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Amazon's Fake Review Problem

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Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#161

Post by [deleted] »

threatofrain wrote: post #93
Someone1234 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my wife is an author on Amazon and personally knows most of the people who review her books. So your wife has people she knows leave positive reviews in order to bump her book's review score and you're upset that Fakespot gave it an F due to them being non-organic reviews? As a consumer it sounds like Fakespot is doing a great job, and exactly what it states on the tin. What your wife is doing is at best dishonest…

I would also call this dishonesty, but I wouldn't be too hard on someone for this. Asking someone to not do this is like asking someone to do honest advertisements. It's asking someone to uphold an ethical standard that the majority neglects. A little bit of moderated moral pushback has its place, but I think the main solution at societal-scale must be structural.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#162

Post by miles_matthias »

Someone1234 wrote: post #77
miles_matthias wrote: post #62

Here's my anecdote: my wife is an author on Amazon and personally knows most of the people who review her books. FakeSpot gave her most popular book an F grade because people were "suspiciously positive". Most people leaving reviews only leave reviews for things they absolutely love, so saying that it's "suspiciously positive" is not an indicator of it being fake. In her case, she knows these people personally and th…

> my wife is an author on Amazon and personally knows most of the people who review her books. So your wife has people she knows leave positive reviews in order to bump her book's review score and you're upset that Fakespot gave it an F due to them being non-organic reviews? As a consumer it sounds like Fakespot is doing a great job, and exactly what it states on the tin. What your wife is doing is at best dishonest…

See my second edit. I didn't explain it well.

She comes to get to know her best fans after they become fans. They leave honest reviews on their own accord.

This is NOT her asking for random friends and family to leave a positive review. I wasn't clear before.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#163

Post by miles_matthias »

Someone1234 wrote: post #114
dhimes wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The has part is what I mean. As I said elsewhere, friends want to do this, no solicitation required. I'm sure the author is saddened that this got her in trouble.

So your key take-away and complaint with my post is that they volunteer to bump her book's reviews instead of being expressly asked? I really don't see what difference that makes. Fakespot was being criticized above because the person claims they misjudged his wife's book reviews while also revealing that his wife was conducting the very behavior Fakespot is designed to detect. Whether the biased reviewers volunteer…

See my second edit. I didn't explain it well.

She comes to get to know her best fans. They leave honest reviews on their own accord.

This is NOT her asking for random friends and family to leave a positive review. I wasn't clear before.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#164

Post by ethbro »

DanielleMolloy wrote: post #127
catdog wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Headphones seem to be a very strange category in general. You can get exceptional good value for money if you know what to buy and on the other hand pay a lot for utter crap.

Listening is extremely subjective though. Headphone types can be better / worse for certain listening habits (there are people out there who don't think great bass makes great music, folks), and for different ears. Music taste itself is extremely subjective. Best thing is still to get to a trusted hifi store nearby with your own, known music in best quality and your current best headphone model and test through candi…

My current earbud benchmark is the Panasonic ErgoFit line. [1]

To be fair, I don't use an external DAC or source high quality sound on the road.

But for $10 and tolerable, good enough for travel.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E4LGVUO/

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#165

Post by lobster_johnson »

nasredin wrote: post #139
jacek wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The brand is Bluedio. They have pretty good reviews considering the price. I have used Xiaomi before and was amazed by quality/price. I was hoping Bluedio, which is another Chinese brand would be also good. I was wrong. EDIT: Here's the fake review analysis for the headphones: https://www.fakespot.com/product/bluedio-f2-faith-active-noi...

>Bluedio Sorry to be a bit of an asshole. Do not buy Chinese crap. It's a lottery. My Sennheisers (made of plastic BTW) have been in use since 2014. My previous Sennheisers broke (just the headband) after a couple of years. Bought $30 Taiwanese headphones, good Amazon reviews, but the headband is too small. And the microphonics is terrible. Sigh. Recently bought boots, Made in China. Size is about 1.5 units off. For…

I bought a Bang & Olufsen Bluetooth speaker this year. It broke after a month. It was just sitting on a table. I've also bought some no-name Chinese crap Bluetooth earbuds that have never failed. All of this is really anecdotal, and it's a complete lottery.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#166

Post by TsomArp »

ethbro wrote: post #164
DanielleMolloy wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Listening is extremely subjective though. Headphone types can be better / worse for certain listening habits (there are people out there who don't think great bass makes great music, folks), and for different ears. Music taste itself is extremely subjective. Best thing is still to get to a trusted hifi store nearby with your own, known music in best quality and your current best headphone model and test through candi…

My current earbud benchmark is the Panasonic ErgoFit line. [1] To be fair, I don't use an external DAC or source high quality sound on the road. But for $10 and tolerable, good enough for travel. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E4LGVUO/

I use the same. After trying many options, is the one that fits the best.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#167

Post by jlarocco »

pjc50 wrote: post #88
jlarocco wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's if course never gonna happen. It's too convenient for Amazon and most users probably don't even understand that they aren't buying from Amazon. Out of curiosity, why do you assume people don't realize they aren't buying from Amazon?

Why would people think they're not buying from Amazon when they're on the Amazon web site and their credit card gets billed to Amazon? (Can't remember, but do the parcels come in Amazon packaging too?)

> Why would people think they're not buying from Amazon when they're on the Amazon web site and their credit card gets billed to Amazon?

Because Amazon tells them when they're looking at the item that it's sold by a third party? And then again when they're checking out. And the items sold by third parties include an invoice and receipt from the third party? It's not a difficult technical issue - it only requires basic reading comprehension, which I'd expect most people using Amazon to posses.

Obviously everybody commenting here has figured out what's going on, and most people I've talked to about it (technical and non-technical) have also figured it out, so I just can't see it as Amazon tricking everybody.

My assumption is that most people buying from Amazon do know about and understand third party sellers, but aren't bothered by them enough to do anything.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#169

Post by abiox »

fake reviews are an issue, but so are low-quality reviews.

for example i've seen quite a few books with a modest handful of reviews have their stars tanked by some terrible bad-faith reviews by people who take an issue with the book that isn't directly about the quality or merit of the content. (this really shows up in political and philosophy areas.)

this isn't the end of the world if i take the time to carefully survey reviews, but i just don't have time to give every book due process. few people really do.

i really wish i had some way to ignore individual reviews as well as everything from a reviewer - 'ignore' meaning that the site discounts their contribution to scoring when rendered for me.

Re: Amazon's Fake Review Problem

#170

Post by tomerico »

pogue wrote: post #150
mc32 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if it will come back to a more distributed CR type of system. Also branding and maintaining the integrity of a brand. Currently you have a bevvy of brands for China sourced goods. The brands are obviously made up without much thought. Something like "Scarvast" trekking pole. "Vargus" flashlights, "Zukil" wireless speakers. "Brikor" dehumidifiers. And often times the same seller will have multiple "brands". T…

I highly recommend a 30 Day trial subscription on Consumer Reports (CR) online if you're looking to buy a big ticket item. You can put in your CC# & other details and get free 30 day access to CR testing of a lot of products. Then cancel before the 30 days are up. You may end up paying a little more for a top notch product, but you can be assured if CR reviewed it, you're getting what you pay for.

If consumer report (or the more general, independent testing lab) is the solution, I wonder if Amazon should buy them or build their own.

A trusted source of reviews has proved itself successful with the USB-C cable example and Benson from Google verifying all of them

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