Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
Fair enough --- but as in any democracy we prefer to speak up. And that includes the 1 Star review (even if I personally never did that). Just like you can ignore a demonstration you can ignore the reviews. Telling people not to give 1 star reviews based on pricing is like telling voters in an election "just shut up and vote for his opponent, don't complain that he is corrupt because a lot of people still like him". The 1 star reviews are just a rather effective way of consumer activism.
|
I agree. People are within their rights to abuse any open online system in any way that doesn't cause the owner to remove what they've done. If people want to protest within such constraints then that's their choice. Yes, personally, I do find it annoying, pointless, senseless and generally rather silly, but fine, if that's what they want (a bit like all these "x against DRM" protests really). If it makes them feel better: go ahead. As you say, that is democracy in action too.
It may even have some slight impact. A seller may adjust the point at which falling profits at price x will have them change to a lower price, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Since the reviews are mostly there for other readers, the seller may well find it has little affect on their sales, or indeed the sheer volume of one-star reviews may come to be used by people as: "hey, there are lots of people wanting to buy this book when it gets cheaper, it must be good" and so even the one-star reviews may result in increased sales (and perhaps that's why Amazon is happy to leave such protest reviews in place).