|
That's another problem with user reviews, along with negative reviews for PEBCAK errors and positive ones from astroturfing: companies that delete all, or most, negative reviews. This generally happens when they're manufacturing or selling whatever it is. I don't trust reviews on any company's site unless there's a substantial leavening of the "this thing broke the day after I got it" kind on some of the items, so I have some hope they're real.
I think really the only hope of decent reviews is family and friends: if someone you know says "yeah, this was great for me, and I liked the ding-a-ling" or "don't buy that, it'll eat your petunias" you know a lot more about what it's like than you do if you read some review from someone you don't know from Adam, whether they're a NYT critic or some random schmuck who didn't like something.
The paid "reviewers" are basically eating their seed corn. They're making some money in the short term by capitalizing on the existing trust in reviews -- the former impartiality that leads most people to still consider a review more trustworthy than an ad -- while destroying that trust. After a few years of this, reviews will be considered just another format of ad. For short-term gains, they're destroying the long-term use. Typical.
|