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Wirecutter is a great resource, and we'll soon include their lists for our analysis. But most people visit 5 different websites and spend many hours doing resea

Wirecutter is a great resource, and we'll soon include their lists for our analysis. But most people visit 5 different websites and spend many hours doing research before they buy a product. Our goal is to build a service that gives you a holistic view about what the internet thinks of products.

dymk 5y ago
Again, garbage in, garbage out - how is rampant astroturfing and review fraud taken into account? Edit: the site highly ranks the ones I see pushed on YouTube, so I’m guessing this is just “how often is this vendor referenced” and not “how quality is the vendor”.
- hubraumhugo 5y ago
  Fake reviews are certainly a big challenge, even for companies like fakespot that try to detect them. What we plan to do: - Running statistical analysis to spot discrepancies and contradictions - Weight reviews based on the trustworthiness of their sources. E.g. Reddit, HN or Wirecutter are known to be very trustworthy sources.
  - dymk 5y ago
    How do you figure either HN or Reddit (anonymous, unverified accounts) are trustworthy when there’s money to be made by astroturfing? The incentives are stacked against you.
  - krageon 5y ago
    > Fake reviews are certainly a big challenge, even for companies like fakespot that try to detect them. Not that big: If you cut away all 5 and 1 star reviews you'll have stripped roughly 99% of astroturfing (for and against a company).
  - lifeisgood99 5y ago
    Disagree that specific forums are more trustworthy than others. To me, a trustworthy source is a known entity that tests themselves and keep a track record of accurate reviews. For specific forums, keeping track of users that post honest reviews would be a good way to start.
- Guest19023892 5y ago
  Agreed, aggregated reviews are not helpful when you can't trust the source. For example, I just looked at the NordVPN page and all three of the highlighted YouTube reviews are pushing the NordVPN affiliate link in their description. Can I really trust these YouTube reviews when the creators are getting paid for each referral? The way I see this going is that a bunch of people are writing VPN reviews because these companies pay high commissions. This site is going to aggregate these untrustworthy reviews, and also try to earn a commission in the future. As the end user, I don't see the value here, because I don't trust anyone in the process.
innerbits 5y ago
I dare say that Wirecutter used to be a great resource before NYT bought them... not so much these days, it's mostly a pay-to-play machine. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/our-response-to-nextdesk/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/our-response-to-nextdesk/ Don't even get me started with Wine Spectator and wines in general... https://freakonomics.com/podcast/season-11-episode-6/ https://freakonomics.com/podcast/season-11-episode-6/ Like other have pointed out trust is difficult to obtain these days for review sites but I hope you persist and have a successful product.

dymk 5y ago

Again, garbage in, garbage out - how is rampant astroturfing and review fraud taken into account? Edit: the site highly ranks the ones I see pushed on YouTube, so I’m guessing this is just “how often is this vendor referenced” and not “how quality is the vendor”.

hubraumhugo 5y ago
Fake reviews are certainly a big challenge, even for companies like fakespot that try to detect them. What we plan to do: - Running statistical analysis to spot discrepancies and contradictions - Weight reviews based on the trustworthiness of their sources. E.g. Reddit, HN or Wirecutter are known to be very trustworthy sources.
- dymk 5y ago
  How do you figure either HN or Reddit (anonymous, unverified accounts) are trustworthy when there’s money to be made by astroturfing? The incentives are stacked against you.
- krageon 5y ago
  > Fake reviews are certainly a big challenge, even for companies like fakespot that try to detect them. Not that big: If you cut away all 5 and 1 star reviews you'll have stripped roughly 99% of astroturfing (for and against a company).
- lifeisgood99 5y ago
  Disagree that specific forums are more trustworthy than others. To me, a trustworthy source is a known entity that tests themselves and keep a track record of accurate reviews. For specific forums, keeping track of users that post honest reviews would be a good way to start.
Guest19023892 5y ago
Agreed, aggregated reviews are not helpful when you can't trust the source. For example, I just looked at the NordVPN page and all three of the highlighted YouTube reviews are pushing the NordVPN affiliate link in their description. Can I really trust these YouTube reviews when the creators are getting paid for each referral? The way I see this going is that a bunch of people are writing VPN reviews because these companies pay high commissions. This site is going to aggregate these untrustworthy reviews, and also try to earn a commission in the future. As the end user, I don't see the value here, because I don't trust anyone in the process.

innerbits 5y ago

I dare say that Wirecutter used to be a great resource before NYT bought them... not so much these days, it's mostly a pay-to-play machine. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/our-response-to-nextdesk/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/our-response-to-nextdesk/ Don't even get me started with Wine Spectator and wines in general... https://freakonomics.com/podcast/season-11-episode-6/ https://freakonomics.com/podcast/season-11-episode-6/ Like other have pointed out trust is difficult to obtain these days for review sites but I hope you persist and have a successful product.