Slashdot Mirror
Should You Trust Website Customer Reviews?
crevette asks: "I was looking on Amazon for some gizmo when I got a review from G. Cooke, TX, who is in the top 10 reviewers. Out of curiosity, I checked her reviews... She has 658 reviews, many on the same day, which include everything from knife sets to a plastic duck! She reviews many books on the same day... She must be spending hundreds of dollars on useless stuff every month. Worst of all, most of her reviews are 5 stars. Do you think those people are paid by Amazon or some company? Do you trust them? If not (like I tend to think) what can we do about it?"
go to Google's new beta product search to find cheap reviewers!
fp
icblf
It's a public website; anyone can post a review. Trust it as much as you do Slashdot. :)
I read a bunch of Cooke's reviews. She has nothing bad to say, nothing critical, and all her reviews read like an ad. Yeah, I'd say something's wrong here.
and so should you.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Most of the reviews that I see are either very positive or very negative. There are very few reviews that label a product as simply okay or adequate.
This is probably due to the fact that only people that have had extremely positive or extremely negative experiences with a particular product will actually take the time to post. Well, other than a few people with too much time on their hands that want to be listed as top reviewers.
.sig wanted. Inquire within.
The point I'm making is that the reviewers aren't always participating in a community, but also acting out a personal agenda as well, which other customers may take in as fact.
How about ignoring the reviews if you don't trust them? This isn't difficult.
I'm going to go post an Amazon review calling into question the validity of "Ask Slashdot" responses.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Besides Amazon, be wary of other sites that host reviews, you never know when there might be essentially bribes moving behind the scenes. I don't even trust epinions: even though they do not sell things themselves, the stores they link to could be giving them financial incentives to raise the scores of products they sell.
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
Might explain why she reads so much....
Name: G. Cooke
Nickname: pagebypage
E-mail: grospoin@aol.com
Reviewer Rank: 8
About me: So many good books, so many wonderful things....so few hours. For me, reading and trying is sheer pleasure, a boon companion, and sometimes work as reviewing is my profession. I hold membership in the National Book Critics Circle, and write for newspapers across the U.S. Thanks to all who have expressed an interest in my reviews, and thanks to Amazon for providing a forum in which we can exchange ideas.
Figuring out her Email address, then Googling it reveals Ms. Cooke probably does nothing but writes reviews allllllllll day long.
Man, what a horrible way to waste time. Well, back to reloading Slashdot....
sig--we don't need no goddamn sig
This person's writing style is descriptive and consise. Far too good for a "normal" user.
This says to me: Someone is being paid to write good reviews for any product out there. A mini-Marketing agent if you will.
It's somewhat reminiscent of the Microsoft PR agent who "switched from Mac to Windows", or it's like the "grassroots pro-Microsoft" campaign that Bill sponsored in the opening days of the Anti-Trust court proceedings.
Trying to appear unsolicited and innocent, but in reality, it's just someone's job.
Money is the root of *most* work.
If you can't trust Amazon.com user opinions, what makes you think you can trust answers on Ask Slashdot? Many of us rattle off about every issue out of ignorance and get modded up despite that ignorance. Can you trust us?
The reviews, that I recall, spoke of how the comics confronted the uber secret freemason's and so forth. I believe there were quite a few Kafka and Nietsche references as well. Hilarious.
Now I have a new google project for the day. Somebody somewhere must have saved 'em!
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
I've personally found amazon's reviewing system, as well as the automated "If you like this, you'll like this" system.
I really found the trouble Amazon got in for "faking" the system mentioned above linking your laster book purchase to a pair of pants to advertise thier new clothing line. ex. readers who like Stephen King, also enjoy these fleece lined Jeans. there was a huge uproar of false advertising claims over this joke.
Cnet is definatly a mixed bag. When download gets a 1 star review because some newb user with a hosed system can't install the app properly what use is his review? I love CNet but the reviewing isn't always helpful
I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence. Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1845
90% of the reviews I see fall into one of these categories:
1. 5 star reviews from crazy fan-types who absolutely love some movie/musician/cartoon, etc.
2. Anti-fans who post 1 star reviews about stuff they can't stand being popular.
3. Fans who've turned into anti-fans, claiming that item X "isn't as good as their previous efforts" and that the creator "has sold out."
I've come to rely on Amazon.com not only for good deals, but also for basic product information. They carry such a wide range of items and have detailed information about everything.
I also admit I take the product reviews very seriously when I am going to buy something, especially if it's not cheap. I do this even if I don't plan on buying it from Amazon.
I doubt I am the only person like this. It would seem only logical that companies would do anything they can to get favorable reviews about their products on Amazon.
I guess you just have to read as many of the reviews as possible and make a judgement call. I do tend to look for negative reviews as they're definitely not paid for! However, those also must be taken with a grain of salt.
I rate Amazon's reviews at five stars! Nothing could be better!
-G. Cooke, TX
Review * 1/2
I rate Slashdot at a star and a half. Definitely take anything you hear there with a grain of salt.
-G. Cooke, TX
Before any good/useful course of action can be taken, there are several steps to take:
1) Determine if there is some 'shady' reviewing going on (although this looks like a pretty solid set of circumstancial evidence).
2) Find out who's responsible for it.
If it is amazon, itself, that is doing this sort of thing, then the only actions that can be taken are public outcry, and possibly an e-mail campaign. After all, they may be using it to drum up business, and as we have all learned from spammers: if it works, they'll keep on doing it.
On the other hand, if it is some third party submitting reviews, it might be possible to get Amazon to remove all reviews by said person...
Just a thought
hmmmm?
The question makes me wonder if most /. comments are *really* posted by Taco, et al.
"Hey, 'Neal check out this MS bashing comment I wrote under the name Balbazare prince of darkness. hahaha" - Taco
"I'll mod that as +5 funny!" -CowboyNeal
Holy s-, it's Jesus!
Ignore them...
:)
:)
There are many other sites out there that have reviewers that are paid to be unbiased. Most aren't of course, but we can feel comfortable in that illusory world as we check up on products on the sites the specialize in them
Seeing as Bezos probably isn't monitoring this thread looking for suggestions, the question of what can be done about it is pretty moot. If you want to eliminate the frauds, get a job at Amazon, claw your way up through the ranks and change policy.
Good luck!
I remember seeing some news story about this guy who's competing with another lady for the most number of Amazon reviews. He basically sits around and reviews tons of stuff that he has himself, and he does buy a good amount as well. I don't think there was any implication of anyone sponsoring him since all his reviews were fairly random. I think it's basically a case of one of those people who collect things obsessively, in this case it's reviews. In any case I usually do trust reviews from product specific websites (like a digital camera site), not something as varied as Amazon.
Listen I take it all with a grain of salt. Some of the tech book reviews on Amazon are pretty freakin' brutal. I can't believe those guys are getting paid to rip the author's a new a**hole online.
I usually look to a number of sources when buying actual physical stuff like computer hardware or even kitchen equipment (a geek that like to cook -- stop laughing). Look up reviews on a search engine and compare them with the comments online.
Take it in as a total picture look at what you need and make your decision.
ACK
I would not attribute a persons name to a living person with so little evidence. Now off to my date with Betty Crocker...
Just for giggles, I looked to see who's number 1...
w ers-list/-/1/AFVQZQ8PW0L/103-6415275-2411025#AFVQZ Q8PW0L
Here's the link... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/top-revie
I've stopped trusting all online reviews, along time ago...
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
.
I was once looking through some of my old favorite Sci-Fi books on Amazon, and noticed a few "top 100" reviewer reviews. I noticed that they all had one thing in common. Two paragraphs. The first paragraph was so generic and "ooh ahh neato" that it could have been about anything. The last paragraph looked like it was paraphrased right from the back/inside cover.
So I went to one of the top 10 reviewers. She claimed to be a librarian who speed reads one book a day, and rewviewed each one. ALL her SciFi book reviews looked just like one another, and all of them had 5 stars out of 5, even some of the worst SciFi I've ever read in my life.
They don't just need meta-moderation. They need personalized meta-moderation. I want to select the group of people whose reviews I trust, and the people whose reviews of reviewers I trust. Maybe the "tragedy of the commons" is ok for Slashdot, but I'd sure hate to have that affecting the reviews that I see for actual products. I want other people like me to review the products that I buy.
This problem ranks right up there along with eBay auctions and the fact that they "close" at a given point in time. In the real world, an auction continues as long as people are making bids. eBay should extend an auction by 5 minutes or an hour or a day each time someone bids on an item. That'd get rid of "last minute bid services". (I'd suggest a 5 minute extension - because then there's a natural time for everyone interested in an item to "gather" together and do the final bidding.)
.
Just as bad, they allow ballot stuffing. Just pick any random L Ron Hubbard book and read the gushing reviews by cult members. You can't write more accurate, derogatory reviews for LRH books because they've flagged the book as controversial or something and toss out new reviews.
It must be possible to produce a rating system that accurately reflects a books true worth. Perhaps they should model theirs on the IMDB system - your vote only counts so long as you're active. As it stands Amazon ratings are seriously flawed and in a lot of cases aren't worth shit.
Forget the star/number/etc. rating and read the reviews. People that have actually used a product will have real comments about the good, bad, and ugly of it. Ignor reviewers that say "Wonder product! I am completely satisfied." or "Waist of money!". They don't tell you anything. Stuff like "The battery door broke after a few days, but the company Fed-Ex'ed me a new one.", or "Works great with Bob's widget.12.tgz drivers!.", give you actual information about what happened when they used the product. Judge for yourself how many stars they're worth.
I will rarely take the word of any one reviewer, top 10 or not. They often have simple factual mistakes about products. But if you read a dozen or so comments you can usually put together a decent impression and collect useful data. Review spam campaigns like the Rush Limbaugh-led attack on Michael Moore's book are rare.
I would certainly rather have the reviews than not. I've bought many cool things from Amazon that I never would have considered or even found (music mostly) if not for the reviews and comments.
Mig
www.mtbr.com for instance. (Mountain bikes and parts user reviews)
Very few reviews are "If *I* bought it, it must be good"
and conversely
"I don't want anyone to think I'm a weenie for spending money on crap"
Add in the flush of newuseritis, and you get overly high ratings across the board.
Useful info CAN be gleaned from these things though. Look for a consistent small problem in the reviews for a particlar product. If everyone says they don't like one particular aspect of the product, you might not either. Even if they gave it a 5 star rating.
Perhaps they are review whores - trying to get their name out there to get a job, get published, or just the little ego boost provided by being famous in a small way.
Check out Henry Raddick's stuff -- I think the guy's got a dry British sense of humor and he can be really funny:
Henry Raddick's reviewsQuick sample:
Could it be that she's a professional reviewer. In this case instead of having her own site like Anandtech or Dansdata or Tom's Hardware she does all her posting at Amazon. Are the ethical issues any different here than they are on the afore mentioned "legitimate" websites? I know that Dansdata just had a post about what the payoff or if there was a payoff for putting up good reviews. Most of his tend to be positive and as he replied any junk that he gets he just doesn't report on it because he'd rather report and test the good stuff.
I'm sure somewhere in there a reviewer wants to keep from publishing negative stuff also so that new products get sent on a regular basis.
I'm assuming that somewhere on Amazon there is a feedback mechanism designed to say that "this persons review helped my purchasing" or "this reviewers review was accurate". A feedback mechanism like that can probably be manipulated but it would take some effort.
"Do not be swept up in the momentum of mediocrity." - anon
So who really cares about the star system on Amazon? When I shop for books there, I usually actually read the reviews. If it's something like "THIS BOOK WAS GREAT!!!!!!! 10 STARS!!!!!!" I ignore it and move on to the next review. I take in a few positive and a few negative reviews and judge if it would be a book I want. I doubt G. Cooke can give very insightful reviews on books she hasn't read.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
I don't mean for this to sound like a flame, but exactly what do you expect? People are biased. It might be a matter of taste, or a matter of honesty, or a matter of psychology (canonical example of the latter: Mac fans).
Read a lot of opinions, and ignore the ones that can't give supporting evidence for why their opinion is the way it is. Weigh the evidence, and decide what is important to you.
The other option is try to find publications that provide relatively unbiased comparisons of similar products. Consumer Reports is a particularly good one, although I don't always agree with how they rank things. But they generally tell you how they came to their conclusions.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
A google search turns up several reviews with the Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record-Chronicle. I guess she submits to amazon what her papers won't publish.
bun-fhuinneog agam!
From the beginning Epinions.com thought, "That would be great/cheap content to just have people post their opinions about products, but why would you trust random people?" So they baked in a rather complex "web of trust" into their website from Day 1.
If you see someone whose reviews reflect your own opinions, you can add them to your list of trusted people. Then when you see a list of reviews, your trusted people's reviews are at the top. Furthermore, your trusted people also have people they trust and you are likely to turst those people too, just maybe not quite as much. So your trusted people's trusted people's reviews bubble up near to the top, and so on.
Also, if you see some reviewer who you think is way off base, you can block them and never see their reviews again. It's a clever scheme, and if you use the site enough, you can tailor it to serve you decent reviews quickly. And it's all based on your opinion of other people's opinions, unlike Amazon which just bubbles up reviews from people who write a lot of reviews. I think quantity of reviews is hardly a good metric to use.
G. Cooke, TX! Why, just the name is inviting. I've found these reviews to be a mini treasure! After diving in once, you won't be able to resist going back for more. These reviews will make a treasured gift, and keep you on your toes.
eBay should extend an auction by 5 minutes or an hour or a day each time someone bids on an item. That'd get rid of "last minute bid services". (I'd suggest a 5 minute extension - because then there's a natural time for everyone interested in an item to "gather" together and do the final bidding.)
Shit, I should patent that.
.
This is nothing new, I tend to take peer reviews in a forum setting with a grain of salt.. it is too easy for a company to post positive information about their products or negative reviews of the competition.
I still like google to find more professional reviews of computer hardware and consumer electronics like PDAs. I was looking up information on the palm m130 vs. the m515 today, for example, and found google invaluable. After reading about four reviews on different sites, I feel that I have a good understanding of both products. The highest ranked reviews were actually very professional and well written too, something that is harder and harder to find now..
Perhaps a comparison between her reviews, or between hers and Known Good Reviews, is in order.
OTOH, maybe she's unemployed and has nothing better to do than do Amazon reviews for her entire private library.
This is not my sandwich.
After reading through several reviews, you should probably be able to make a fair judgment on weather the reviews are valid or not. If some product gets 658 reviews all in one day, yeah, I'd probably think something's fishy, and not trust its reviews... go to another review site. Are people being payed to write reviews? Who knows, but it's definitely possible. You have to take every thing you read with a grain of salt. The way I do it is read through a collection of reviews and just get a sense of weather they look legitimate or not, then read them through again to get an idea if the product is really what I'm looking for.
I enjoy reading the reviews of music gear at: www.harmonycentral.com
--
Does anyone remember
When you give someone a token, meaningless reward like a karma point, people tend to internalize the behavior. Remember Pepsi points or Marlboro miles? People started just wanting the points. Same with Amazon. People who give good reviews are given a rank according to who gets the most "Did you find this review helpful?" clicks.
Additionally with Slashdot and Amazon, the points/rank are determined by peer review. You get points from other, regular people, because they approve of what you wrote. People *love* peer approval, even if they like to pretend they don't.
There you go, my psychological review. Engineers really out to read up on their marketing! :)
I'll take the comments of anonymous idiots (like me) from around the world into consideration before buying a product. Considering that many people hinge a purchasing decision on just one or two comments from close friends, wouldn't it be wiser to take your friend's comments into consideration and then weigh them against the marketing hype and the legions of anonymous people out there? How many people have tried Linux because of Slashdot? How many people have bought a game because of words said in the Penny Arcade! forum?
Wow, even number :P
Anyway, I don't think this is any diffrent then someone who's adicted posting stuff on slashdot or any onther posting board.
IIRC you don't need actualy buy something off amazon to review it, do you? (I know you don't if you just want to rate it). So it's possible she's reviewing stuff she has from other places.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
There was an article on CNet last Friday about automatic recommendation systems. What happens when systems automatically recommend things?
In a incident that highlights the pitfalls of online recommendation systems, Amazon.com on Friday removed a link to a sex manual that appeared next to a listing for a spiritual guide by well-known Christian televangelist Pat Robertson.
The two titles were temporarily linked as a result of technology that tracks and displays lists of merchandise perused and purchased by Amazon visitors. Such promotions appear below the main description for products under the title, "Customers who shopped for this item also shopped for these items."
Basically, the gist of it is that people shopping for the televangellist's spiritual guide, and Amazon's recommendation system suggested that people who bought this also bought another book called The Men's Guide to Anal Sex.
I'm speculating, but I would guess that such a system could be hacked by ordering both books, and then shortly later cancelling your order. The order cancellation probably does not remove the association of these two items in the recommendation database tables.
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
One of the technical book publishers I was talking to recently was telling how they discovered whenever they would release a new title to Amazon (programming or software development usually), that they would immediately get a rash of very bad reviews -- all of which came about the same time from the same IP address which happened to belong to a rival publisher. He told me that now it's almost accepted industry practive to have your employees post bad reviews of your competitors products online.
Myself, I look for the reviews that are by people who clearly have actually read the book/used the product. There is sort of an art to picking them out.
And yes, most of my reviews are positive. Much of this is experience, negative reviews tend to get negative votes very quickly. Also the stuff I love is the stuff I want to write about. Occasionally I'll post a negative review of something I think deserves a health warning, but usually it'll be due to some technical rather than artistic consideration - "historical" CDs that aren't labelled as such, that kind of thing.
My advice is don't make a decision on the basis of one review. Note the ones that describe what the reviewer loved and see whether or not that would be something that you would love too. I usually put enough in my reviews to ensure that even if I write a rave review, someone who wouldn't like it will learn enough from what I've written to realise they wouldn't like it.
As for the reviewer that's the topic of this discussion, I have no idea. Why not read the reviews, see if they're actually useful, and if they are, then make the decision on that basis?
This isn't the kind of thing you have to get off your backside about. You can just talk about it on Slashdot. There's no need to write to your senator or congressman.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Ask Slashdot: Should you trust website customer reveiws?
Lots of good stuff here, just browse through them:
Henry Raddick's Reviews
Here's an example, for the book "Surviving Divorce: A Handbook for Men" by Gay Search:
A well-written and challenging book which I bought for my Uncle Sandy as he attempts to cope with the aftershock of divorce. Unfortunately he thought the author's name was a coping strategy being suggested and he refused to read it.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
Check out Why the Left Hates America. On the Customer's Recommendation section there is currently a book on Handballing and last week it was Mein Kampf. But after reading the real reviews from people who didn't like the book and then the real reviews from people who did you can get a good understanding of what to expect from the actual book.
I know I have seen one review from the #1 reveiwer -- Harriet Klausner -- and it was awful. It's for the book The Scar by China Mieville, and it's terrible. I think she read the back cover, the first few pages, and a few other reviews to make her own review. She ends the review with this sentence: "Award winning China Mieville (see Perdido Street Station) is bound to more than just receive nominations; she is going to win many trophies for this strong story."
...
As most of you know, China Mieville is NOT A SHE. Anyone who actually had the book couldn't miss this fact, since there is a big picture of him on the back flap.
They do have some moderation, though. When I first saw the review it was one of the featured reviews on the main book page, but now that 12 people have said it was "unhelpful" it has fallen to the third page.
Anyway, that should tell you something about how good the top reviewers are
-- Hobbits suck!
One thing I do, though (and this works especially well with movie reviews), is to look at the negative reviews. If the writer sounds like an intelligent and reasonable person with whom I'd disagree, or sounds like an idiot, I'll consider viewing that movie. A review like this one will almost guarantee that I'll check a movie out:
That looks like parody, but it happens on Netflix all the time.OK,
- B
http://www.bradheintz.com/
- updated
Obvious answer - Nope, don't trust Amazon reviews. I'm quite sure if there are too many negative reviews of an item, they remove them. How many items have you found with an average of less than three stars?
When the "listmania" stuff first came I made a couple of lists one evening when I was bored, one of them was "10 worst films ever", featuring Armageddon, Waterworld, Independence Day and so on. It was quickly removed.
Still, the filters and the reviewers sometime let through stuff, and people can still take the piss out of some products if they
are creative...
"What really makes David Hasselhoff stand apart from his contemporaries is his magnificent voice. Some critics have compared his resounding tenor to that of Mario Lanza or Johnny Hartman, but I would compare it more to a wounded jackal getting whipped by a screaming pornfilm fluffer.
So enjoy this comprehensive collection of Hasselhoff's greatest. You won't regret a moment of it!"
Check it out, there are 449 reviews in that style...
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
I ordered a book from an Amazon "zShop".. these zShops.. aka 3rd party sellers... are rated by customers and given comments. Well, I ordered a used book and apparently somewhere in the text description was "This book is not the one listed!" and it mentioned a different title. I just saw the picture which was the book I wanted, saw the condition as "Like new".. and ordered it. To cut to the chase, after I got the wrong book, I demanded they refund shipping as well as the price of the book. They refused. I gave them a horrible review on Amazon. Amazon only shows the 10 most recent reviews on the individual "zShop page" unless you "click for more reviews"... Mind you, for this particular zShop.. lastpagebooks specifically, the last review on them was quite some time ago. The next day, I see my review is suddenly #30 or so, with a bunch of one line "This store is great! A++++++++!" comments, 5 stars for each. And my comment is suddenly lost in obscurity. Apparently Amazon has no problem with this, or at the very least, no solution.
There was a segment on public radio (I don't remember which show, alas) a month or so ago about a guy who's trying to get the most reviews on amazon.com, and a woman who currently has the most reviews. I don't recall any implication that they're doing anything other than just trying to get the dubious honor of having the most reviews.
shows that Gail Cooke is likely the same Gail Cooke that writes book reviews for Dallas-Fort Worth, TX papers. Possibly not, but my guess is she's one in the same.
Consumer opinion sites are worthless, in my opinion.
Rely on community-oriented forums where you know the people you're talking to. It's not foolproof though because, in my opinion, some corporations have staff who do nothing but post in forums as if they're consumers like you and me. In the end I fall back on independent review organizations like Consumers Union and sole operators of web sites that have an established, widespread following (for example, dpreview.com for digital cameras).
Not to criticize or defend this review system, I think I have come up with what could be a reasonable explanation for many of the reviews being on the same day - a batch queue. Amazon does not allow you to post reviews in realtime. You post a review, and they review the review, and then post it. The way I imagine it would work is that someone reads through hundreds and hundreds of reviews in a month and then clicks on a button to force them live from a queue. One reason I know they do in fact review the reviews is that sometimes you will see somewhere where someone posts a price or a URL in the review, but Amazon brackets it out like [removed] or something like that.
--Jon
If you're trying to make a purchase decision the best thing to do is to go for volume a lot of times. Open up google, do some searches, get lots of information from lots of different places. Often you will want to throw out the most extreme positives and negatives as well.
But the best thing to do is to gather as much info as possible from as wide a range of sources as possible!
Read this review when she slags off a brand of laser paper (no kidding) and happened to have a technician on hand when 2 pages go through at once.
So she works in an office, but she uses Amazon bought copier paper (which she herself buys - so she knows that type it is).
How many offices do you know that are big enough to have laser repair technicians in, but small enough that the person buys their own copier paper.
Also how many companies do you know buy their office supplies from Amazon?
"1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
THE PAPER CHASE November 13, 2002
This was my first purchase of this brand of copy paper and, sorry to say, it was disappointing.
With the first use two sheets of paper came out of my printer - one blank, and the other with the proper printing. Of course, I initially thought something had gone wrong with my printer. When a technician happened by I asked him to check it, and he assured me it was functioning properly.
Out of curiosity one day I loaded the printer with another brand of copy paper and presto! - No more double sheets.
I really don't know what the problem was - perhaps the copy paper is too thin and the printer "grabs" two or perhaps there is some sort of treatment on the paper that caused it to stick together. "
A point I forgot to mention is this: I like the "Web of Trust" because it closely mirrors what we do in everyday life. You probably have a friend whose taste in movies is pretty close to yours. When he says a new movie is good, you trust him, and you go see it. Then you probably have another friend who has terrible taste in movies and when he sees a movie and tells you that it's great and you should go see it, you just filter him out completely.
She gives five stars to _another_ men's electric razor on November 26.
She gives five stars to an iron on October 1.
She gives five stars to _another_ iron on November 23.
She gives five stars to a cordless vaccuum on August 11.
She gives five stars to _another_ cordless vaccuum on September 7.
She gives five stars to a regular vaccuum on August 6.
She gives five stars to _another_ regular vaccuum on October 13.
Come to your own conclusions. My feeling is that she is either:
A: a professional product reviewer, in which case Amazon should include a disclaimer that she is being paid for her reviews,
B: a compulsive liar / attention-seeker,
C: a collection of reviewers all publishing under one pseudonym, in which case Amazon should include a disclaimer that she is not a real person.
D: the marketing department for Amazon / Target, in which case Amazon should include a disclaimer that she is being paid and is not a real person.
The 5 Reasons Why We Overeat: How to Develop a Long-Term Weight-Control Plan That's Right for You by Cynthia G. Last
Last's superb guide enables the reader to identify which "eating profile" they fall into, and thereby select the weight-loss strategy appropriate to them. With my wife, who really let herself go quite some time ago, "Remorseless Grazer" covers most of the angles - and to know this is to be prepared. I found it easy to read and well thought out, and we certainly need it after Marjorie ballooned massively over our two week Second Honeymoon.
When Ever asking people for an opinion about someting most people seem to have a very static 2 sided view on things thus 5 Stars and 1 Stars.
Lets use Slashdot as an example.
What ever Microsoft Does 1 star.
What ever Linux Does 5 Stars.
(They both did the same thing)
Marketing 1 Star.
Getting a Job 5 Stars.
Apple 2.5 Stars.
Half of the people are 5 Stars
The other Half of the people are 1 star.
And even look at moderation How many moderations do you see as 5 and -1 (1 and 2 happen without moderation) but there is usually only a little bit or 3s and 4s.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I was just doing some christmas shopping yesterday on Amazon, and it was also the first time I've ever actually bought something on Amazon. (I know, where have I been??).
:)
I was reading a bunch of the customer reviews, and noticed how a lot of the "featured" ones also had the "Top 500 Reviewer", "Top 10 Reviewer" (etc) graphics next to their review. So then I went to all of these people's review pages and noticed how all of these "Top" reviewers reviews were totally skewed towards the positive. 9/10 are 5 stars, with an occasional 4 star. And Gail Cooke was one of the ones that stood out.
Before I commited to anything, I went to epinions first to read some "real" reviews. Most of the reviews on amazon are just garbage.
Pointless post, I know, just weird that I was going through the exact same thing last night.
Joseph?
She has 658 reviews in total. In some cases, she's done more then one per day, just like you have 217 comments posted on /., sometimes posting several per day.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I write reviews occasionally on products I get off of Amazon.com or other sites. usually though only when I really hate a product.
There is some form of meta-moderation, You can click the 'is this review helpful' link and say whether you liked it or not. The 'power reviewers' I tend to ignore and mark 'didn't help' because all they do is continue to try to get you to buy the product, at least on Amazon.com
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
The problem is the Top100 reviewers program. It's yet another idiotic and worthless online badge of honor that because you can get it some people will try.
If they eliminated the program and there was no way to be a Top100 reviewer, these people would go find something else to do.
Just imagine if Slashdot had a "Top100 posters" category...
If anyone read the book "21 Dog Years, Doing Time @ Amazon.com"
Mike Daisey discusses how he was a customer service call center lacky but also reviewed childrens toys for the site. He did this from home on his own time, The funny thing was he would fall far behind his reviews and have closets full of unreviewed Fisher Price and Playskool toys laying about the house.
Good thing a fat guy with no children who's never been a parent was reviewing childrens toys.
It's kinda like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer gets the job writing as restaraunt reviewer for the Springfield Shopper...problem is, he likes food so much, he gives everything a 5 star review...so, everyone buys the product (or Homer's case, goes to the restaraunt) and gets fat...eventually he starts to only give bad reviews, and the restaraunt owners gang up and attempt to kill Homer with a lethal eclair...you listening Gail???
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
can be found here. As you can see, Harriet Klausner has reviewed over 4,000 items, which seem to be mostly books. I challenge you to find a book that she didn't like! Four stars is the lowest score that she has ever given as far as I can tell. She must be on vacation or something because she has only posted two reviews this month. Also, notice that her reviews are all three paragraphs long and the second paragraph tends to start with the word "However". Maybe she is just a book reviewing bot. She certainly doesn't write interesting reviews.
Lasers Controlled Games!
You speak though you know so little.
I trust reviews found at epinions more than those found at Amazon. Epinions allows users to moderate comments and they have built a community. I've posted a few reviews and made a few bucks myself. I've also rated a lot of reviews (there is no limit to the number of reviews a member can rate, unlike slashdot) and I've seen the good reviews rise to the top. Bad reviews and plagarists (more than 1 illiterate has tried to pass a review from another site as their own) fall off the radar.
Until you know what you're talking about (which is why you're AC I guess) go post some Soviet Russia jokes.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-rev iews/-/AA9IP6AYACFK5/102-2168050-5628139
Henry Raddicks reviews need to be read in full to get some of the jokes he mentions. He has a whole cast of characters (homophobic uncle, poor dog he's always trying some crazy theory on) that he references in many of his reviews..
Examples...
Handbook of Meat Product Technology
An admirably thorough guide to the tools of the production-line meat processing trade. The superb colour photographs particularly made it a perfect gift for my 15 year old daughter who is showing alarming signs of not becoming vegetarian.
God, Why Did Dad Lose His Job?
A truly wonderful guide which has enabled me to explain my recent sacking for vandalising company property to my children in terms of a minor act of redemption. First rate.
I found it quite interesting that she reviewed men's electric shavers. She reviewed the Remington R-9100 for her husband on 10-14-02, then she reviewed the Norelco 8894xl on 11-26-02, both had 5 stars. Maybe the second was for her boyfriend?
She also reviewed A T-Fal 18301 iron (again, 5stars), and also a Bosch tpa1503uc, with, no surprise, 5 stars...
Hmmmmm....
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
2) There's some prestige attached to getting people who say that your review helped their purchase, because your ranking goes up. Yeah it's only a ranking among other reviewers, but I do know people who review constantly so that they can say their amazon ranking is higher than yours.
The same could be said about /. as some have to post for a while to get moderator status, but those that make it must at least demonstrate writing something worthy of posting among peers before being given rights to moderate.
The correct quote is: "If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck then its probably a duck." I used to use "If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, ... then it would probably taste good with an orange sauce." as my sig.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Okay, running Gail Cooke through an Anagram Generator, I get 'A GECKO OIL'. As we all know a gecko is a type of reptile, or should I say snake? We all know that selling 'Snake Oil' conjures up a marketing scam. So, Gail Cooke = Snake Oil.
Thank you. Is there like a prize or something for like the best post ever? I now kneel as you bestow thy Karma upon thee.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Take an average.
If you're planning on a purchase and not sure exactly which manufacturer/model to buy, half an hour in Google Groups should make up your mind.
Search on the product you're interested by date, and read what people are saying. Sure, you will get the odd one or two who have had nothing but trouble, but see how it works out on average.
Google Groups is especially good for getting the low down computer / electrical consumer goods.
I usually look for the negitive reviews myself. Those can say alot about an item, especially if there is a particular problem that keeps getting posted throughout the comments.
I wouldn't put it past Amazon to pay people or have in-house staff write-up 5 star reviews. Then, have people follow up behind and click "Yes" to "Was this review helpful?" question, just to add insult to injury. No on in their right minds would sit on Amazon writing reviews in order of thousands of comments. If i were a betting man, i'd say about 1/2 of the top 1000 reviewers are staff members, or at the very least, oursourced and paid-for comments
In any case, use the feedback system as a tool, not as a deciding factor. This is where smart comsuming comes into play. Check out independent reviews on the product in question. Check out other various feedback systems such as www.pricegrabber.com etc. Talk to people who may own the product you're looking to buy. Or simply google up "(pruduct here) review" By doing this, you can compare the results side-by-side, and note any discrepencies in feedback posting. That, and you will be better informed afrerwards.
When I out to buy something online that costs me more then $20, i do some hefty research, price comparing, check out return policies, even shipping cost differences from site to site. This may sound anal-retentive, however this is your money we're talking about, and it's a *privledge* to any online store who gets it. You have everything you need right in front of you to do some smart shopping, it'd be a shame to let it go to waste.
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
I've heard credible stories (from the students themselves) of being given extra credit in classes for posting a favorable review of the Professor's book to Amazon.
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
Most all reviews are worthless because they simply lack any context. I've made this comment about the Slashdot book reviews too.
When Joe Blow say this product is great or that product is crap, it really means NOTHING, and putting any faith into these reviews is a major mistake. Unless the reviewer gives some background about themselves and their history with the product or category of products you have no way of knowing how they relate to you.
This is especially true of technical book reviews. Without having some idea about the persons knowlege and skill level and what experience they have, there is no real value in the review. For this reason, when I write book reviews I also include a brief resume listing things like years of experience in that field, certifications, other books that I have read on the subject, etc.
I trust a review if the reviewer seems knowledgeable and insightful. I buy a lot of opera on DVD and it's pretty easy to figure out who knows what he's talking about and who doesn't. With cookbooks, I look for people's description of what actually cooking the dishes was like. With technical books, I skip the "I loved it, you should buy it too" reviews and head for the long ones that discuss in depth the strengths and weaknesses of the author's presentation of the material. With other topics, YMMV, but this has worked for me and I have generally felt that I understood pretty much what I was buying.
Consumer reports it ain't, but most of what I buy at Amazon falls into the category of experience rather than search goods (see G.J. Stigler, "The Economics of Information," J. Pol. Econ., 69, 221 (1961); see also H.R. Varian, "Economics and Search," Plenary address at ACM SIGIR 1999). The question is, of what value is the time it would take you to research the quality of Amazon merchandise via a more trusted source than customer reviews?
There's lots of noise in the reviews, but you can still filter out a useful signal. Many reviews are also obviously dumb, such as the guy that ordered a CD player, loved it, but decided he didn't need it after all, so he gave it one star. Brains entirely optional. After reading through ten or twenty reviews of the CD player, you'd find recurring mentions of good or bad battery life, skipping/no skipping etc, which is usually all you need.
So there's this Slashdot user named "Anonymous Coward" that posts several thousand times PER DAY! Very little of what he or she writes is useful. I'm having a hard time believing that one person can generate this much garbage.
The number 1 columnists at both Byte My Magazine and PC Techniques for Virgin Geeks both gave favorable reviews to products where a business relationship with the vendor was subsequently revealed.
Is this G. Cooke a real person? Sony had a movie reviewer it was quoting in its movie ads who was 100% bogus. Nowadays, being bogus is a key to integrity. Bogus reviewers are incorruptible.
If these suspicious persons have reviewed so many products, they may have a reviewed a few of which you have personal knowledge. Those are golden data points.
If there aren't any such datapoints, maybe somebody whose reviews you DO agree with has reviewed products the suspicious person has also reviewed. Those are, shall we say, silver data points.
Obviously what I'm working up to here is an automated system for finding short paths in networks of reviewers. Not a Web of Trust, but a Web of Agreement, built upon the mutual information (the degree of agreement) between various reviewers.
I have seen "mutual interest" systems such as for music. Those are useless because of shills that (pretend to) like everything, but a system built on mutual information would find those reviewers to have 0 information content.
You kind of have to wonder about the motives (or indeed the sanity) of someone who would write hundreds such glowing reviews for so many trivial little items.
Maybe it's like those "satisfied customers" who call up QVC or Home Shopping Network and give a testimonial about the product. They always gush, they always give a rave review. You get the feeling they just enjoy hearing their own voice on the TV set -- like it's some kind of thrilling brush with fame. Some people get really into QVC; they know the names of all the salespeople and everything.
I have to wonder if a subculture like that might have sprung up on Amazon.com? The fame of being a "Top 10 Reviewer" might lead some people to go off the deep end.
Have you ever noticed there's -always- a "This is the best movie evar!" review on the Internet Movie Database? It's cute, but no - you CAN'T trust everything and everybody 100% - so what else is new?
A few years ago, after Q3A was released. (I bought it from amazon) I went back to write a small review on it, I figured, why the hell not. About 3 weeks later, I got a call from my friends father who said they just bought it. He said while he was thinking about getting it, the noticed my name on the reviews. He figured it would be good if I was playing it :)
... there are like 1% of those which are real. Just try to pick and choice what to belive. I belive in my review on Q3A I said like 3 disavatages it had over xyz product. (Can't remeber off hand) Thats a good thing to look out for. Spelling and grammer errors are an intresting thing to look for.
At anyrate
until (succeed) try { again(); }
A negative review implies thoughtfulness, because the reviewer is rejecting the marketing (formal and social) and going against the grain. Sometimes it's just a rant to be ignored, but often there are clues to flaws that might be critical in my overall evaluation.
So, I also tend to only look at negative reviews, which I compare against the seller's (or manufacturer's) specs/feature list. If I'm still undecided, I might look at positive reviews to see if they're intelligently written and provide concrete examples of benefits.
No Laughing Allowed!
If you want a real treat, check out Harriet Klausner's reviews. She's Amazon's #1 reviewer and bugs the hell out of me. I browsed through a whole bunch of her 4000+ reviews one day and they all have the same features: 3 paragraphs (1 intro, 1 plot summary, 1 about how much she loved it). Then she gives everything 4 or 5 stars. The strange thing is that she would occasionally have read only the middle book of a trilogy or other sketchy things like that. Buncha crap if you ask me.
My wife is pre-med. I'm the one who's hoping to be driving the Lincoln SUV carting kids back and forth to soccer practice (pulling a Bass boat as well). You've just got to pick 'em right.
Google Viewer - View search results as scrolling web page images
Google Webquotes - View search results with quotes about them from other sites
Check it out at Google Labs
She also reviewed 4 blenders, 2 vacuum cleaners, 2 food processors, and 3 coffee makers (she reviewed one she didn't like after she reviewed two she liked). And she actually reviewed 3 irons (a Hamilton Beach 15420 got 5 stars, like the other irons).
One one mitten review, she was talking about the neighborhood kid who makes snowballs. she says she lives in Texas. Her dog is a lab. She also really likes knives. Remember that...
My review of G.Cooke : ** stars.
-although a prolific reviewer, she is overenthusastic and redundant. She also is too corporate for my tastes.
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
Should You Trust Website Customer Reviews?
Heh..that's like determining your self esteem level by your Slashdot moderation points..
-ted
In early '99, they were getting about 5000 reviews in a day. Each review is checked twice, once by a filter(dirty words), and the other by eyes(relavence). There were about 20 catalogue people then. They post all book listings, CD's, products, answer crazed author questions(my fav part)...and if they have time, post reviews.
If you guys think Amazon is trying to pursuade you with reviews...your high on conspiricy juice. They are pure fluff for your sake. We barley had enough time to add new products to the site, let alone check reviews. Trust me, Amazon would LOVE to get rid of the review system, cuase it is a pain in the ass to maintain and labor intensive. But they keep it cuase customers wanted/want it.
And no, we didn't re-order the reviews and put the good ones at the top. It is a pure FIFO (First-In-First-Online) system. People just usually post if they really hate, or really like something. So the reviews are more rants than critiques and tend to be very biased...just like /.
P.S. I still smell like the Art Bar too!
Just like seemingly everything else on the internet, eBay feedback can be a sham too.
Just because someone has dozens of glowing ebay reviews doesn't mean they're not a scam artist.
Just because a product has glowing reviews doesn't mean that it's a piece of shit.
Sometimes people just have no idea how to operate something, so they give it a *negative* review.
Reviews of any sort can be misleading, no matter where they're printed.
You can do this one: :: Review:________
Moderator:MetaModerator
Ok, so I followed the link to G. Cooke's reviews and then out of sheer curiosity followed the link to Professional Clog - Polyurethane -- Blue and down at the bottom of the page found this:
Customers who wear clothes also shop for:
Rather than the ones who go naked, right? But it gets better. Look what they shop for:
Clean Underwear from Amazon's Target Store
Or better yet, let's give Gail Cooke an interview on Slashdot. Top moderated questions, etc etc. Should make for some interesting reading and prove whether or not she's a real individual vs a marketing group or if she's paid for positive reviews, etc.
Informative??? This is supposed to be a JOKE. Froogle has nothing to do with reviewers. It's a products-for-sale search engine. "Find cheap reviewers at..." -- get it? JOKE!
I think, for a good number of the prolific reviewers, it's about status. These are the people who will look up every item they've purchased in the last ten years and put up a review for it on Amazon simply to increase their count.
Also you sometimes see people posting lots of really positive reviews of reviews, presumably to kiss up to each other, but having designated epinions editors whose reviews of reviews are weighted more heavily seems to have helped that.
That said, I then found these editors' opinions to vary pretty wildly. Some gave me really good reviews, while others gave me lukewarm reviews when the work and thought on my end were essentially equal. It was an interesting illustration of how subjective these things are. Ah well, at least my ratings don't go on my permanent record...
Seen that policy; we use it at work with our online bidding system. Basically, we ask companies to bid to provide a service or supply something and they "bid down" to lower prices. If there's a bid in the last 5 minutes, it gets extended by 5 minutes (potentially indefinately). Bear in mind this is for auctions normally lasting 30 minutes.
The nice thing about the reviews, whether they are valid or not, is that they lead to more books being shown if your recommendations list. Why is this good? Remember: if you buy something from Amazon based on its recommendation, and you didn't like it, they'll take it back.
Get off my launchpad!
It seems the top 10 reviewers are based on the number of reviews they have ever written, not on qualtiy. The number 1 reviewer wrote over 4000. Where did fact that all reviews were written in one day come from? It seems she posted this over time according to the dates of each review. Also, check out the number of people that found her reviews helpful. She may be a troll, but come on, wheres the beef?
It seems fairly obvious that Amazon is doing a very self-destructive thing here, similar to when the marketing consultant posed as an "I Switched" customer for Microsoft. It's not just a question of, "Take it with a grain of salt," it's fraud. IANAL but I believe that misrepresenting paid advertising as bona fide customer feedback is illegal, and the company should face criminal charges if they are doing it. If you agree, take 5 minutes and complain to the FTC here.
So much for being a top 10 reviewer. Her reviews reviewed:
1 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
0 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
0 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
It goes on like that through her entire list.
Maybe these meta-reviews are influenced by the dot, but they're good numbers to have when reading someone's review. If everybody actually goes out of their way to check the "No, this review wasn't helpful" box, that should tell you something about how good a job the reviewer did...
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
Oh crap, did I miss the memo? We're now supposed to add ebay to the list of websites real nerds must hate? (And by the looks of this article, amazon too?)
Morning Edition I think it was had in interwiew with a a guy that has the most reviews on amazon. Its become his only goal in life. All he does all day is review stuff for Amazon. I think he actually said that he doesn't care if people like the reviews or find them helpful he just wants the most. There's another reviewer that's trying to get the most helpful reviews of some such thing. I'd link you the realaudio at NPR but I'm not going through all that just search NPR for "Morning Edition Amazon reviews"
-
Every time I read the reviews at amazon I summarize how many positive comments vs. how many negative.
If a negative comment makes sense and could be corroborated by another negative comment then all the positive comments are suspect if they outnumber by a dramatic ratio.
Even thou the guy is scum, his book is about java, stick to the subject.
You dont read Perl books to find out about Larry Wall and his legal problems.
I used this site "eopinions.com" to check for reviews when I was looking for a new (well, used, but new to me) car. It came up fairly accurately towards what I've heard. My current car, a '91 Accord, fit most of the reviews very well (excellent body/speed/reliability, a little underpowered on hills, plastic in the interior breaks).
These tend to be best for older products, since they've got more time to be reviewed, but you could probably check out that new PC/printer/etc based on prior models.
This is Slashdot isn't it?
She copies and pastes her reviews for the same books on B&Bi sbnin quiry.asp?isbn=0525946896
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/
Amazon Nimbus 2000
I wrote an article for an in-house publication about a new technical book. I was surprised to find that this brand-new book had alredy garnered two glowing reviews on Amazon - until I noticed that the reviewers were two of the same names in the author's acknowledgements - and one of them was his wife!
I always sort by "Lowest rating first". It can give you a better idea, IMHO, to read these along with the top ones.
I've posted a few score Amazon reader reviews.
Amazon reader reviews include a one-to-five-star rating, and the review proper. Readers of Amazon reader reviews are invited to click "Yes" or "No" to "Was this review helpful to you?" and each review is preceded by the notice "15 of 29 people found the following review helpful."
It's very noticeable that there is a strong correlation between the number of stars and the number of readers finding the review helpful. Generally speaking, three stars or less will garner a high percentage of "unhelpful" replies.
Presumably (although I don't know for sure) these factor into your "reviewer rank," which is, of course, just a number in a database and not an indication of your merit as a person.
I don't know WHY this happens. Although I do know that authors read and respond to their own reviews. I don't believe it's astroturfing. I suspect that people just like positive reviews better than negative reviews. I dunno.
If you don't believe this influences ratings, then, well, you have more integrity and independence than I do. I try to be honest in my reviews, but, frankly, I rarely give less than three stars any more because I don't like seeing my reviews rated as "unhelpful."
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
They already have this. It's called "Friends and Favorites." All you need to do is create an account with them to take advantage of it.
Here's the description from their FAQ:
How can we afford to ever sleep
So sound again
--ebtg
As a rule of thumb, I visit third-party sites for product reviews. These sites do have links to the given products and earn a little on comissions, but in general strive to provide an objective and balanced service.
Is the dent casuing your car to not function properly? if not, save your money.
My favourite feature of the epinions.com site is that one can quickly see the top-rated items in a category, and then go and glance at the 'cons' section of each review of the interesting ones, and therefore quickly know-about anything that would clobber one's intended use for the thing...
If I care about rapid-fire photography .. and particular good-rated cameras have no capability to do it .. probably that non-capability will be noted in one of the reviews 'cons' section, and .. then I know ( having not had to trust a single+solitary reviewer or a 'review'-site )... .. to make sure that the market doesn't choose objectively, eh?
Particularly important when amazon.com seems to be interested in suppressing non-favourable reviews
( yes I know that permitting correct perception damages established entity's profits, and yes I know that that is 'evil' to market/economist types, but human-real worth is worth more to me than monetary appearances are )
Also, the reviews on epinions give me the 'gotchas' to look out for, so I understand the requirements ( for a given kind-of-item ) better! ... ) cannot evolve, but rather would only devolve, as marketing displaced, totally, vital perception.
Many thanks to everyone who makes public valid reviews, because without such we ( or 'the market'
Messages to/for me ( in me journal )
Well they don't sell anything, they just do a pricewatch-type thing on the prices for products and get paid for some of the referrals. And they let you review things they don't get any money off of (see the Restaurants section for example).
I haven't checked out Epinions extensively in a while, but I worked there very briefly a few years ago and their ultimate goal was to let the community build the product hierarchy, which is good for them (they don't have to pay experts full-time to build/prune the product trees) and good for the consumer (you could review just about anything, as long as the community was fast and responsive). That is, as long as certain people were in charge of keeping the product hierarchy clean and correct (think dmoz.org). I don't know if they have implemented this yet, though.
They definitely don't hide bad reviews of things (see the cell phone service provider section, for instance). They pride themselves on having a great deal of unbiased reviews. They just believe that if people are given access to good reviews on a product, it will help steer them towards the right product for them, which the person will eventually buy. Sure, sometimes a bunch of bad reviews will lead people to not buy something they might normally, but that isn't usually how things play out.
Yes, reviewers are paid to give rave reviews, just like search engines are paid to increase web page rankings.
Once, after I gave a rave review, I got an email several months later from John Wiley & Sons, offering me $50 to review a similar book of theirs. (This was back when Amazon.com put email addresses next to reviewers' names.)
I don't remember if the paid review was to be submitted to a bookseller's site, or to more conventional book review media.
Being CONVICTED of a crime is public information. (Like it or not.)
Being CHARGED with a crime (littering in your example) isn't. You're not guilty until convicted. So no, you won't have a right to know.
I believe it's legal in most states to wear Women's Underwear. Again, you don't have a right to inspect your lunchman's underwear without his consent.
But what if the guy you hired to paint your house was a convicted con-artist? Wouldn't you want to know?
Best Buy can have you arrested
I've surfed all the Score: 3+ comments. I really am not seeing people express what was is such an obvious pattern to me.
First, these reviews may be getting five stars, but in the majority of cases, only a minority of people are finding them useful. If they're not useful, they're trash. How can you write hundreds of honest reviews and not write things that people find helpful?
The *majority* of the product reviews (not book reviews) follow a painfully obvious format:
"Spider veins on my legs have been the bane of my existence for some time now, but when those little blue lines appeared on my chin it was too much." --- Some small personal reference to the product in a sentence.
"I'd been hiding the veins on my legs with a concealer, which was an okay solution. Then someone recommended this product from Joey New York." --- What I had been doing, and the switch.
"After a few weeks the veins on my chin are no longer visible, and the veins on my legs have greatly diminished." --- A positive testimonial.
"Thanks to my friend and Joey!" --- A compliment back to the product.
Frankly, this format can be easily used to write positive reviews about any product you can come up with. Go ahead. Try it yourself. Use, say, Linux. Or a bath soap.
These are NOT reviews. These are advertising copy that gives absolutely no information about the product other than, "I was doing something else but then I did this and it was all better."
Remember: "This isn't just a clock - it's a total experience!"
However, I was a 'Catalogue Specialist' (the people who post new listings) at Amazon for a few months and I can confirm you don't have a clue. You seem to think that Amazon has a whole staff of people making sure that product rankings are high, when in fact, they could give a shit what the ranking is. The only people I've ever heard of bitching about ranking and reviews were authors, complaining about their books negative listing.
In fact I have a memorable and funny story to illustate just how much Amazon could care less about the reviews and rankings.
So what was the point of that story...to a) illustrate how Amazon could really care less about ranking and b) that there is no review/rating conspiricy at Amazon.
I have a feeling the reviews in 'question' were like this, "This thing sucks, and it took an extra day to get here." Or some similar crap. In that case, yeah it gets rejected cuase it's a space waster.
The original poster has a great eye!
You can't prove that Gail Cooke is a professional copywriter but you can say that she writes exactly like one.
How's this for evidence:
In a country famous for its difficulties in teaching reading and writing, Ms. Cooke has learned to write in short, concise sentences using well-chosen adjectives and without any of the most common spelling and punctuation errors. She even ends everything with an airy flourish of praise.
If she isnt a professional copywriter, she should be one.
Big hint: Could Amazon be using people like her to write ad-copy into their reviews? Could they also use others? Say, someone with a more masculine voice and approach? Perhaps someone with a love for computers and digital cameras?
Bigger hint: I have a two-sentence resume. It says that I spend a lot of time at home and, that I am rotten to the core.
To mail me, remove the 'mailno' from my email addy.
"Yeah. It smells, too..."
We all know about "Google Bombing". This is the same thing, "Amazon Bombing", and involving public perceptions and trust being leveraged over the Internet. Amazon is a huge retail presence, and on top of that they have a public interface to their product review/promotion API! Cha-ching...the sound of money.
But the same thing happened when the snake oil salesman rode his wagon into town in the 1800's. There would be a plant, a shill, in the crowd who on cue would get all hysterical about the presentation and appear buy 6 bottles. Cha-ching...the oil flowed.
But then again, some celebrity going on about how great some gadget or pill is isn't so different; just playing on your goofy, unquestioning trust.
Trust is the ultimate sales API, and goes straight to the brain stem. Your instincts are used against you and...cha-ching...everywhere the sound of money.
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
Becuase I know you won't read it on your own, I've posted the relavent portion of Amazon's policy.
Does this seem like a reasonable explaination for your review not getting posted? Or is it more reasonable to assume that a whole company supports crimes against children? Get some counciling blockhead.
This lady is not an Amazon employee or on their payroll, she is just looking for validation for her meaningless life by publishing reviews and GIVING them to web sites. GIVE is the important qualifier here.
... to keep nice stuff coming in from the people who makes it. If I build something and want it to be reviewed in order to get some attention, I better be sure not to be trashed... El Alex Dinamo
So save us a few bucks. What was the book?
Carpe Deez
Your reply is off the mark. The poster was talking about big releases and not about some little known dummies guide.
And with all due respect, had there been a conspiracy taking place in Amazon, I have the feeling that you were not high enough to be in on it.
Juxtapose:
Is that better $unflattering_noun? Dyslexia is not an eastern-bloc country.
No...I can't remember the title. I'll have to go digging for it. Damn, where's the 'pubgrep' tool when I need it.
I suppose the same may apply now to non-books, but I have no personal knowledge of that.
had there been a conspiracy taking place in Amazon, I have the feeling that you were not high enough to be in on it.
Your right, I had nothing to do with Oprah's Book Club. But it would've been pretty easy to find out if the reviews were being feltched in the position I was in. All I'd have to do is look at the site and I'd know. It's not rocket science. And you give Amazon WAAYYY to much credit to think they have the time/money/inclination to sit around and alter the reviews that come in for "big releases". Big Releases sell themselves, that's why you consider them "big releases". How would a few altered customer reviews make a difference? Think about it.
In fact, you probably won't believe this, but Amazon spends time/money making sure that authors and they're friends don't post positive reviews for their publications, to artificially alter the books ratings.
Do a quick search on Bill Keane.
Once upon a time there was something called the Disfunctional Family Circus. And it made it's way over to Amazon. While most of those wonderful reviews are now gone, apparently the spirt has been kept alive.
I Just Dropped Grandma! (Family Circus)
"This is a tragic tale in which the beloved Granny is exposed to a radioactive meteorite which causes her shrink quite rapidly. The children think she is a doll, unfortunately, and stuff her into clothes and make her go to the mall in her Barbie (r) convertible, and to play WWF Wrestling. But tragedy occurs when they "accidently" drop her out the window. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wave Granny goodbye!"
The Family Circus Sings Christmas Songs
"This lost classic of America's favorite family moves beyond the limits of the time, space and tempo. Thel and the clan bring new meaning to these classic tunes by changing the words of classic Xmas songs we have loved through the ages. You'll love Billy's version of "We wish you a hare krishna!", and Dolly's sensitive new version of "Oh Come All Ye Fat-holes," and tears will roll with 'ol Gandpa's "I'll Be Dead For Christmas."
These songs will take on a new meaning for America in the post-9/11 world, as we try and link our past with the new world each 9/11 brings us"
Unquestionably the Family Circus
"This book makes profound statements in the form of a question, when Jeffy and Barfy get hooked on Jeopardy and grandma gambles the family savings on one Final Jeopardy question.
They think they are sure to win once they see the Final Jeopardy category is "Dead Grandpas Look'n Down From Heaven," so they bet it all. During the commercial break, "Not Me", "Ida Know" and "Just B. Cause" whisper in Jeffy's left ear that the question is sure to be: "Who is Aaron Carter?"
Poor Jeffy! When the answer is: "He's really burning in heck! He's not up in heaven after all." Jeffy panics and doesn't write "Who is 'ol Grandpa" and goes with Aaron Carter. The Circus clan loses their home in a side wager that Grandma had placed in Las Vegas and they all end homeless.
A beautiful tale, with something for the whole family (dogs and all)."
No Zen is good zen
Based on what I know and saw...they don't have the manpower to pull those kinda backhanded tricks (they'd get caught fast). It's cheaper to keep the reviews in tact and try to ignore them, then to mess with em. Trust me. They have millions of entries to mess with, no way could they pull it off. They aren't the US gov.
The customer reviews really don't have much of an impact book sales. It's usually the little unknown books when it matters. When nobody knows anything about a book, and word of mouth is everything. Stuff that appears on bestseller list sells itself.
Does a persons history indicate their professional knowlege? Because I broke a few laws, does it mean I can't program. While I'm not a pedophile, I may have a few skeletons in my closet.. Doesn't mean anything about my technical knowlege.
You didn't include your criminal history on your statement, so why should I read your messages? My history is available for review by the FDLE and FBI.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
It's nice that you worked for Amazon, just at the time when I, as an investment analyst in real life, criticized Amazon for allowing bad reviews for products ;)
In one of the other replies, you spoke about not enoug manpower to handle all the incoming reviews. That may be true, but tell me: is it so hard to create a script that will automatically flag all low-rating reviews for personal attention while chack 4+ star reviews for profanities only and then publish them immediatelly? Otherwise, how do you explain that out of 11 products I gave a negative review as the first customer, five have never appeared on the site and the other six appeared with a 1-2 weeks delay? How do you explain that the turnaround for any positive review of mine was below 24 hours? Having written over 300 reviews so far, I have some more recent statistics to show.
Don't get me wrong: I don't blame Amazon. As I indicated at the beginning: censoring out negative reviews at Amazon is a very sound business decision, and I would be very surprised if Amazon wasn't doing it. Thus, trusting the rating at Amazon is foolish, and nobody with a genuine interest in a good purchase should be doing it.
Never take those 'top 100' 'top 10' whatever reviewers seriously...They're always suspect, and always positive. Other than that, all the reviews I've done have been posted on Amazon within a few weeks, so I know that the majority of reviews are by Joe Schmoe like me.
I personally love amazon reviews, and have made many purchasing decisions based on them. I don't think I would have bought half the stuff at Amazon I have, if it weren't for their 'real' customer reviews...
I'm wondering if this Gail Cooke is a real person at all. Remember David Manning of The Ridgefield Press? That was the Make-Believe Movie Reviewer that Sony created to give their films glowing reviews.The internet breeds such things.
...
I am reminded of a section of George Orwell's 1984 where Whinston Smith (the protagonist) has to rewrite a bit of history and decides to create a dead hero to be the subject of Big Brother's rant instead of the commitee long since dismantled.
"What was needed was a piece of pure fantasy. Suddenly there sprang into his mind, ready made as it were, the image of a certain Comrade Ogilvy, who had recently died in battle, in heroic circumstances. There were occasions when Big Brother devoted his Order for the Day to commemorating some humble, rank-and-file Party member whose life and death he held up as an example worthy to be followed. Today he should commemorate Comrade Ogilvy. It was true that there was no such person as Comrade Ogilvy, but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring him into existence.
Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.
Hmmmmm.. I guess they missed this one.
Not that I'm biased..., January 18, 2001
Reviewer: Kendra K. Hodges from Little Rock, AR United States
I think this is a wonderful book. Anyone interested in World War II information will find it to be very informative. And I'm not saying that just because I'm marrying the author. Really! It's a great book! I promise!
By the way, she gave the book five stars.
Amazon sells BOOKS, not PEOPLE. Therefore you should be reviewing the BOOK, not the AUTHOR.
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
This problem ranks right up there along with eBay auctions and the fact that they "close" at a given point in time. In the real world, an auction continues as long as people are making bids. eBay should extend an auction by 5 minutes or an hour or a day each time someone bids on an item. That'd get rid of "last minute bid services". (I'd suggest a 5 minute extension - because then there's a natural time for everyone interested in an item to "gather" together and do the final bidding.)
If I'm not mistaken they had something like that at one point. If not eBay, then I definately remember seeing it on some auction site. I seem to remember them describing it as "Going, Going, Gone". A look at eBay today shows that they just use that phrase for auctions that are going to end soon, not because they've been extended.
NO CARRIER
a parent-post-personally-abusive and corporate defensive posting gets moderated +5 interesting??!
Ask yourself this question, what does the website have to gain if the review is favourable?
In the case of Amazon, you purchase something from them. Therefore it wouldn't be too cynical to suggest that they'd rather people submit good reviews than bad ones.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Some telemarketing company use the same technique. "When you call back, ask for Stephanie." and you'll be redirected to a particular branch office with many working there, all under the handle Stephanie. It's a way for the branch managers to track returning customers after a particular operation for instance.
I buy mainly programming books, and I find the comments extremely useful on the whole. I'm amazed how candid some of the comments are: on more than one occasion I have been thinking of buying a book, and the reviews have been so bad I have changed my mind.
Reviews are like interviews: if they are good, they don't tell you much, but if they are bad, they are usually worth listening to. On the occasions I have bought a book from Amazon in spite of the bad reviews, I have usually ended up agreeing with the negative review.
And I can't imagine that Amazon care much: if I go to their site, it's because I want to buy a book, so helping me to buy the right book makes sense for them and me. It's a win-win situation.
My one frustration is that there are not more reviews for some of the more specialised books. But then maybe I should submit some myself...
Virtually serving coffee
when u do that, u should patent doing fake reviews.
also, patent doing fake reviews under many names, since after amazon's staff read this, they'll prolly wise up and generate random profiles for reviews...
I've always found it amusing that so many people buy beginners' books on technical subjects, and then post massively pro reviews on places like Amazon about them. By definition, these people are beginners in the subject, and therefore unqualified to review the books for technical accuracy!
By all means comment on whether you liked the writing style and presentation, but please... This is why people like Herb Schildt (familiar to almost anyone in the C(++) world) get rave reviews, yet continue to have enough serious technical errors in their work that informed critics write whole web pages pointing them out, in the hope that newbies see them first and don't get screwed because of their inherent naivety.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
mmmmm.. I guess they missed this one [amazon.com].
Hey! The guy didn't say *how* much time/money amazon spent!
Believe in all the conspiracies you want, I'm sure amazon is working on global domination, but they're going to have to compete with Microsoft, Google, and Walmart along the way, so I'm not worried.
I'll have something intelligent to add one of these days...
it goes to credibility
Hmmmm...I thought that was what Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderation done to your comments) was for.
Besides, it's fun to see anal limies like you get all worked up over a couple misspelled words. Hahahahaha!
This would just about guarantee that I never used Ebay again, because you can always count on someone who doesn't know realistic prices coming along and bidding used stuff up over the new retail price, and the longer an auction runs, the more of this happens. No doubt would make the sellers happy, but would piss off the knowledgable buyers (except for those that just recently got sniped and are out for revenge).
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?