In the Rain Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Why would people do this? What does it mean? I was reading through the reviews for this geode kit. I noticed a comment stating the reviewers weren't for real, so I read the other reviews from the people who reviewed this product. Many of them were very peculiar. They reviewed 61+ items in a matter of days. Some of the products were common to several of the reviewers, but very uncommon in general. :001_huh: There were lots of unusual sounding s*x books, a specific brand of pheromone cologne, computer cables, and every science kit put out by Dr. Cool. It can't be coincidence. What does it mean? :confused: I'm also curious about the quality of the geode kit, but mostly curious about the weird reviewer profiles. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElaineJ Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I don't know, but that sounds really weird! I could see people promoting their own product or systematically writing bad reviews for a category of things they disagree with philosophically, but what you are describing sounds inexplicably strange. :001_huh: Sorry, I guess that didn't help to answer your questions at all! consider it a bump- Elaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 This item isn't sold by amazon, but by a third party store, who happens to advertise on amazon, and amazon handles all the payments. So, it is in the interest of that store to plant false reviews in order to increase their sales. This is often called "astroturfing" (the opposite of "grass roots" support). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Sometimes people just take on things for fun, e.g. the wolf tee shirt reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-Medium/dp/B000NZW3J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321423221&sr=8-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Sometimes people just take on things for fun, e.g. the wolf tee shirt reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-Medium/dp/B000NZW3J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321423221&sr=8-1 I just loved the reviews on the Sigma lens. They were hilarious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I wonder if it could be one of these deals where people get paid for writing reviews. Perhaps the vendors pay for a service to get reviews written for their products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProudGrandma Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 so do you belive the reviews written...I rely on reviews...or at least I did... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunD Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I wonder if it could be one of these deals where people get paid for writing reviews. Perhaps the vendors pay for a service to get reviews written for their products. This. There are people paid to write whole batches of articles, reviews, and other short pieces to be posted on the internet. If Bob, for example, wants to populate his new website with lots of articles, he can go to a sort of "temp agency" website and offer 20 article jobs for $1 each. He might give the site $25, $1 for each job and a $5 fee. He can specify the subjects, keywords to use, what position it should take on the subject, length, etc. Workers searching for jobs to do find his listing, write him an article (or more, if they can get enough done before others scoop them up), and get paid when he accepts it. Bob posts the articles on his site and when you read them, you have no way to know he didn't write them himself. Maybe Bob wants reviews instead of articles or blog entries. For a site like Amazon the job listing would probably ask you to submit a positive (or negative) review of x item at x length, and include realistic details. People who've never even seen the product can fake it by searching the internet for pictures of the item or other reviews. Maybe when they're researching the microwave they want to write a review on and make $1, they find another review that mentions popcorn. So their review might include "Makes perfect popcorn! My kids love having a popcorn button to make it themselves!" They would send Bob a link after posting their review so he can approve it and pay. If Bob's company makes microwaves, toasters, fridges, etc and he submits a large job list, the same sets of people might review multiple products because Bob pays well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 (edited) Is that gallon of milk still for sale for over 2k? He claims he's hand deliver to your door. :lol::lol: Yes, it appears there are many option for this milk now. Edited November 16, 2011 by elegantlion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Sometimes people just take on things for fun, e.g. the wolf tee shirt reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-Medium/dp/B000NZW3J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321423221&sr=8-1 I just loved the reviews on the Sigma lens. They were hilarious! Both of these were very funny. I'll have to spend some more time reading the wolf shirt reviews. Oh my, the first one had me :lol: BTW, this is my first multiquote reply. Let's see if it works. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 I looked into it some more. As Reg and SunD mentioned, it appears you can make money this way. On one website, I read that you can make $10 per review. That seems a little high to me. so do you belive the reviews written...I rely on reviews...or at least I did... I used to. :confused: One thing that makes the fake reviews obvious is that many people posted within days of each other. Every review was 5 stars. When I looked at those reviewers other reviews, they only gave out 5 stars, and they had very odd lists of products reviewed. I mean really, who has time to use 7 Dr Cool kits and read dozens of k*nky s*x books in a 24 hour period. :lol: Given that most of the Dr.Cool reviews appear to be fake, I'll skip their products, which actually do look really cool. :glare: I'll continue to trust reviews in general. I usually focus on the one and two star reviews that give specifics. I like to see what people didn't like, and then decide whether or not that would bug me too. It is a fast alternative to prereading all of dd's books. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In2why Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Another possibility to consider is that I never write reviews for a product when I get it, but once or twice a year when I am in "My account" I bring up everything I bought for the year and write reviews. Anyone noticing would see that I review 20+ products all at the same time. As for trusting the reviews, I read them even when I am buying something somewhere else, but one or two reviews don't decide it for me, in fact I rarely even read the 5 star or 1 star reviews. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 . I usually focus on the one and two star reviews that give specifics. I like to see what people didn't like, and then decide whether or not that would bug me too. :tongue_smilie: This is what I do! I do this with cirriculum as well. Sometimes people say the cirriculum was too "graphics heavy". They count that as a negative, but for me that's a positive. It's like when you read hotel reviews on tripadvisor, and people are slamming the hotel because "the entertainment center sat crooked" or "the carpet had worn marks". Those things don't matter to me, so if they are the only things that give a hotel bad reviews, I'm good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Both of these were very funny. I'll have to spend some more time reading the wolf shirt reviews. Oh my, the first one had me :lol: BTW, this is my first multiquote reply. Let's see if it works. :) Ahhh...nice multiquote abilities! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Ahhh...nice multiquote abilities! :001_smile: :lol: Thanks! I thought about doing it on the next post too, but I didn't want to show off. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 As homeschool parents we want to give our children the best possible education. So of course we will all be ordering this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 As homeschool parents we want to give our children the best possible education. So of course we will all be ordering this book. :lol: How do you guys find this stuff??? The one star reviews cracked me up, especially the one about intending to buy the Oprah Book Club choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 As homeschool parents we want to give our children the best possible education. So of course we will all be ordering this book. :lol: :lol: :lol: I'll have to share with ds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Peregrine Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Don't forget the playmobil reviews:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 :lol: How do you guys find this stuff??? Too much time on Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 I can usually tell which reviews are not real, BUT what bothers me even more is when people "review" the SHIPPING or the SELLER or how the item arrived and NOT the actual item itself. People complaining about that can totally skew the rating and it doesn't even apply to the thing I want to buy!! Argh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Running the race Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 Sometimes people just take on things for fun, e.g. the wolf tee shirt reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-Medium/dp/B000NZW3J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321423221&sr=8-1 Oh. My. Laughing so hard that tears are running down my face and I can't breathe. That first review is hilarious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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