Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 1 star review that loves the product but hated the way it was shipped. Someone needs to write a textbook on the pathology of those people.
The customer paid not only for the product but also for the service of having that product delivered to them. Asking them to restrict their review to only one aspect of what they paid for does not seem reasonable.
Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
311–320 of 499 posts
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is something about how the human brain works that makes us hate this. It happens in games a lot; the community will complain that a certain character is broken and that they hate playing against it... but won't actually go play the character themselves to exploit the brokenness for their own gain. Seems silly to me. (Buying reviews might actually be illegal though, so that's a strong argument to not do it.)
If you've never read it before, I highly recommend reading David Sirlin's Playing to Win. http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/ Specifically the chapter "Introducing... the Scrub" discusses exactly this sentiment. http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/introducingthe-scrub > In Street Fighter, the scrub labels a wide variety of tactics and situations “cheap.” This “cheapness” is truly the mantra of the scrub. Performing a throw on some…
Playing To Win is about people who refuse to learn the rules of a game. That's not what's happening here. What's happening here is that people who understand the rules very well are pointing out that they have holes in them.
Scrub statement: "throws are cheap". Informed statement: "the way SF2 tick throw setups work biases the gameplay too far in favor of the player with offensive agency." You'll note that the latter makes no mistake about the purpose of the rules and makes no judgments about players using the tools provided. Instead it focuses on system interactions and their net result. You'll note that almost every big fighting game in the 20 years since the end of the SF2 series has reduced the power of tick throws by means of frame data or broader system changes. Players generally decided that getting the first knockdown should not have that much influence over a match.
Scrub statement: "I hate people who get upset at review purchasing." Informed statement: "Review purchasing makes the buying process worse for everyone by creating incentives to deceive buyers, increasing costs for sellers that purchase reviews and reducing sales to sellers who do not. It shifts the Nash equilibrium towards paying more for lower-quality products." Again, the latter examines the system interactions and emergent behavior rather than making moral judgments about the participants.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
Each state's Attorney General's office usually has a department of consumer protection that will hear these complaints. I've reported Amazon to my AG more than once.
You can also report them to /dev/null, it will have the same effect.
Seems to be the same effect as reporting them to jeff@amazon.com, then.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Each state's Attorney General's office usually has a department of consumer protection that will hear these complaints. I've reported Amazon to my AG more than once.
What sorts of outcomes have you seen from your reports?
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#315Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
My favorite is seeing 5 star reviews that are hijacking the top to complain. I've also seen 1 star reviews that are exalting reviews. But my all time ongoing pet peeve is how recommendation engines especially on video streaming and video game series use numbers and star systems that are not based on any other human's input. Not a critic, not a user score, just an algorithm's confidence score on similarities.
The 1 star review that loves the product but hated the way it was shipped. Someone needs to write a textbook on the pathology of those people.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
The best place to find reviews it seems is through subscription paid independent reviewers. Consumer reports is one that comes to mind (they are also non-profit), as well as rtings. If you are looking for reviews for more niche products though, your pretty much on your own when it comes to finding out if its good or not.
"non-profit" just means there are no investors. It doesn't mean management isn't taking home money for running the operation.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
The customer paid not only for the product but also for the service of having that product delivered to them. Asking them to restrict their review to only one aspect of what they paid for does not seem reasonable.
Depends. Oftentimes the shipping problem is the carrier's fault (e.g. UPS or FedEx) and not in control of the shipper at all. Other times they packaged it poorly and it predictably broke, leaked, or melted and it's entirely the carrier's fault. But I do see a plethora of comments that seem to be blaming things like shipping delays on the seller.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
'personal relationship with the brand' Personal relationships with a social construct indicate the need for proffesional help. Amd imaginary friends.
"Amd imaginary friends." Freudian slip? Need something to replace your intel laptop? :-P But yes, the whole point of brand marketing is to invoke a relationship in the mind of the [potential] buyer. And when you have people who devote their life to it there has to be someone out there who is good at it using whatever pysch tricks they can. So no wonder some people fall for it. It's almost inevitable.
Re: Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews
#320Now I remember ... The previous review practice that outraged me was when someone here at HN was producing very detailed analysis of LED bulbs (spectral analysis, etc.) and proving that lots of bulbs on Amazon had CRI and color temperature ratings that were way off . He then described how he posted that in some reviews and they were all taken down. Which is to say, crummy LED bulb on Amazon with an inflated CRI canno…
China Export [1] are the only two words anyone should ever need to know about Amazon when it comes to safety and quality. 1. https://support.ce-check.eu/hc/en-us/articles/360008642600-H...