4 ms·

I love the App Store, but folks who "review" stuff that haven't bought it ("wow, the price is too high, so I'm going to give it 1 star!" or "this app should be

by bprater 18y ago

I love the App Store, but folks who "review" stuff that haven't bought it ("wow, the price is too high, so I'm going to give it 1 star!" or "this app should be free") drives me absolutely insane. In a straight-jacket, on the 13th floor of the nut house, in a padded-room, insane.

yan 18y ago
That and the inanity of those "I didn't download it, but will review it anyway" reviews is approaching that of YouTube comments
silencio 18y ago
This is weird, cause I have talked about this (ugh, over twitter) with some developers. I think reviews should be weighted, non-purchasers getting less weight than the purchasers. (Among other improvements, like sorting by date specifically, and by version reviewed, showing whether or not they purchased the app.) Some comments are approaching inanity, but there are going to be excellent reviewers who didn't purchase it and there are going to be other reviewers pointing out something interesting about the application that other purchasers might want to know before buying. For example, my boyfriend plays the game de Blob more often than I do, and can write a way better review than I can - personally I can't even be bothered to write a review or play the game for more than 30 minutes total...and it's on my iPhone paid for by me. In fact, he loves all the games on my phone more than I do, and so I basically never have a phone to use when he's over and not actively busy doing something else. That's already one example...I could also be beta testing an app and writing about how some version I tested was awesome. There's also the case where there might be an app that is significantly better than that that other people might compare to. You might say that doesn't happen often, but the app store organization+search+review sorting and all need a lot of work since applications are different from music. Until Apple makes it easier for shoppers in that regard, reviews regardless of the origin can come in handy. All that, and that if reviews are only from purchasers, the reviews are going to be extremely skewed. Honestly, have you seen some reviews by so-called purchasers, it's all different depending on what they expect and their familiarity with the application and more. I'll be unhappy at a purchaser-only review limitation, even more than at what's going on right now.

by bprater 18y ago

yan 18y ago

That and the inanity of those "I didn't download it, but will review it anyway" reviews is approaching that of YouTube comments

silencio 18y ago

This is weird, cause I have talked about this (ugh, over twitter) with some developers. I think reviews should be weighted, non-purchasers getting less weight than the purchasers. (Among other improvements, like sorting by date specifically, and by version reviewed, showing whether or not they purchased the app.) Some comments are approaching inanity, but there are going to be excellent reviewers who didn't purchase it and there are going to be other reviewers pointing out something interesting about the application that other purchasers might want to know before buying. For example, my boyfriend plays the game de Blob more often than I do, and can write a way better review than I can - personally I can't even be bothered to write a review or play the game for more than 30 minutes total...and it's on my iPhone paid for by me. In fact, he loves all the games on my phone more than I do, and so I basically never have a phone to use when he's over and not actively busy doing something else. That's already one example...I could also be beta testing an app and writing about how some version I tested was awesome. There's also the case where there might be an app that is significantly better than that that other people might compare to. You might say that doesn't happen often, but the app store organization+search+review sorting and all need a lot of work since applications are different from music. Until Apple makes it easier for shoppers in that regard, reviews regardless of the origin can come in handy. All that, and that if reviews are only from purchasers, the reviews are going to be extremely skewed. Honestly, have you seen some reviews by so-called purchasers, it's all different depending on what they expect and their familiarity with the application and more. I'll be unhappy at a purchaser-only review limitation, even more than at what's going on right now.