Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
The review system at Amazon might be the BEST thing about Amazon, because it is free and open. It is hardly being destroyed.
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First, the Amazon review system isn't any more free and open than any other system I've seen online. Basically, the only requirement is that you be a registered Amazon user. This seems par for the course to me. And in fact, I
have seen censored reviews on Amazon. They'll censor a review, as someone else said, if you mention a price, and they'll also censor it if you mention somewhere else to get the product.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
In relation to the paper price. This matters.
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That's only the reason of some reviewers in this case. You're just as likely to find complaints when a book is priced > $9.99. It's really the same thing: People are complaining because the book costs more than they think it should, without reference to the content.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
What's the proof that any reviewer actually read the book? Should the reviewer sign an affidavit? Submit to pre-review testing on the contents of the book? After all, we must keep out the charlatans and the "vandals"!
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The proof that a person has read the book is at least
some reference to the book's content. If you want to get
really picky, I'd concede that a review by someone who didn't read the
entire book (e.g., "I read the first chapter, but it sucked so badly I had to put it in a trash can and ritually burn it."), but they should at least
reference the content in some way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
They are comparing the price of one version of the book to the price of the other version of the book. That's relevant.
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Not when they haven't read either version.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Even if this were a good idea, which it isn't, they only know who bought the book from them (and they do indicate that with the "verified buyer" tag). They don't know who actually read it, of course, and they certainly don't know who bought it elsewhere, got it at the library, got it for a gift, borrowed it, etc. Why can't those people express their opinions?
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Because people who
haven't read the book are spoiling the system for the rest of us, that's why. Letting only verified buyers post reviews post reviews isn't a perfect system (because, as you said, that eliminates people who bought the book from other sources) but at least it puts
some credibility back into the reviews.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Sometimes the pre-reviews are valid, sometimes not. That's why I'd READ them, not just look at the stars. I've seen plenty of pre-reviews at Amazon for DVDs--the reviewers are waxing poetic about, say, an old TV show that's coming out on DVD, talking about the show itself, not about the quality of the DVD transfer. Seems valid to me.
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Granted, pre-reviews for DVDs can be valuable, but it's a lot less valid for electronics. Over the years, I've seen a lot of reviews for PDAs, smartphones, etc., that haven't been released yet, but because a review is posted on a tech site (e.g., they get a pre-release version that's going to be coming out in a few months) people pile on with "reviews" about how "this thing sucks" or "this thing is the best thing since sliced bread".