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I tend to ignore the 1 star reviews because, in my experience, most are either from disgruntled people who wouldn't even try to open the manual first, or absolu

I tend to ignore the 1 star reviews because, in my experience, most are either from disgruntled people who wouldn't even try to open the manual first, or absolute binary thinkers. When it comes to more subjective categories, like books, 1 star reviews are even worse.

foobarian 3y ago
However they are likely not fake, or less likely than 5-stars.
- TylerE 3y ago
  Review bombing is absolutely "a thing".
AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
> I tend to ignore the 1 star reviews because, in my experience, most are either from disgruntled people who wouldn't even try to open the manual first, or absolute binary thinkers. Eh, not always. I was once searching Amazon for a cheap popcorn maker. The cheapest one on page 1 of the Amazon search results had mostly five-star reviews, except for a lone one-star review that said the popcorn make emitted a "tongue of flame" when plugged in. That was sufficient for me to buy the second cheapest popcorn maker instead.
- madcaptenor 3y ago
  There's an xkcd for this: https://xkcd.com/937/ https://xkcd.com/937/
  - AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
    Oh, so there is. I was expecting the one about the bobcat. https://xkcd.com/325/ https://xkcd.com/325/
- gunapologist99 3y ago
  OT, but for those still in the market, I absolutely love this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Z9LHAG https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Z9LHAG Along with the right proportions of Snappy popcorn oil (butter burst tastes slightly more movie-ish but coconut is obv better for you and almost as movie-theater-like) and Flavocol, my popcorn is now way better than the theater popcorn, and I didn't even think that was really possible after years of terrible microwave popcorn. oils: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003C4UDEY https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003C4UDEY and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AXK9ROC https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AXK9ROC (we've switched entirely to coconut oil) salt: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W8LT10 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W8LT10 you can probably get these last two things at commercial supply companies as well (buy local where you can)
  - AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
    These days I just make my popcorn in a covered wok on the stove, honestly. There's probably some argument about the extra fat I'm adding to fry the kernels vs an air popper, but, it works. I get about the same amount of unpopped kernels, and it's one less "unitasker" I have to find room for.
madcaptenor 3y ago
I read the one-star reviews and ask "do these people sound like they're complaining about the product itself, or something else?" (For example, if you're buying books that somebody could conceivably be assigned in school, you'll see one-star reviews that are really reviews of a class they didn't like pretending to be a review of a book.)
- dmoy 3y ago
  True, or my personal favorite useless 1 star reviews: "The box was damaged [by UPS/FedEx] when it was delivered" "I didn't know I would have to assemble [this piece of furniture with four screws]" "This [completely different] product sucks" (though to be fair, this one is probably on the merchant for swapping out products under the hood to preserve ratings) My favorite of all time though is the "this product does exactly what it should do, but I didn't want it to do that, even though that was what it was advertised to do, and that's the only purpose for this entire product category - one star". E.g. there was one for a l-cystine based dough conditioner, where someone left a one star review claiming that, get this, it made the dough extensible, and they didn't want that because they were making a pie or something. Incidentally, I understand why they don't sell raw l-cystine dough reducer to random consumers, because people would literally kill themselves with it.
  - pseudalopex 3y ago
    Many complaints about shipping damage suggests a packaging problem. And Amazon will close your account if you return too many damaged items.

foobarian 3y ago

However they are likely not fake, or less likely than 5-stars.

TylerE 3y ago
Review bombing is absolutely "a thing".

AdmiralAsshat 3y ago

> I tend to ignore the 1 star reviews because, in my experience, most are either from disgruntled people who wouldn't even try to open the manual first, or absolute binary thinkers. Eh, not always. I was once searching Amazon for a cheap popcorn maker. The cheapest one on page 1 of the Amazon search results had mostly five-star reviews, except for a lone one-star review that said the popcorn make emitted a "tongue of flame" when plugged in. That was sufficient for me to buy the second cheapest popcorn maker instead.

madcaptenor 3y ago
There's an xkcd for this: https://xkcd.com/937/ https://xkcd.com/937/
- AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
  Oh, so there is. I was expecting the one about the bobcat. https://xkcd.com/325/ https://xkcd.com/325/
gunapologist99 3y ago
OT, but for those still in the market, I absolutely love this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Z9LHAG https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Z9LHAG Along with the right proportions of Snappy popcorn oil (butter burst tastes slightly more movie-ish but coconut is obv better for you and almost as movie-theater-like) and Flavocol, my popcorn is now way better than the theater popcorn, and I didn't even think that was really possible after years of terrible microwave popcorn. oils: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003C4UDEY https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003C4UDEY and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AXK9ROC https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AXK9ROC (we've switched entirely to coconut oil) salt: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W8LT10 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W8LT10 you can probably get these last two things at commercial supply companies as well (buy local where you can)
- AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
  These days I just make my popcorn in a covered wok on the stove, honestly. There's probably some argument about the extra fat I'm adding to fry the kernels vs an air popper, but, it works. I get about the same amount of unpopped kernels, and it's one less "unitasker" I have to find room for.

madcaptenor 3y ago

I read the one-star reviews and ask "do these people sound like they're complaining about the product itself, or something else?" (For example, if you're buying books that somebody could conceivably be assigned in school, you'll see one-star reviews that are really reviews of a class they didn't like pretending to be a review of a book.)

dmoy 3y ago
True, or my personal favorite useless 1 star reviews: "The box was damaged [by UPS/FedEx] when it was delivered" "I didn't know I would have to assemble [this piece of furniture with four screws]" "This [completely different] product sucks" (though to be fair, this one is probably on the merchant for swapping out products under the hood to preserve ratings) My favorite of all time though is the "this product does exactly what it should do, but I didn't want it to do that, even though that was what it was advertised to do, and that's the only purpose for this entire product category - one star". E.g. there was one for a l-cystine based dough conditioner, where someone left a one star review claiming that, get this, it made the dough extensible, and they didn't want that because they were making a pie or something. Incidentally, I understand why they don't sell raw l-cystine dough reducer to random consumers, because people would literally kill themselves with it.
- pseudalopex 3y ago
  Many complaints about shipping damage suggests a packaging problem. And Amazon will close your account if you return too many damaged items.