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Apple's hostile App Store rating system

lapcatsoftware.com

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Re: Apple's hostile App Store rating system

#21

Post by ceejayoz »

PaulHoule wrote: post #15
ceejayoz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd like to see the EU legislators who gave us these GDPR popups… The tracking industry's endless abuses gave you those popups, and they're deliberately implemented to be as annoying as possible to make you say things like the above.

It could have been "respect DNT or go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200". Instead we got American-style legalistic consentualism. My experience as a web developer since 1995 or so is I was able to push back on pop-ups, pop-overs and stuff like that as being user hostile. Than the GDPR breaks the dam, it normalizes the idea of interrupting the user over bullshit, it is not "annoying" anymore, now i…

The GDPR required an action by those performing intrusive tracking. Popups was one possible action.

Less intrusive tracking is an option! Opt-in tracking is an option! Not tracking is an option! I don't track anything on my personal sites, and I push back on anything at work that'd make me add a banner as hard as I possibly can.

Re: Apple's hostile App Store rating system

#22

Post by UrsusDenali »

vvbull wrote: post #17
spacedcowboy wrote: post #2

Just because “everyone does it” doesn’t mean you get a pass to do it too. Nagging the user to “rate my app” is pure self-interest at the expense of user-experience. I rate any app that nags (ie: more than thrice) me to rate it too. OTOH if I genuinely like some software I’m happy to rate it highly. Bottom line: It’s not my job to help sell your software - that’s your job. As for trying to get Apple in on the “screw w…

Wait, do developers control when those nags appear or does Apple? I originally thought it was the devs, but then they all were so consistent in presentation I thought maybe Apple prompted on every app after some amount of time. I originally rated any app that nagged 1 star, but stopped after thinking that maybe they couldn't control it. But it sounds like maybe they can?

They can control it. In my experience we tried to wait for the user to reach certain checkpoints or experiences to make sure that they had an opportunity to engage with enough of the app to have a real opinion, though on some products it was so delayed we lacked enough of a signal to understand product performance.

Re: Apple's hostile App Store rating system

#23

Post by FabHK »

ceejayoz wrote: post #3

> Imagine if a professional writer for the tech news media submitted this app review to their editor for publication. The writer would likely be fired for incompetence. It's not an article, it's a review. Everyone knows it's some random fuckwit. > Below is a one-star review that I discovered today—App Store developers must check manually for reviews because Apple fails to send us email notifications... There's an API…

> > Indeed, if ratings requests were initiated by Apple, then Apple could go as far as to ban developer-initiated ratings requests in the App Store.

> They did! It's a one-shot dialog now.

No. Apple provides an API, but Apple doesn't ask for reviews. The app has to initiate the process to ask for a review (through Apple's API). That is what the developer highlights: If Apple were to solicit reviews from customers, then said API could be retired and apps could reasonably be banned entirely from soliciting reviews. As it stands, they're caught in a tragedy of the commons, with unscrupulous developers winning (e.g. with fake reviews, or the annoying "are you satisfied" pop-up before displaying the Apple API).

Re: Apple's hostile App Store rating system

#24

Post by Marsymars »

> Apple could mitigate this problem by emailing App Store customers at some point after purchase with a request to rate the app, so that app developers don’t need to request reviews.

I don't think the fix to "users don't want nags to review apps" is to email users nags to review apps.

Re: Apple's hostile App Store rating system

#26

Post by ctrlaltdylan »

It's a broken system. The platforms don't have the skin in the game.

It does exploit the developers, you have to provide A+ support, and often outside the scope of your app just to prevent reviews.

Personally, I don't automatically prompt for reviews at all. Only after a great 1:1 actual conversational interaction.

As a result, my reviews are a tiny fraction of the bigger players. This is the opposite strategy that works.

The reviews game incentivizes high volume, cheap software with automated review capture.

Re: Apple's hostile App Store rating system

#28

Post by black3r »

FabHK wrote: post #14
spacedcowboy wrote: post #2

Just because “everyone does it” doesn’t mean you get a pass to do it too. Nagging the user to “rate my app” is pure self-interest at the expense of user-experience. I rate any app that nags (ie: more than thrice) me to rate it too. OTOH if I genuinely like some software I’m happy to rate it highly. Bottom line: It’s not my job to help sell your software - that’s your job. As for trying to get Apple in on the “screw w…

> I rate any app that nags (ie: more than thrice) me to rate it too. Interesting. Apps can only ask three times a year (from Apple's documentation, my highlights): "Asking for ratings and reviews You can ask users to rate and review your app at appropriate times throughout the user experience. Make the request when users are most likely to feel satisfaction with your app, such as when they’ve completed an action, lev…

Apps can only show you the Apple's dialog for rating three times a year. Many apps first show you their own popup/dialog asking stuff like "Do you like this app?" and only if you click "yes" there then they show you Apple's dialog. And they can show you their own dialog as many times as they like...

Re: Apple's hostile App Store rating system

#29

Post by scottyah »

jurgenkesker wrote: post #6

Am I mistaken or is the premise: I don't like that users have an opinion about my app?

The exact opposite, really. You live or die by app store ratings. Too many ratings are bogus (don't accurately describe the app's functionality, just some random feeling the user has in the moment). Either the App Store should take on more burden to ensure ratings are accurate (perhaps criteria? disincentivize false ratings?), or eliminate/downplay the system.

There are already commenters proudly declaring they abuse the system because there is just no incentives not to.

Re: Apple's hostile App Store rating system

#30

Post by hombre_fatal »

The examples kind torpedo the whole post.

> The reviews are irrationally nitpicky, choosing one quibble and making the entire review about that. Somehow the apps deserve an overall one-star rating based on that one factor?

Yet OP thinks having a "Review me pls" nag, especially for paying customers, is a trivial thing that users should just brush aside? How about some humility and respect for the user instead of doubling down.

Not to mention the irony of nagging people to review it and then getting mad at the reviews.

That said, I know the frustration and OP surely could have made his point about better examples.

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