4 ms·

Cool project. How do you intend to keep ratings aligned with durability rather than “I bought this a few weeks ago and really like it so I’ll give it 5 stars!”?

stinos 6y ago
Had roughly the same question - was actually a bit disappointed when seeing some products. There should be a reallybuyforyourwholelife.com :) I mean cast iron skillets are spot on, but I don't see most fridges, shoes or socks last a lifetime (though obviously there's going to be huge differences between brands and types in durability). Then realized it's hard to come up with a mechanism forcing users to really post only this particular 'last a lifetime' category. Except goodwill. Though on the other hand if the site gets used enough, the reviews sort it out automatically.
hubraumhugo 6y ago
The weight of the rating will be weighted based on the "years owned" of a review and the trustworthiness score of the reviewer.
- Shared404 6y ago
  > and the trustworthiness score of the reviewer. Out of curiosity, how resistant is that score to being gamed? I love the idea for your platform, and would probably be willing to pay some amount for access, if there's a good way to verify that it's not being manipulated.
- Frost1x 6y ago
  How do you manage trustworthiness? This is an issue I've been thinking about for quite some time and haven't found a satisfactory solution to. I like this idea and a lot of similar information sharing sites but I find in today's environment, anything successful will be targeted by misinformation and gamed which makes it difficult to determine if the information was provided in an uninfluenfed manner from the product creator/retailer/etc. who have obvious conflicted goals. The best efforts seem to be information sites that are successful enough to gather enough data to represent something accurately from a user base but not so successful it becomes a target for corporate advertising and marketing groups. Reddit communities still provides some of this but have become a target for advertising as well and also are more difficult to extract useful information from. Amazon has "verified purchase" which is still gamed using other techniques. I've found the best model is still Consumer Reports for fair product assessments but they only speculate on durability since it would be incredibly difficult for their product assessment model (new products rolling out frequently, modified/re-released/etc and limited staff/personal time to keep up with).
  - hackerfromthefu 6y ago
    A strong community of invested users is achieving these goals of trustworthiness on a bargains aggregator site I use. Any bs is quickly shot down by the users, typically within minutes. It is a hard crowd for someone not posting a true bargain! Sockpuppets are detected nearly instantly as some blessed members check the post history of accounts and flag and suspicious or new accounts that are posting things that don't pass the sniff test.
    - shellfishgene 6y ago
      Which site is that?
    - hackerfromthefu 6y ago
      The site is ozbargain.com.au The site also tends to provide insight as to quality, longevity, issues etc of products .. I had a quick browse of OPs site and I applaud the idea but I will personally be sticking to ozbargain as it fulfils the same need for product info, plus many more such as bargains, discoverability, and a great laugh from time to time like https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/569582 https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/569582
  - mr_luc 6y ago
    Consumer Reports can be really useful. I've found them to be great for getting up to speed on quality of products like snow blowers, some kinds of cars, etc. Their model seems like the only way to provide a service that good, outside of embedding with a community of enthusiasts enough to make yourself an expert consumer. I wish there was some way to provide their service for free, but I don't think we should discount the possibility that there literally isn't a way to crowd-source here -- that the only options that work well are (a) their current model, consumers buy subscription to consumer reports, (b) some huge-enough-to-benefit-from-ecosystem-level-effects patron foots the bill for ConsumerReports or something like it. Long shot, but maybe someday a marketplace like Amazon could be a patron. They struggle with lots of sub-par products being sold, so maybe being the patron of such a service could be rationalized as a PR move as well as a practical benefit to buyers/a way of providing stronger-quality signal. I know that if I could see a pop-up link to Consumer Reports' info on a product when buying -- or, better yet, choose to restrict my buying only to things that are confirmed to be awesome by CR when I'm buying a BIFL type product, so I don't waste my time -- I'd buy BIFL stuff on Amazon more frequently.
- criddell 6y ago
  That's great, but manufacturers cut costs all the time and that super-durable dingus you bought in 1997 (or even 2017) might be entirely different than the same model being sold today. Also, how do you separate people who have a bad experience because they unknowingly bought a counterfeit? It's a tough problem to solve.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Yeah, it would only really be valuable / trustworthy if the reviewer was verified to have bought and owned the product for x years; I'm not sure if there's an automated way to do that, unless one interfaces with the various sellers of products (e.g. Amazon, but you won't get much BIFL stuff from Amazon compared to the manufacturer's shops / physical shops).
- nicoburns 6y ago
  Maybe just a trust system, with the ability to update reviews in future would be a good start.
vendiddy 6y ago
I'm in the same boat. I started living a more minimal lifestyle about 2 years ago. All my stuff fits into a 35L bag. So I prefer to pay a premium for high quality durable products. If they can solve the trust problem, I'd be a customer. I hope for a larger counter movement to the consumerism today. Reward companies for making durable products and punish those who don't. Great idea!

stinos 6y ago

Had roughly the same question - was actually a bit disappointed when seeing some products. There should be a reallybuyforyourwholelife.com :) I mean cast iron skillets are spot on, but I don't see most fridges, shoes or socks last a lifetime (though obviously there's going to be huge differences between brands and types in durability). Then realized it's hard to come up with a mechanism forcing users to really post only this particular 'last a lifetime' category. Except goodwill. Though on the other hand if the site gets used enough, the reviews sort it out automatically.

hubraumhugo 6y ago

The weight of the rating will be weighted based on the "years owned" of a review and the trustworthiness score of the reviewer.

Shared404 6y ago
> and the trustworthiness score of the reviewer. Out of curiosity, how resistant is that score to being gamed? I love the idea for your platform, and would probably be willing to pay some amount for access, if there's a good way to verify that it's not being manipulated.
Frost1x 6y ago
How do you manage trustworthiness? This is an issue I've been thinking about for quite some time and haven't found a satisfactory solution to. I like this idea and a lot of similar information sharing sites but I find in today's environment, anything successful will be targeted by misinformation and gamed which makes it difficult to determine if the information was provided in an uninfluenfed manner from the product creator/retailer/etc. who have obvious conflicted goals. The best efforts seem to be information sites that are successful enough to gather enough data to represent something accurately from a user base but not so successful it becomes a target for corporate advertising and marketing groups. Reddit communities still provides some of this but have become a target for advertising as well and also are more difficult to extract useful information from. Amazon has "verified purchase" which is still gamed using other techniques. I've found the best model is still Consumer Reports for fair product assessments but they only speculate on durability since it would be incredibly difficult for their product assessment model (new products rolling out frequently, modified/re-released/etc and limited staff/personal time to keep up with).
- hackerfromthefu 6y ago
  A strong community of invested users is achieving these goals of trustworthiness on a bargains aggregator site I use. Any bs is quickly shot down by the users, typically within minutes. It is a hard crowd for someone not posting a true bargain! Sockpuppets are detected nearly instantly as some blessed members check the post history of accounts and flag and suspicious or new accounts that are posting things that don't pass the sniff test.
  - shellfishgene 6y ago
    Which site is that?
  - hackerfromthefu 6y ago
    The site is ozbargain.com.au The site also tends to provide insight as to quality, longevity, issues etc of products .. I had a quick browse of OPs site and I applaud the idea but I will personally be sticking to ozbargain as it fulfils the same need for product info, plus many more such as bargains, discoverability, and a great laugh from time to time like https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/569582 https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/569582
- mr_luc 6y ago
  Consumer Reports can be really useful. I've found them to be great for getting up to speed on quality of products like snow blowers, some kinds of cars, etc. Their model seems like the only way to provide a service that good, outside of embedding with a community of enthusiasts enough to make yourself an expert consumer. I wish there was some way to provide their service for free, but I don't think we should discount the possibility that there literally isn't a way to crowd-source here -- that the only options that work well are (a) their current model, consumers buy subscription to consumer reports, (b) some huge-enough-to-benefit-from-ecosystem-level-effects patron foots the bill for ConsumerReports or something like it. Long shot, but maybe someday a marketplace like Amazon could be a patron. They struggle with lots of sub-par products being sold, so maybe being the patron of such a service could be rationalized as a PR move as well as a practical benefit to buyers/a way of providing stronger-quality signal. I know that if I could see a pop-up link to Consumer Reports' info on a product when buying -- or, better yet, choose to restrict my buying only to things that are confirmed to be awesome by CR when I'm buying a BIFL type product, so I don't waste my time -- I'd buy BIFL stuff on Amazon more frequently.
criddell 6y ago
That's great, but manufacturers cut costs all the time and that super-durable dingus you bought in 1997 (or even 2017) might be entirely different than the same model being sold today. Also, how do you separate people who have a bad experience because they unknowingly bought a counterfeit? It's a tough problem to solve.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

Yeah, it would only really be valuable / trustworthy if the reviewer was verified to have bought and owned the product for x years; I'm not sure if there's an automated way to do that, unless one interfaces with the various sellers of products (e.g. Amazon, but you won't get much BIFL stuff from Amazon compared to the manufacturer's shops / physical shops).

nicoburns 6y ago
Maybe just a trust system, with the ability to update reviews in future would be a good start.

vendiddy 6y ago

I'm in the same boat. I started living a more minimal lifestyle about 2 years ago. All my stuff fits into a 35L bag. So I prefer to pay a premium for high quality durable products. If they can solve the trust problem, I'd be a customer. I hope for a larger counter movement to the consumerism today. Reward companies for making durable products and punish those who don't. Great idea!