A New Low in Advertising?

From another thread:



Argh!!!!!

I don't mind bots, I don't mind pick selling/renting - if you choose to fine- but this????? It takes all kinds I suppose- and if you can look in the mirror- but geesh- why would anyone resort to such blatant lies? Are the 'creators' that would so mediocre in their own eyes that they can't even rely on their customers likeing their stuff?

Personally, I have a little note on my items asking to be reviewed- period - Thank you kindly if you do, please tell your friends- but resort to paying for false testimonials???

This isn't really new to me. Based upon how my products get reviewed and conversations we've had in here... about half the people a 4 is "great!" and 5 is "Best thing ever in SL!" and for another half of the people 5 stars is "I got what I expected, thanks!" and anything lower is just points off for lack of what was promised, permissions glitch, a long time before customer support gets back..."

So just with those two notions of how people rate things... anything that has more than 4-5 reviews should no longer have a perfect 5 star review unless it actually IS the best thing to hit SL in years.

Yet there are things with dozens upon dozens or more "perfect scores" - 5's without exception. So obviously - someone is paying or offering incentive at some point down the line.

I'm happy - of the products I have that get reviews, all of them have a 4-4.5 star average. None of them have perfect - and I don't expect it. I don't expect to hit the first page with anything I make either - and wouldn't pay someone for it. But both on Xstreet and in world, I've found that the people who want the stuff we make find it eventually. And sales are enough to keep the tier paid and a few cold beers in the fridge. And that's all I can ask for really.

I guess I am just too trusting, Rygel- I really had accepted reviews at face value- damn it- another layer of friggin' cynicsm to add

Life lesson #14 -- anything involving money transactions, always view with large amounts of cynicism.

Reviews have always been staged. Not only on SLX but every review section anywhere on the net. There are companies out there that specialize in this.

Google "pay to post in forum" and "faked product reviews". To think SL is immune to such tactics is nieve at best. In fact the way LL has it setup it promotes it.

Best Thread Ever! 10/10

lol

Same with amazon or any where

Even a series of really bad reviews become suspect as some people will purposely give bad reviews to competitors. I have heard of that in rl too.

For example, the last cd player I had was a Sony 300 disc changer. It had a whole series of good reviews and a whole series of really bad reviews complaining about it not tracking properly. I used it for several years and found it tracked better than any other player I had. The only reason I quit using it was I had more than 300 discs so I put everything on the computer and just use one of them as a media server now.

On the net? For the past 2 years (since the truck was new) the service writer at my auto dealership has made it clear that he will send me a discount coupon every time I give them perfect scores on the company-mailed customer survey from the PREVIOUS service. (Fortunately for me, I truly AM very satisfied with them so I get the discount with no compromise.)

It's just the way things are.

I'll accept this- obvious in retrospect - but /me is sad over it anyway- just kinda wished I could trust the review to be real- I know, might as well believe other impossibles.
@ Drivin-glad you took the maturation thing out- I had sort of hoped to remain immature myself.

What is the difference, really? It's all the same to me. Lies.
At least buying reviews doesn't create lag.

Well being we are discussing this on the net and it was based on the net I didn't bother with all the RL scams... Just watch any commercial or infomercial. Making things better than they are is just common practice these days.

Well- I don't do either, though I do ask friends if they wd put my store in theri picks- Seems like advertising really - The fake reviews though strike me as particularly nefarious because now u are pretending to A) have bought the product and B) to have liked it enough to want to recommend it. Perhaps picks were once generally viewed as real endorsements but I think it has long been known they are either in trade or as a favor.

I'm sure your friends would not keep the pick in their profile if they didn't like your stuff, and some people still do use picks as they were intended. However, I don't see the difference between hiring someone to recomend a product on their profile VS on X-Street. They both suck.

I know what you mean. When I first started looking at XStreet listings I thought there was reason to think a product with two reviews was superior to a product with none...but with experience I started to see that there probably wasn't a difference, except that the person with the two-review product might have been enterprising enough to log on with alts (or ask/pay someone else to post).

(Not always, though...let me hasten to add that I'm sure there must be some genuine reviews to be found on products that have just a few reviews.)

Now, I'm impressed only when I see dozens of reviews for a product, because I figure it must be very rare for dozens of reviews to be faked.

First of all: you can only review if you purchase the item.
People can rate as they like, which is fair as well. They paid for the product, and are sharing whether it was worth the money or not. If it's not worth 5 stars, it was at least too expensive for the value of the item. So how to fix this as a merchant? Ask what price WOULD have been fair for the object offered. If the difference is worth it to you, strike an agreement with the customer to improve the review for the price difference. But that's upto your own discretion. If you feel a customer is abusing this to get stuff for free: report him.

Seeing how some vendors go totally ballistic from any review below a 5 star, even if the review is good overall: hell, I'd want full money back before I'd change it. But if asked nicely, and the vendor is friendly and supportive about adjusting the item, then yeah, I'll improve the rating to reflect that added value.

Perhaprs and perhaps u r right and folks wd not keep the pick if they didnt like it- i dont know - I dont agree about the Xstreet thing; but meh- I am disenchanted though.

@ Marcush- I wd not be offended on the number of stars- i wd like to to be able to fix something if someone found a problem- tht said, I have never had a bad review, never had a five star review and no one has asked for a refund - so i guess i will take what i can get and count it as honest.

Yeah....I kind of worked it out in my head that this and a number of other practices were probably going on. That, and a few other things are kind of discouraging at times.

You've really come a long way with your business from when I first met you, Amaranthim. You and your creations are awesome. You and your business have an excellent reputation that covers a number of aspects that very few people or businesses will ever achieve, and that no amount of money or bribery or deception will attain.

You've got to put some blinders on, and go with that in your heart. You'll keep growing your business.

True some reviews may be staged, bought or unduly influenced by the promise of goodies, but there is no reason to assume all reviews are fake. It may be naive to think all reviews are honest but it's unnecessarily cynical to think they are all dishonest.

Consumers take a lot of factors into account when they make their purchasing decision of which reviews are only one factor.

That's honest indeed, and fair. But there's sadly a lot of people who try to game the system, and I for one don't mind making them pay more than it's worth for trying ^_^

Thank you for the kind words Mickey It's been a fun road to travel.

I like your outlook, Sin - you are right, no reason to take it all as fake- just to be aware. I guess I will remind myself when shopping as a consumer and be glad - doubly so!- as a creator for everyone who takes the time to review especially as how some maybe gaming-
While I was saddened to her of this practice, I am glad it came up.

They complained about the Camping,
I didn't care, I did not Camp.
They complained about the Bots,
I didn't care, I was not using Bots.
They complained about the Picks Buying,
I didn't care, I neither bought nor sold Picks,
One Day I complained about Bought XStreets Ratings,
However there was nobody left who cared.

A HUD with an AO that is linked to SL's first and only true outfit manager that lets you use RLV and set up folders to switch outfits/avatar setups with a few clicks. An avatar scanner, Interface to OpenCollar and Sensations items (and SL's only sensations remote stats viewer), plus an interface to our hypnosis equipment and other products that have hud controls/displays.

Price. L$0

It has a few 1 star reviews (most likely from people who just didn't want to figure out how to use all the stuff), a couple of threes - it's a good thing, is as described. A few fours, and mostly fives. I'm not sure I could do anything to the price to make it "less expensive for the value to them".

I think the reviews on it are fair. The one star ones kinda baffle me - it says it does a lot and it does - but in doing a lot - it's not something you can just wear and say "okay - do it baby!" But I understand - they got it, didn't want to bother. --shrug--

Threes I understand because that is some people's "Yep - this is just as it said it was!" vote. Fours and fives are nice.

For me though - I tend to like to get the stuff that has no ratings at all. If a thing has ratings, it means everyone already has one. Gimme something with no ratings and so long as it's what is advertised - I've got something that not everyone in SL has and it's what I was lookin' for.

Alright- what do you suggest can be done about it? There is no way to 'catch' someone at it - I would love to have a way to end that- but i can't see away it could be done.

and yes to whoever said that above- stars can only be given on stuff u bought- but reveiws can be written anywhere- I know I wrote one for soethng I got in-world that I thought totally rocked but I did not buy it on XStreet.

Count me in to the trusting (and in my case, many times naive) club.

It would never have dawned on me to have an alt leave a review. Gah!!!!

Amara, I have no ill will towards you, I am hope you know this and my post was mainly making humour but does have a serious point too.

The point is this, You and many others kept silent on the other issues because you didn't feel strongly enough about it, didn't want to get involved or didn't see the harm.
Now there is an issue about dishonesty and gaming the system that you do care about and you post. Is that because it now affects you directly when it didn't before on the other issues?
Why should people care about it? How come you didn't care about the previous issues when the problem on the table was about the same things, dishonesty and gaming the system?
Why weren't you speaking out when the system gamers were basically saying "all is fair in business" and arguing that is wasn't system abuse to do what they did or agree with others who were/are doing it?

This is exactly the principle at work in the well known saying I altered.

I am sorry Amara as you don't really deserve the brunt of my ire over this as I expect there are many people in your position who kept quiet when others really could have done with some moral support on the previous issues.

You ask what would I do about it?
My response is to ask why do you now care and why should you expect others to speak out over it?