
All the Product Reviews Money Can Buy - danso
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/your-money/all-the-product-reviews-money-can-buy.html
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hackuser
> Many of the reviews arrived in a matter of minutes, and all were left
> without comment.

I think the example is misleading. It confirms many people's beliefs that they
they can detect fake reviews based on characteristics like length, quality of
the writing, etc. But anyone who notices those characteristics, and many
people do, could write a much more sophisticated fake review. From what I
understand, there are plenty of services that will do that.

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reustle
Has there been any discussion on how to solve these sorts of issues recently?
Clearly, going after the people doing them won't always work, as there will
always be another platform.

Does a site like amazon only allow people who purchased the product through
then leave a review? How about other sites?

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akcreek
It is very common for sites to allow non-verified purchasers to leave reviews.
Amazon works this way. You'll see reviews on Amazon all the time where people
specifically mention that they bought it somewhere else. I've always wondered
why someone would leave a legitimate review on Amazon for a product they
didn't buy from Amazon. Maybe the answer is that they aren't legitimate
though.

Some review software notes when a reviewer is a verified purchaser. I look for
that when reading reviews because at least they have the product in question.

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chlee
Sometimes companies would pay (or reimburse) for their "preferred" reviewers
to purchase a product off amazon so they can leave favorable reviews as a
"verified purchased".

Sometimes the reviewers would be honest and say they are reviewing on behalf
of company X. Sometimes not.

Anyways, all of this is a roundabout way of saying that even reviews from
verified purchasers may not be 100% honest.

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pfisch
I mean it is bad that people can leave fake reviews, but it is even more
messed up that amazon can sue these people for essentially breaking their tos.

It is on Amazon to find technical solutions to technical problems like this,
not the government.

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mirimir
It strikes me as odd to characterize civil suits as "the government". Maybe
private enforcement organizations would be harder on fake reviewers ;)

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bitJericho
We're already finding that arbitration rather than courts to settle disputes
puts the public at a much greater disadvantage than corporations. I don't
think that's a good thing as corporations already wield much too much power.
Arbitration also keeps cases from becoming public knowledge which again, not
good for the public.

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dragonwriter
Well, yeah, I don't think it should be surprising that public institutions are
sometimes better at serving the public interest. That's sort of the whole
point of having them.

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hackuser
Everyone still is trying to work around the fact that you can't believe what
random unknown people say, either in a bar or on the Internet. There is no
solution; just stop believing it.

