No i'm saying that positive reviews that just say "Awesome" are either fake or simply useless as well as negative reviews that just say "Sucks" are equally worthless. When someone takes the time to thoughtfully explain their experience good or bad, that makes them look authentic. In the case of Beats, that to me seems like an unusual situation where, as you mentioned, "supposed users" could be an issue. Normally people don't have a vendetta when reviewing apps on the App Store and you have to be a validated owner of the app to even comment.
I see your point of course. I was just being my usual dick-headed self.
About time - I am an app developer of a free app and was sure that some of the negative reviews were coming from competing (paid) app developers. To make your app shine on the app store you can pay to "down-star" your competitors just as easily as you can "up-star" your own app.
One of my fears as a smaller developer earning my living from an app, is that Apple would do something that would mess up that income stream. Now I say that from the standpoint that we don't and won't solicit fake reviews, but we do ask our users to review us of course. I'm glad to hear that Apple is doing something to help the honest app developers out.
Maybe what Apple should consider instead is a rating/review SDK that is enabled in an app by default. Something that would popup at random. That uncontrolled solicitation of reviews from actual users of the app, would make them more accurate, and probably give a more accurate depiction of how good an app really is. I know this isn't really good for games and such, so it's a difficult issue, but I'm sure there could be a way to make things a little more accurate.
I don't even bother with the positive reviews, they're pretty much useless. I read all of the critical reviews and compare those with the date of the review and the app updates information.
Heck yeah. They need to do the same to their physical products’ reviews.
I stopped using ‘customer’ reviews of anything some years ago. It had become apparent that customer reviews are useless, rigged, and paid for. Samsung got caught red handed paying people to trash HTC. I vividly remember the day the iPhone was announced in 2007. C|net had a review section that was full of hundreds of negative comments from so-called users. Strange that the product wasn’t even available for sale yet.
These days I completely ignore the review sections. Funny that before the purchase of Beats by Apple their products were given generally acceptable reviews by so-called users. Once Apple bought Beats the reviews turned into spiteful, vitriolic, hate filled diatribes. Now only stupid people buy Beats products, the same stupid people who buy Apple products.
Me too. And not just for the App Store. For everything. You just can't trust them. It's not that there aren't plenty of legitimate reviews (mine included) - it's that there are too many which aren't (mine included). I prefer to judge an app or anything else on a professional review or my own instinct. I have rarely been let down by professional reviews, though they're fallible, whereas amateur reviews I have found to be much flakier - for example: Yelp, imdb, Amazon.
they should tar and feather them as well, these develop would go to Google market place and pull this, the only problem is we all know no one who owns an android phone has enough money to buy apps, or they just looking for what ever is fee.
The fabricated reviews, I guess, will just get more sophisticated.
Exactly. Instead of paying for good reviews, all you need do do is post negative reviews about your competitors. Actually, you can just spam your competition with POSITIVE reviews and let apple kill your competitor, accusing them of posting the false-positive reviews!
Me too. And not just for the App Store. For everything. You just can't trust them. It's not that there aren't plenty of legitimate reviews (mine included) - it's that there are too many which aren't (mine included). I prefer to judge an app or anything else on a professional review or my own instinct. I have rarely been let down by professional reviews, though they're fallible, whereas amateur reviews I have found to be much flakier - for example: Yelp, imdb, Amazon.
There are websites where you can offer IT jobs and individual and companies bid for the job - an ebay for all sorts of IT services. One thing I came across was people looking for review writers as well as blog commenters. I wasn't that surprised - I mean who in the hell posts a 20 paragraph bullet pointed review on amazon for a lawnmower? Or any other item? I do read reviews but I am very discriminating. I also read somewhere about a study that revealed certain linguistic features common when people lie. One such was the frequent reference to oneself, such as "when I did this, I found that I couldn't..." etc.
Interesting. Clearly there are both fake good reviews and fake bad reviews. I'm a beta tester for an app I really like and when I try to submit a thoughtful positive review it won't post, probably because I never have the same version as the current version. I guess that's fair. I just hope Apple is as aware of spam reviews instigated by competitors.
Apple could conduct an investigation into each claim, and when the evidence is clear that the fake reviews came from the developers themselves, then the appropriate action could be taken.
If we had an opportunity to try the app for 10-15 minutes before purchasing the app, legitimate developers would likely sell more apps. Cost can be a deterrent if someone has been burned in the past. The "lite" versions are okay, but I'd prefer to try the paid version. More often than not, I'd probably go ahead and purchase the app if I liked it.
I'd be happy if their review system worked at all reasonably well. I have a small button in the corner of my app that takes a user to the review page for that app. I log how many people have pressed it. I have 300 people who voluntarily pressed the button and have 16 reviews. I don't expect 100% transfer rate, but only 5% of people who were trying to rate the app were actually successful. The problem is that there is no way in iOS 7 to redirect them straight to the review page, so they have to click, then, to rate it on the iPhone, they have to click, type in their password and then another window appears with the title and comment and star rating. On the iPad, it is much simpler and can be done in two clicks (not sure why there is this discrepancy). Unfortunately, the vast majority of my users are on the iPhone, which is probably why they don't get all the way through.
Thus, the problem is that it is harder than it should be to get users to rate an app, yet so much of the success of an app is based on those ratings. I don't condone the actions of buying ratings, but I do understand why many resort to it.
Now, before you start saying how much you hate those pop ups, I agree, I don't use them. I have an unobtrusive button that you have to voluntarily click on.
The thing that I noticed is a lot is the 5 star reviews just say something like "Awesome App" where as the negative reviews often go into great detail of why they were dissatisfied, what didn't work, etc. It is pretty easy to tell which ones are fake and which ones are not.
Yes, I also notice the fake very good reviews stand out.
Glad to hear Apple is trying to correct this lying, but I'm sure some of it will continue regardless.
Lately about 90% of the free Apps I install, are crappy and I delete them after posting a bad review.
I'd be happy if their review system worked at all reasonably well. I have a small button in the corner of my app that takes a user to the review page for that app. I log how many people have pressed it. I have 300 people who voluntarily pressed the button and have 16 reviews. I don't expect 100% transfer rate, but only 5% of people who were trying to rate the app were actually successful. The problem is that there is no way in iOS 7 to redirect them straight to the review page, so they have to click, then, to rate it on the iPhone, they have to click, type in their password and then another window appears with the title and comment and star rating. On the iPad, it is much simpler and can be done in two clicks (not sure why there is this discrepancy). Unfortunately, the vast majority of my users are on the iPhone, which is probably why they don't get all the way through.
Thus, the problem is that it is harder than it should be to get users to rate an app, yet so much of the success of an app is based on those ratings. I don't condone the actions of buying ratings, but I do understand why many resort to it.
Now, before you start saying how much you hate those pop ups, I agree, I don't use them. I have an unobtrusive button that you have to voluntarily click on.
Maybe Apple could roll a "rate this app" link into their iOS iAds.
Comments
No i'm saying that positive reviews that just say "Awesome" are either fake or simply useless as well as negative reviews that just say "Sucks" are equally worthless. When someone takes the time to thoughtfully explain their experience good or bad, that makes them look authentic. In the case of Beats, that to me seems like an unusual situation where, as you mentioned, "supposed users" could be an issue. Normally people don't have a vendetta when reviewing apps on the App Store and you have to be a validated owner of the app to even comment.
I see your point of course. I was just being my usual dick-headed self.
Devs with excessive fake reviews should have their apps removed and their developers agreement ended.
About time - I am an app developer of a free app and was sure that some of the negative reviews were coming from competing (paid) app developers. To make your app shine on the app store you can pay to "down-star" your competitors just as easily as you can "up-star" your own app.
What's your app?
One of my fears as a smaller developer earning my living from an app, is that Apple would do something that would mess up that income stream. Now I say that from the standpoint that we don't and won't solicit fake reviews, but we do ask our users to review us of course. I'm glad to hear that Apple is doing something to help the honest app developers out.
Maybe what Apple should consider instead is a rating/review SDK that is enabled in an app by default. Something that would popup at random. That uncontrolled solicitation of reviews from actual users of the app, would make them more accurate, and probably give a more accurate depiction of how good an app really is. I know this isn't really good for games and such, so it's a difficult issue, but I'm sure there could be a way to make things a little more accurate.
Heck yeah. They need to do the same to their physical products’ reviews.
I stopped using ‘customer’ reviews of anything some years ago. It had become apparent that customer reviews are useless, rigged, and paid for. Samsung got caught red handed paying people to trash HTC. I vividly remember the day the iPhone was announced in 2007. C|net had a review section that was full of hundreds of negative comments from so-called users. Strange that the product wasn’t even available for sale yet.
These days I completely ignore the review sections. Funny that before the purchase of Beats by Apple their products were given generally acceptable reviews by so-called users. Once Apple bought Beats the reviews turned into spiteful, vitriolic, hate filled diatribes. Now only stupid people buy Beats products, the same stupid people who buy Apple products.
Me too. And not just for the App Store. For everything. You just can't trust them. It's not that there aren't plenty of legitimate reviews (mine included) - it's that there are too many which aren't (mine included). I prefer to judge an app or anything else on a professional review or my own instinct. I have rarely been let down by professional reviews, though they're fallible, whereas amateur reviews I have found to be much flakier - for example: Yelp, imdb, Amazon.
The fabricated reviews, I guess, will just get more sophisticated.
they should tar and feather them as well, these develop would go to Google market place and pull this, the only problem is we all know no one who owns an android phone has enough money to buy apps, or they just looking for what ever is fee.
The fabricated reviews, I guess, will just get more sophisticated.
Exactly. Instead of paying for good reviews, all you need do do is post negative reviews about your competitors. Actually, you can just spam your competition with POSITIVE reviews and let apple kill your competitor, accusing them of posting the false-positive reviews!
Me too. And not just for the App Store. For everything. You just can't trust them. It's not that there aren't plenty of legitimate reviews (mine included) - it's that there are too many which aren't (mine included). I prefer to judge an app or anything else on a professional review or my own instinct. I have rarely been let down by professional reviews, though they're fallible, whereas amateur reviews I have found to be much flakier - for example: Yelp, imdb, Amazon.
There are websites where you can offer IT jobs and individual and companies bid for the job - an ebay for all sorts of IT services. One thing I came across was people looking for review writers as well as blog commenters. I wasn't that surprised - I mean who in the hell posts a 20 paragraph bullet pointed review on amazon for a lawnmower? Or any other item? I do read reviews but I am very discriminating. I also read somewhere about a study that revealed certain linguistic features common when people lie. One such was the frequent reference to oneself, such as "when I did this, I found that I couldn't..." etc.
What is a crap is Apple's ranking system. Actually it is a "father" of such things as fake reviews.
Ban them permanently!
Heck yeah. They need to do the same to their physical products’ reviews.
I'll see your 'heck yeah', and raise you a 'heck yeah'!
But I'd hope to also see the other half of the equation,
where developers and manufacturers like Apple start taking
the larger ratio of negativity that will result to heart, and respond
more aggressively when negative feedback is accurate.
Thus, the problem is that it is harder than it should be to get users to rate an app, yet so much of the success of an app is based on those ratings. I don't condone the actions of buying ratings, but I do understand why many resort to it.
Now, before you start saying how much you hate those pop ups, I agree, I don't use them. I have an unobtrusive button that you have to voluntarily click on.
The thing that I noticed is a lot is the 5 star reviews just say something like "Awesome App" where as the negative reviews often go into great detail of why they were dissatisfied, what didn't work, etc. It is pretty easy to tell which ones are fake and which ones are not.
Yes, I also notice the fake very good reviews stand out.
Glad to hear Apple is trying to correct this lying, but I'm sure some of it will continue regardless.
Lately about 90% of the free Apps I install, are crappy and I delete them after posting a bad review.
Maybe Apple could roll a "rate this app" link into their iOS iAds.