Great apps and stupid reviews

[N_LaRUE]

I'm not a developer but I think something should be done to allow developers to erase what can only be called spam reviews. There's nothing wrong with legitimate reviews but there are some reviews that are on some really great apps that seem to be there for one purpose only and that?s to bring the rating down. Another system would be to allow users to mark reviews as spam and then get deleted by a bot.

I?m not certain of what happens on other platforms to combat this issue but I think marking as spam and then having it deleted seems fair if it?s proven that the review adds nothing to improvement of the app.

Now I know that the terminology of stupid may offend some people but I have to say I?m tired of seeing these same types of reviews over and over again that saying they are stupid fits.

Here are some examples:

1 Star Review on BBC iPlayer - Does not work outside the UK for copyright and capacity reasons. Come on BBC! Can't afford some more VM's? Anyway, I can get Live TV stream on any Windows 8 box so what is this legal limitation?

This person is obviously ignorant of the fact that the BBC is a company support by UK tax payers. Their programs are copyrighted to the UK. This is no different than me trying to watch a copyrighted program on a US TV channel or any other country for that matter without finding an illegal bypass. Sorry the BBC is not going to provide you with ?free? viewing of their copyrighted material in their app if you live outside the UK.

To be blunt, this review deserves to be deleted.

1 Star Review on Camera360 - Its called camera 360 yet it doesn't have a panarama setting stuff you 1*

This review offends me on a level I can?t really put into words. I?m not sure if they?re trolling or really this stupid but it goes to show what I?m talking about. It would take all of a two second search to find out what Camera360 does. Not to mention that the description is pretty straight forward. It?s one of my favourite free apps and I?d happily pay for it once it has the same features as on iOS.

Again needs to be deleted.

There are of course other reviews I?ve seen that are just as bad. This needs to be corrected and fast. If I was a developer and got reviews like this I wouldn?t be too happy.

What are your thoughts?

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Okay, I agree with you but you need to dial down the title a little bit.

Also, in the Philippine Windows Phone Store, there are reviews like this:

User- 1 star
"nice"

I mean, that doesn't help anybody. The whole point of a review is to:
A. Help developer
B. Help users in picking the right apps

 

[WorzelGummage]

The problem with being able to report reviews as spam is that some spammers would report the 5 star reviews as spam too. Then there would be a war between spammers and genuine reviewers.
That being said I totally agree that a lot of reviews are completely useless. There is an app for Android called Traffic Light Changer that clearly says it is a prank app in the description. However, reading the reviews brings up a few morons who don't understand the word prank.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...DEsImF0dGljbGFiLlRyYWZmaWNMaWdodENoYW5nZXIiXQ..

 

[WanderingTraveler]

1 Star Review on Camera360 - Its called camera 360 yet it doesn't have a panarama setting stuff you 1*

This is just so wrong on so many levels.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Okay, I agree with you but you need to dial down the title a little bit.

Also, in the Philippine Windows Phone Store, there are reviews like this:

User- 1 star
"nice"

I mean, that doesn't help anybody. The whole point of a review is to:
A. Help developer
B. Help users in picking the right apps

I didn't mean to appear agressive. Sorry if it came off that way. There are a lot of apps out there with these kind of stupid reviews that would bother me a lot if I was a developer.

I've also seen that 'nice' one star review on apps as well.

 

[palandri]

You run into reviews like that on anything you're looking for reviews on, such as, hotels, restaurants, hair salon...etc... You just need to do your research and filter through the ignorant reviews.

 

[N_LaRUE]

You run into reviews like that on anything you're looking for reviews on, such as, hotels, restaurants, hair salon...etc... You just need to do your research and filter through the ignorant reviews.

Oh I know. I just think that stupid reviews shouldn't stick and there should be a method of dealing with them.

An example of another one. My wife and I were planning a trip to Paris a few years back and we were looking into B&Bs on Tripadvisor. The B&B we decided on had one reviewer that complained that there was no English TV channels so gave a low review for that reason. I've seen tonnes of others like this on Tripadvisor. Again, I think things like this should be removed. Having to constantly filter stupid gets tiring.

 

[palandri]

....Having to constantly filter stupid gets tiring.

I hear ya! I guess it's just the nature of the beast. It's normally pretty easy to filter through them though, but it can be time consuming.

 

[link68759]

Windows 8 store has this in place and so far it looks very good; all stupid comments have "0/X people found this helpful" and helpful comments are marked as helpful. The system works.... But afaik the bad rating still negatively affects the overall score.

I personally have zero tolerance for this. I would implement a system where if you are constantly being marked as "unhelpful", your vote counts less. Across the entire store. Even if you leave positive ratings: if you have a high ratio of unhelpful:helpful comments, you're marked as stupid by the system and you therefore have less of a say.

If quietly enacted, it's unlikely people would know it was there, and I doubt such a system would easily be abused since the spammers are few and the community is largely intelligent.
Sent from my RM-824_nam_att_101 using Board Express

 

[N_LaRUE]

Windows 8 store has this in place and so far it looks very good; all stupid comments have "0/X people found this helpful" and helpful comments are marked as helpful. The system works.... But afaik the bad rating still negatively affects the overall score.

That's Windows 8 but that doesn't help Windows Phone as this doesn't exist there. Agreed it should stop affecting the overall score. Also agree with the rest of your comment.

 

[EasilyTheBest]

The review I hate which loads of ppl seem to use is,
"does exactly what it says on the tin"
Grrr, they must have shares in Ronseal....
And yes, some reviews are totally bonkers and should be deleted somehow.

 

[Funky Cricket]

This is why "news" isn't news anymore, we used to have intelligent thoughtful people taking the time to offer good honest information in news papers and on TV for reviews, news, sports, etc, now "everyone" (read: every moron who can bang at a keyboard like a drunk monkey) thinks they have something important to say, yet they can barely take the time to RTFM. Think that the dev should have some say to mark reviews that are completely inane and that MS should hire a few cubicle rats to do some quick skimming through this stuff.

 

[MastrMeatWad]

Don't forget the reviews that state: "Why not Free!?" One star for not being free.

Or, the reviews that are long and rant about Live titles or the OS and have zero to do with the actual application. Unfortunatly this is a problem that I do not think has an excellent solution. There will always be a good number of (fill in the blank) that abuse systems or don't understand the error in their ways.

 

[inteller]

wow, more of this? Listen, it is a free world and the platform allows for rating (5 stars) and a review. both are optional. Don't get pissy because someone leaves a rating and not a review or leaves a rating and a short comment. When I look for apps to install I look at the stars. Anything 3 and below I have to take a second look. if the recent comments say stuff like "broken" or "stopped working" that's all I need to know to pass on it. I don't need a 3 paragraph essay on why it is good or bad.

 

[N_LaRUE]

This is why "news" isn't news anymore, we used to have intelligent thoughtful people taking the time to offer good honest information in news papers and on TV for reviews, news, sports, etc, now "everyone" (read: every moron who can bang at a keyboard like a drunk monkey) thinks they have something important to say, yet they can barely take the time to RTFM.

While I agree with you somewhat I have to say why 'news' is no longer 'news' is due to other factors, typically the filtering effect of those in power and the blase media hype. If you want 'real' news sometimes you need to go elsewhere. I find personal opinion articles sometimes interesting but typically biased which can be interesting if the person who wrote the article wants to engage in real terms.

MS should hire a few cubicle rats to do some quick skimming through this stuff.

They could make a bot to do it like they use on Wikipedia. Intelligent bots would make things a lot easier and more cost effective.

 

[N_LaRUE]

wow, more of this? Listen, it is a free world and the platform allows for rating (5 stars) and a review. both are optional. Don't get pissy because someone leaves a rating and not a review or leaves a rating and a short comment. When I look for apps to install I look at the stars. Anything 3 and below I have to take a second look. if the recent comments say stuff like "broken" or "stopped working" that's all I need to know to pass on it. I don't need a 3 paragraph essay on why it is good or bad.

Yes it's a free world but I'm not talking about censorship. This is more about stupid comment removal rather than long winded reviews or personal opinion. If I want reviews on an app I look on the WPCENTRAL main site for an overall view of the app. I'm talking about people who leave stupid 1 star comments which should be removed cause they decrease the overall rating on a good app. These comments are typically pointless or useless, look at that one I posted about Camera360, do you think that's a valid comment that should be allowed to hang around and lower the apps rating? I personally don't. That's my point.

 

[SanjitVignesh]

I did find the title Camera 360 a little bit misleading.
Wasn't there an article on WPCentral about this already? Please refer here : Consumer review etiquette on the Windows Phone Store

 

[WasteSomeTime]

When I review something, I don't see it. Am I supposed to be able to see it?

 

[foxbat121]

The problem with what OP said is who is trust enough to remove/judge the spam reviews. No one I would say. Google just recently added the capability for app dev to respond to bad reviews but not removing it. I think this is a step towards right direction. But only time will tell.

I'd say reviews in general are not very accurate anyway. I trust 1 star review as much as 5 star review. Both can be totally bogus and ignorance from the reviewer.

 

[a5cent]

The problem with what OP said is who is trust enough to remove/judge the spam reviews?

Answer: the community.

A voting system for reviews, designed correctly, could help us get rid of most FUD.