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Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

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Re: Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

#71
post #19
post #7

Can someone who knows more about such things than I explain to me why their weird response to the situation (halting buying, but still permitting selling) was deemed by them to be the best of their options (the other two obvious ones being to temporarily stop dealing in those securities entirely (halting buying and selling), or to continue letting people trade them as they had the previous day)? It's confusing to me.…

Halting buying and selling is even worst - it means that people are locked into owning GME even if it tanks to 0. (someone please correct if wrong) Edit: I know they haven't halted selling, this is directly in response to a part of the parent's comment

You mean people who bought a hot potato might be stuck owning it when the music stops? Make no mistake, the music will stop and someone will be left holding it. Might as well be the folks holding it right now.

Re: Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

#72

Just as I was wondering how many retail investors might be involved: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25947674 From the number of Playstore votes it seems quite a few? Will be interesting to see if it stays that way. Or if they can somehow cheat their way out of it and get all recent ratings deleted or something. Any guesses?

If they keep selling people's stocks without their consent, then yeah, I'm pretty sure it'll stay until RH can buy better reviews. [edit] though there are some reports that the stocks were bought on margin, which makes it more(?) okay, I guess?

e: I'm leaving my original comment below for posterity, but I learned upthread that I was substantially misinformed here. Robinhood accounts are by default margin accounts, and their documentation describes this in an incredibly misleading way (https://robinhood.com/us/en/support/articles/robinhood-accou...):

> When you sign up for a new account, you’ll automatically start with a Robinhood Instant account, which is a margin account. This means you’ll have access to instant deposits and extended-hours trading. You also won’t have to wait for your funds to process when you sell stocks or make a deposit (up to $1,000).

I stand by my claim that margin accounts necessarily require forced liquidation, but this is pretty indefensible.

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If the stocks were bought on margin it's entirely non-objectionable. Forced liquidation is a well-known practice that's fundamental to margin accounts as a concept - without it, a margin account is just an unsecured loan, and nobody's going to offer the average margin trader a low-cost unsecured loan for stock speculation.

Re: Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

#73
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they? They just need spam protection. If legitimate, independent users vote them down in thousands then why would an app need a protection?

What would be something positive about allowing mobbing?

When it's positive, it's called "trending"

Re: Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

#75
Better to have 1 star and stay open than to be shutdown one way or another.

Music, taxis, retail, newspapers, politics and others have been disrupted by technology and the incumbents have suffered.

The establishment players have all seen this and they aren't going to let it happen again to them. They'll let technology in but only the way they want.

And now that deplatforming companies and powerful from credit-card, cloud providers, app stores, communications is normal and accepted they have more power and control than ever.

If I was robinhood I would do the same thing. Standing up for a principle is only going to get you shutdown and have everyone hate you after the fake news vilifies you and drags you through the gutter.

Re: Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

#76
post #8

I'm surprised the app stores (well, at least the play store) don't have hysteresis built in to prevent mobbing the ratings, just in general.

This is not mobbing the ratings. They did something bad, and they are getting bad reviews for it. The review system is working as intended.

Re: Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

#77
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they? They just need spam protection. If legitimate, independent users vote them down in thousands then why would an app need a protection?

What would be something positive about allowing mobbing?

I don't know if that's a positive, but companies like Google often cave to the mob and the press demanding deplatforming of certain individuals. If they remove the ratings then that will just prove, once again, what their allegiances are. Except now a lot of people are watching really closely.

Re: Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

#78
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the app is broken. They are not allowing you to buy shares. Why should an app that decides you can't buy certain shares, and they auto-sells some shares you own, be rated highly?

Because many people on social media encourage other people to give the app 1-point rating. That's something Google need to protect against. The poor rating should happen organically. But regardless, they are fucked.

Thousands (millions?) Of people lost money / opportunity because of the app. Then those people rate what they think of the app - that ir cannot be trusted to act in their interest.

Why should Google protect them against consequences of their own decisions?

Re: Robinhood now has a 1-Star rating on the Google Play Store

#80
One of the good things I see coming out of Robinhood blocking trading, Twitter and Reddit booting problematic users, Parler getting vaporized, etc. is a sudden realization amongst people of just how easily major parts of their lives can be instantly turned off by intermediaries.

My hope is that this will drive a reformist movement around digital rights (speech, commerce, etc.) As well as a movement from platforms to protocols.

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