Apple's hostile App Store rating system

Post by inigyou » Wed, Jul 29, 2026, 11:00 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #87

done_lurking wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that stupid anime girl who is on way too many open source web sites I assume you're referring to https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis . As I understand, this is a tool for blocking bot traffic and is sometimes used as DDOS protection. In my experience it's less obtrusive than Cloudflare, and it's open source and competes with Cloudflare's near monopoly on DDOS protection. I don't think we should be discouraging peop…

[flagged]

Post by lapcat » Wed, Jul 29, 2026, 11:20 PM UTC

echoangle wrote: post #109

lapcat wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The App Store review in the screenshot used the phrase "ratings nag on the app interface." It did not say "nag screen". My app does have a ratings request on the app interface, which does not interface with the other controls on the app interface. It does not have a dedicated ratings request screen. People are just assuming "nag screen" based on the single word "nag", and even that word is questionable in my opinion,…

It would have helped to write that when talking about the review.

Post by tensor » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 12:11 AM UTC

lapcat wrote: post #113

echoangle wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would have helped to write that when talking about the review.

Not really. It's a red herring. Suppose for the sake of argument that every review in the App Store for every app was like the one in the screenshot, a complaint about ratings requests. How would that be helpful? How would anyone know whether, aside from the ratings requests, the apps were any good or not? How would those be good reviews? You might defend the reviews as accurate and justified, but they would still be…

Post by lapcat » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 12:42 AM UTC

tensor wrote: post #114

lapcat wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you write a blog post over a negative review accusing you of nagging, I would expect you to say “actually I’m not really nagging This is itself a misunderstanding of the blog post. There's a whole setup where I talk about my other blog post from the previous day, Apple App Store curation, and the origin of the App Store from the iTunes Music Store. Why do you think I wrote all of that? And then after I mention m…

Honestly, reviews are pretty standard and straight forward. Advocating to silence voices you don't like is just shit. Sure, there will always be some people super angry and something or other, but every app developer is in the same boat. It's an even playing field. In this case I agree with the system. I wouldn't want Apple start removing reviews based on arbitrary fuzzy feelings or logic.

Post by kalleboo » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 2:39 AM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #45

schmorptron wrote: post #40

App tells customer to review it. Customer reviews the app honestly (the nag is annoying and deserves 1 star). Seems like the nag screen worked? :) (Although in seriousness, I get this point they make further down in the article: "If we don’t request ratings from all users, then the self-initiated ratings tend to be disproportionately people with a complaint rather than satisfied users. ". That's a real problem. )

There are ways to non-annoyingly ask for a review. Wait until the user has meaningfully used the app. Don't interrupt the user mid-flow (a banner on the dashboard, a call-to-action on a piece of existing copy) with a modal. Provide a clear "never ask me" option.