Slashdot Mirror
Could Amazon Reviews Be Corrupt?
adeelarshad82 writes "In the first academic study of its kind, Trevor Pinch, Cornell University professor of sociology and of science and technology studies, independently surveyed 166 of Amazon's top 1,000 reviewers, examining everything from demographics to motives. What he discovered was 85 percent of those surveyed had been approached with free merchandise from authors, agents or publishers. Amazon is encouraging reviewers to receive free products through Amazon Vine, an invitation-only program in which the top 1,000 reviewers are offered a catalog of free products to review. John Dvorak puts up an argument which hints that some of these Amazon reviews may be corrupt."
I can't believe I read that entire summary only to be lead into a link to a Dvorak column. It's like the slashdot version of being rick rolled. And I fell for it. Bravo samzenpus, bravo.
A column that essentially complained about Amazon's 1,000 most helpful reviewers (as rated by the public) getting free things to review... which is absolutely no different from gaming critics getting free consoles, games, and previews, movie critics getting free pre-screen passes, and Slashdot editors getting free nerd poon.
I stopped reading after seeing it was from John Dvorak.
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