ago
      I used to drive down those ratholes but found the superniche items of choice tended to be dated, hard to find, expensive & suffered from hyper-optimization. Worst of all due to being dated, I found mainstream products were actually comparable to superior in nearly all measures.
  - ropiwqefjnpoa 7y ago
    Gloves Reviews Discord Server, I actually lol'd
    - fmajid 7y ago
      Proper glovemaking actually requires a surprising amount of skill. Even crappy gloves do.
  - simonsarris 7y ago
    one of my private slacks started a collab spreadsheet of products we have found and now swear by.
- jkhwleroiu 7y ago
  But reddit is flawed in a different way - it's extremely biased towards the trendy and the fashionable. For example if you search reddit for what computer mouse to buy, you'll be told that unless it weighs less than 70g and has holes, it's utter shit and not worth your money.
  - arkitaip 7y ago
    That's when you hit up r/builtForLifeMice... That's one of the strengths of Reddit: you can get ever increasingly niche with your community.
    - pests 7y ago
      I was expecting a real sub ha! It wouldn't surprise me
  - strbean 7y ago
    Bleh. I see those honeycombed mice and I automatically mentally fill all the holes with finger-crud and dust. No ty.
- P_I_Staker 7y ago
  I suspect reviews have been gamed for some time. Now it seems like all reviews are always gamed. I even have a conspiracy theory that Amazon is gaming Costco products. A number of their household products have had sub-3 star reviews; seems suspicious. I still feel somewhat confident in products with over 1k reviews. The same goes for reading a few reviews and "trusting" the helpful ones to some extent.
- shostack 7y ago
  Reddit works in many (not all) cases for reviews because if there's something falsey enough, you can often count on the hive mind to provide many points as to why that is fake, links to reliable sources on better info, or alternative experiences and documentation (photos/vids) to back it up. Unlike retailer sites or Amazon, where the platform has a vested interest in just getting you to hit Buy, Reddit has no such issues, and there's no real policing of dissenting reviews. It is self-policing in some ways. But again, some review categories are better for this than others, and the hive mind can be susceptible to hype and astroturf.
graaben 7y ago
I used to work for on of those "review" websites and it completely ruined my trust in most online product review sites. It's all just affiliate links, optimized for which offer pays out the highest conversion fee, with little to zero regard for the actual product. I would pay a decent amount of money for a tool that just filtered out any sites in Google search that promote products using affiliate links.
- askafriend 7y ago
  What about something like The Wirecutter? Would you trust them?
  - graaben 7y ago
    Any time money is involved I have to believe there will always be a motive, however small, to alter results for financial benefit. It's common for other "trusted" media companies to be impacted by their advertisers - why would the NYT be immune?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

umvi 7y ago

Currently I only trust reddit for "genuine" reviews. Seems like Amazon reviews these days are gamed to the max. Once companies figure this out and reddit has a high degree of astroturf it will be impossible to find out what normal, unbiased (as in don't have an agenda) humans think about a product.

kaibee 7y ago
I suspect that once that fails, the next step is going to be having to join the Discord server or whatever chat-group exists for that niche. Then asking for a recommendation from some weirdo whose super obsessed with gloves or whatever. The future is weird.
- arkitaip 7y ago
  Super niche forums have existed for this need for many years and cover everything from multi-tools and flashlights to makeup and perfume. It's just that they require more effort to use and many are disappearing due to social media.
  - ip26 7y ago
    I used to drive down those ratholes but found the superniche items of choice tended to be dated, hard to find, expensive & suffered from hyper-optimization. Worst of all due to being dated, I found mainstream products were actually comparable to superior in nearly all measures.
- ropiwqefjnpoa 7y ago
  Gloves Reviews Discord Server, I actually lol'd
  - fmajid 7y ago
    Proper glovemaking actually requires a surprising amount of skill. Even crappy gloves do.
- simonsarris 7y ago
  one of my private slacks started a collab spreadsheet of products we have found and now swear by.
jkhwleroiu 7y ago
But reddit is flawed in a different way - it's extremely biased towards the trendy and the fashionable. For example if you search reddit for what computer mouse to buy, you'll be told that unless it weighs less than 70g and has holes, it's utter shit and not worth your money.
- arkitaip 7y ago
  That's when you hit up r/builtForLifeMice... That's one of the strengths of Reddit: you can get ever increasingly niche with your community.
  - pests 7y ago
    I was expecting a real sub ha! It wouldn't surprise me
- strbean 7y ago
  Bleh. I see those honeycombed mice and I automatically mentally fill all the holes with finger-crud and dust. No ty.
P_I_Staker 7y ago
I suspect reviews have been gamed for some time. Now it seems like all reviews are always gamed. I even have a conspiracy theory that Amazon is gaming Costco products. A number of their household products have had sub-3 star reviews; seems suspicious. I still feel somewhat confident in products with over 1k reviews. The same goes for reading a few reviews and "trusting" the helpful ones to some extent.
shostack 7y ago
Reddit works in many (not all) cases for reviews because if there's something falsey enough, you can often count on the hive mind to provide many points as to why that is fake, links to reliable sources on better info, or alternative experiences and documentation (photos/vids) to back it up. Unlike retailer sites or Amazon, where the platform has a vested interest in just getting you to hit Buy, Reddit has no such issues, and there's no real policing of dissenting reviews. It is self-policing in some ways. But again, some review categories are better for this than others, and the hive mind can be susceptible to hype and astroturf.

graaben 7y ago

I used to work for on of those "review" websites and it completely ruined my trust in most online product review sites. It's all just affiliate links, optimized for which offer pays out the highest conversion fee, with little to zero regard for the actual product. I would pay a decent amount of money for a tool that just filtered out any sites in Google search that promote products using affiliate links.

askafriend 7y ago
What about something like The Wirecutter? Would you trust them?
- graaben 7y ago
  Any time money is involved I have to believe there will always be a motive, however small, to alter results for financial benefit. It's common for other "trusted" media companies to be impacted by their advertisers - why would the NYT be immune?