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I've seen people complain on reddit about Fakespot not being good anymore. ReviewMeta is an alternative and supposedly "better": https://reviewmeta.com/ https:

I've seen people complain on reddit about Fakespot not being good anymore. ReviewMeta is an alternative and supposedly "better": https://reviewmeta.com/ https://reviewmeta.com/ I have little experience with either, I'd probably try both at the same time.

patwolf 4y ago
I'm interested in trying ReviewMeta. In the past I used Fakespot quite a bit, but I started seeing cases where it wouldn't flag products with obviously fake reviews, and it would flag perfectly good products. For example, try it with any five-star LEGO set and it will give it a D rating and "real" rating of 1.5 stars. Without reliable results I had no reason to trust Fakespot any more than Amazon itself. At a quick glance ReviewMeta seems to give a much more accurate rating to the same LEGO set.
tinyhouse 4y ago
I don't use any third party plugin. My approach for spotting fake reviews is simple. Anything that has positive reviews that span over a short period of time is suspect. I only buy things that have good reviews that span over a few years. I think most new products on Amazon are sellers relisting products so that they can start from scratch with a bunch of 5 star reviews. Amazon could easily automate this and show the info to users but I guess they don't have an incentive. Big mistake if you ask me. I guess that l's the problem with big tech. You cannot push an idea that shows to reduce revenue in the short term. Long term impact is something that is much harder to measure.
lenocinor 4y ago
Just please keep in mind that the person responsible (may have?) left last year: https://reviewmeta.com/blog/successor-to-reviewmeta/ https://reviewmeta.com/blog/successor-to-reviewmeta/
QuantumGood 4y ago
This has worked well for me: 1. Sort reviews by recent; average MUCH lower than overall? Avoid. 2. Use Lustre.ai to suggest alternatives (site or browser plugin). 3. Read 1- and 2-star reviews; many re: misleading features/broken functions? Avoid. 4. Check most helpful negative review. 5. Search reviews and questions for what you've learned in steps 3 and 4. 6. Ignore short to medium reviews explaining nothing and using glowing superlatives.
- flanbiscuit 4y ago
  I've never heard of Lustre.ai, I'm going to try it out, thanks for the tip. Besides #2, I pretty much do the rest of these steps already and it has been helpful.
- QuantumGood 4y ago
  I thought about it, and realized what I do is a bit more involved: 1. Find lower-cost options that have a lot of reviews. 2. Sort reviews by recent; average MUCH lower than overall? Avoid. Ignore short to medium reviews explaining nothing and using glowing superlatives. 3. Use Lustre.ai to suggest alternatives (site or browser plugin), and use the steps below to know what issues MOST of these kind of products have. 4. Check much more expensive versions of the product for desirable features / problems solved, e.g. Bluetooth earbuds with a physical or app-based "re-pairing" function. 5. Read 1- and 2-star reviews; many re: misleading features/broken functions? Avoid, but note what kinds of problems are common. 6. Check most helpful negative review when available 7. Search reviews and questions for the issues you uncovered in steps 3 and 4. Sometimes MOST products have similar issues regardless of price—there may not be ANY product worth buying, e.g. home blood pressure monitors.

patwolf 4y ago

I'm interested in trying ReviewMeta. In the past I used Fakespot quite a bit, but I started seeing cases where it wouldn't flag products with obviously fake reviews, and it would flag perfectly good products. For example, try it with any five-star LEGO set and it will give it a D rating and "real" rating of 1.5 stars. Without reliable results I had no reason to trust Fakespot any more than Amazon itself. At a quick glance ReviewMeta seems to give a much more accurate rating to the same LEGO set.

tinyhouse 4y ago

I don't use any third party plugin. My approach for spotting fake reviews is simple. Anything that has positive reviews that span over a short period of time is suspect. I only buy things that have good reviews that span over a few years. I think most new products on Amazon are sellers relisting products so that they can start from scratch with a bunch of 5 star reviews. Amazon could easily automate this and show the info to users but I guess they don't have an incentive. Big mistake if you ask me. I guess that l's the problem with big tech. You cannot push an idea that shows to reduce revenue in the short term. Long term impact is something that is much harder to measure.

lenocinor 4y ago

Just please keep in mind that the person responsible (may have?) left last year: https://reviewmeta.com/blog/successor-to-reviewmeta/ https://reviewmeta.com/blog/successor-to-reviewmeta/

QuantumGood 4y ago

This has worked well for me: 1. Sort reviews by recent; average MUCH lower than overall? Avoid. 2. Use Lustre.ai to suggest alternatives (site or browser plugin). 3. Read 1- and 2-star reviews; many re: misleading features/broken functions? Avoid. 4. Check most helpful negative review. 5. Search reviews and questions for what you've learned in steps 3 and 4. 6. Ignore short to medium reviews explaining nothing and using glowing superlatives.

flanbiscuit 4y ago
I've never heard of Lustre.ai, I'm going to try it out, thanks for the tip. Besides #2, I pretty much do the rest of these steps already and it has been helpful.
QuantumGood 4y ago
I thought about it, and realized what I do is a bit more involved: 1. Find lower-cost options that have a lot of reviews. 2. Sort reviews by recent; average MUCH lower than overall? Avoid. Ignore short to medium reviews explaining nothing and using glowing superlatives. 3. Use Lustre.ai to suggest alternatives (site or browser plugin), and use the steps below to know what issues MOST of these kind of products have. 4. Check much more expensive versions of the product for desirable features / problems solved, e.g. Bluetooth earbuds with a physical or app-based "re-pairing" function. 5. Read 1- and 2-star reviews; many re: misleading features/broken functions? Avoid, but note what kinds of problems are common. 6. Check most helpful negative review when available 7. Search reviews and questions for the issues you uncovered in steps 3 and 4. Sometimes MOST products have similar issues regardless of price—there may not be ANY product worth buying, e.g. home blood pressure monitors.