Amazon reviews

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by zonka, Nov 20, 2017.

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  1. oldsurferdude

    oldsurferdude Forum Resident

    Location:
    detroit, mi. 48150
    :biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:That pile of garbage has the same amount of stars that TWGMTR has. Proof that the whole review thing is a complete joke. :rolleyes:
     
  2. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
  3. boiledbeans

    boiledbeans Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Have you guys read the reviews for expensive audiophile cables? :hide::hide::hide:



    From the following links
    Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable (Discontinued by Manufacturer)
    Amazon.com: Customer reviews: AudioQuest K2 Terminated Speaker Cable - UST 2.44 m Plugs 8' Pair (Discontinued by Manufacturer)
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2017
  4. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    well, of course your cat wants to kill you. You just found that out?
     
  5. uzn007

    uzn007 Pack Rat

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    The reviews are free-form text. How would you suggest they revamp them to prevent half-baked reviews?
     
    Lost In The Flood likes this.
  6. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    :biglaugh:
     
  7. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Oh, people can post their "reviews" as far as I am concerned. But also as far as I am concerned if they don't make a case as it were for their review, then it only goes to follow they are less deserving of attention.
     
  8. Lemon Curry

    Lemon Curry (A) Face In The Crowd

    Location:
    Mahwah, NJ
    You have to throw out all the 5 and 1 star reviews, and read the stuff in the middle.
     
    BluesOvertookMe and ParloFax like this.
  9. ti-triodes

    ti-triodes Senior Member

    Location:
    Paz Chin-in
    16s likes this.
  10. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    Well, I dig music reviews on Amazon a lot, especially when it comes to the music that has no quality genre-specific site. Nowhere else in the Internet one can find a place where even more obscure items may have a few insightful write-ups, usually coming from passionate fans and not from bored professionals (self-)assigned with a task to write something smart on the music they neither know nor care for.

    Obviously the quality varies, the most obscure/niche items are overlooked and not everyone stands up to the task, but I do prefer this multitude of fan voices to anything printed in the music mags of yore. Not listening to (or looking for) any mainstream pop may be an important factor though. Anyway, I am not going to Amazon (or any other music site) to learn whether a given release is good or bad, because I can easily evaluate it myself these days (good riddance to sponsored pedlars of crap), but to learn how the others perceive it. That's what I find the most interesting I think.

    The only problem I can see now is that Amazon have recently started to mess with the formula and impose the "verified purchase" reviews first, which usually pushes most of the best rated (and informative) comments down. At first they filtered "unverified" reviews out, now they just place them behind all the "verified" ones.

    Probably this nuisance got invented by some smartass executives to force the reviewers (re-)purchase the items through Amazon to get their comments promoted, clearly forgetting that the best (rated) ones come out of people's passion for music and enrich Amazon's platform for free, and these kind of tactics may discourage some people from putting any effort into their writing. I hope they won't do any greater damage to the current system.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2017
    Lost In The Flood and uzn007 like this.
  11. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    I especially enjoy the one star reviews. Or - in German Amazon at least - five star reviews for one hit wonders because some of them are written so poor and hyperbolic with spelling and/ or grammar mistakes... it's hilarious.
     
  12. Remote Control Triangle

    Remote Control Triangle Forum Member Rated 6.8 By Pitchfork

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    I highly doubt that. Amazon routinely deletes 1 star reviews from people who didn't purchase the product. They deal with this stuff all the time and a string of 1 star reviews posted within 24 hours would easily trigger a manual review. They've become so good at it that they can even tell when competitors show up to bash products with 1-star reviews.
     
    Suncola likes this.
  13. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I don't enjoy defending Amazon as a general matter, and probably some of their reasoning had to do with your assessment. But I am sure it also had to do with people rating especially books that had some political angle, negatively, without having read it. This goes back to Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, and people giving it one star who obviously had not read it. There have been other examples since.
     
  14. Amazon does this if the review doesn't specifically reference the album and moves into areas like personality, politics or some other unreleased music issue.
     
  15. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    However such an approach does not make the system work any better in general. As others have stated Amazon delete a lot of "questionable" reviews, so this kind of trolling cannot be the reason why "verified" but useless comments get promoted at the expense of highly rated ones. Besides, "verified purchase" does not equal to "verified reading with understanding". :)
     
  16. Remote Control Triangle

    Remote Control Triangle Forum Member Rated 6.8 By Pitchfork

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    Yes, it does. Why would anyone want to read reviews from people who DIDN'T purchase the product? You're essentially defending fake reviews dude.
     
  17. uzn007

    uzn007 Pack Rat

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    People could own the product even if they didn't purchase it from Amazon.
     
  18. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    Well, it only means that they did not purchase it AT AMAZON. It does not mean that the customer did not purchase it (or listen to it/read it) elsewhere/at all. :)
     
  19. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    O M G
    Cats
    Daughters
    my eyes are burning from laughing so hard!
     
    uzn007 likes this.
  20. Remote Control Triangle

    Remote Control Triangle Forum Member Rated 6.8 By Pitchfork

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    Thus, the verified review system. It's the only way Amazon can tell people that "this person 100% did in fact purchase this item." This isn't rocket science folks.
     
  21. uzn007

    uzn007 Pack Rat

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    Whatever you say, dude.
     
  22. Remote Control Triangle

    Remote Control Triangle Forum Member Rated 6.8 By Pitchfork

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    Or perhaps they didn't purchase it at all. Again, this is the reason why verified ratings are "pushed to the top." It's the only way that amazon can communicate to a prospective buyer that the review you're reading has a verifiable paper trail.
     
  23. Remote Control Triangle

    Remote Control Triangle Forum Member Rated 6.8 By Pitchfork

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    This isn't my opinion, champ. It's literally the reason for their verified purchase tag.
     
  24. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    Great, but why to enforce a sorting that promotes crappy worthless comments over those valued by other customers, all despite offering "top/most helpful first" option? A tag or filtering feature would be more than sufficient.

    We the customers are adults and we can handle this level of complexity ourselves. :)
     
    uzn007 likes this.
  25. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    First of all I agree that people can render valuable comments without having bought the item directly from Amazon, since they could have purchased it elsewhere. Perhaps some tweaking of their system is in order. But I do not extend my cynicism about them to think that the verified purchasers approach they are using is not something they think improves the use of their comments section, for others to read them.

    Others reading the comments may well feel this or that comment even by a verified purchaser is worthless. But at least you know the person making that comment bought the item. I think that has some value.
     
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