Quote:
Originally Posted by xg4bx
Reviews should only be allowed from people with an Amazon verified purchase of the item. If you bought it elsewhere, tough titty. They've got to try to maintain some integrity of the review process.
It happens everywhere, from fiction to bios to books written by politicians. It's disgusting and speaks volumes about the low character of these trolls.
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I so agree with this. Doing so would sure go a long way to keeping the background noise down on reviews. And yeah, I consider it pretty low-class to try and submarine a book or other product with negative reviews even if they never purchased the item.
I can see Amazon arguing that allowing reviews from anyone allows people who were given gifts purchased through Amazon to leave reviews. Perhaps providing some sort of gift code on a "gift-receipt" could address that sort of issue. Even the invoice number would suffice.
When I was consulting for eBay one area I know they send not insubstantial amounts of cash and man-hours attempting to address the problematic nature of feedback being used as a form of extortion. Even now the system is somewhat broken. I imagine that Amazon spends a decent of attention addressing reviews.
Something to considers is the area of actual ratings. What should a 3/5 mean? To me an average product that performs as expected gets a 3/5. Many feel such a product deserves 5/5. To my logic that diminishes the value of a 5-star rating when an average product gets an automatic 5. How do we then differentiate an exceptional or outstanding product? Of course then the definition of those terms is somewhat subjective as well. Before I wander too far away from the topic I find some people's need to gush over an average product puzzling, I mean it's as if they are deriving some sort of self-worth from giving that over-the-top gushing review.