Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For • Hacker News Board

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#21

Post by endorphone » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:18 PM UTC

riazrizvi wrote: post #16

drewr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can we believe you?

: ) Well don't take it on trust, validate it works. And keep validating it still works, because one day it won't. Everyone seems to sell out in the end.

It's impossible to validate. Further for all we know Fakespot (which curiously has been mentioned multiple times) might itself be a fake that undermines products that are sponsored, etc. It probably isn't, I'm just saying.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#22

Post by dominotw » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:21 PM UTC

JohnTHaller wrote: post #3

It's common knowledge among most techies that the majority of Amazon reviews are fake and that counterfeit items are a big issue, but most of the general population is completely unaware. I was searching for an inexpensive pair of polarized sunglasses last week and the "Amazon Recommended" ones had an F on FakeSpot with 70%+ fake reviews.

I get fake brushheads this week for my Phillips toothpaste. Also Amazon recommend.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#23

Post by laurex » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:22 PM UTC

There was a great Planet Money podcast on the genesis of ReviewMeta which I've been using on Amazon reviews since. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#24

Post by snegu » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:22 PM UTC

Last night I finally abandoned a book that was absolute trash, but had 83% 5-star reviews on Amazon. Looking at the reviews now, I see that most of them are written by people who only write 5-star reviews (it has an F-rating on Fakespot). Feeling like kind of a dummy right now.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#25

Post by jwilk » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:24 PM UTC

Text-only version:

https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=629800775

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#26

Post by 394549 » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:24 PM UTC

laurex wrote: post #23

There was a great Planet Money podcast on the genesis of ReviewMeta which I've been using on Amazon reviews since. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...

I've been using https://www.fakespot.com/ to check review for fakes on Amazon.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#27

Post by riazrizvi » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:25 PM UTC

endorphone wrote: post #21

riazrizvi wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

: ) Well don't take it on trust, validate it works. And keep validating it still works, because one day it won't. Everyone seems to sell out in the end.

It's impossible to validate. Further for all we know Fakespot (which curiously has been mentioned multiple times) might itself be a fake that undermines products that are sponsored, etc. It probably isn't, I'm just saying.

? You could manually analyze the reviewers for suspicious non-specificity, typical of paid reviewers for whom it is not cost effective to write a tailored review when they are being paid pennies per post. Also over time you could compare the quality of products that it says have fake reviews vs ones it says does not.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#28

Post by 21 » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:26 PM UTC

riazrizvi wrote: post #9

I've been using https://www.fakespot.com to flag bullshit reviews for a few months now. After many happy purchases informed by its review analysis, I believe it works.

How do you determine a review is bullshit? Do you only flag reviews for items you've bought?

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#29

Post by barbegal » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:26 PM UTC

Star ratings in general are just poor. In a 1 to 5 star rating, 3 is average but most people would perceive 3 stars to be above average. People tend to leave reviews only when they are displeased with the product, really pleased with the product or get something in return for making the review, in this case free products.

I tend to just filter on reviews that are 2 or 3 stars and use those to work out the cons of the product. These reviews are the most likely to be honest and can often give you the information that other reviewers forget to mention. Unfortunately, 2 and 3 star reviews are the least likely to be posted so you can only find them on products that have been reviewed hundreds of times.

Re: Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For

#30

Post by electriclove » Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 10:26 PM UTC

JohnTHaller wrote: post #3

It's common knowledge among most techies that the majority of Amazon reviews are fake and that counterfeit items are a big issue, but most of the general population is completely unaware. I was searching for an inexpensive pair of polarized sunglasses last week and the "Amazon Recommended" ones had an F on FakeSpot with 70%+ fake reviews.

So true.. I like the Flying Fisherman San Jose sunglasses and have gotten them from Amazon under https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Fisherman-Polarized-Sunglasses...