[Macworld]

Post your comments for Can You Trust iTunes App Store Reviews? here

[Schneb]

I have found that multiple high praise is pretty accurate. Same with low marks as well. I usually look to see whether or not the person even knows how to spell. That says a lot right there. U no wat im talking about.

[nmpike]

I do think there is padding, but I think it balances out. We have had competitors on our apps post advertisements for theirs in our reviews... pisses me off.
Then again, I always post raving reviews (when I post them)... (First let me say I do not work for any of these companies)..
I gave iToilet a 5 star review.. i bought iFart.. it was good, I found iToilet, I loved it, I gave them both 5 stars, and reasons for doing so. iToilet is my favorite.. good looking, and the sound is great.
I posted 5 star reviews for The Weather Channel app... because it's great.
If I see an app that is taking it in the rear on reviews that I know took a lot of work (Monopoly for example), I will post a 5 star to even it out.. as a developer I know how hard it is to make things perfect, and even though an app may have some issues, you must look at what they have done.
I've never done an "in the middle" review.. they either terribly suck, or they rock.
I would like to see the reviews removed all together.. I cannot tell you how many apps I have bought that have negative comments that turn out to be among my favorite... had I gone by what others said, I would not get them.
At the very least, apple should take the "report a review" link seriously... they never remove reviews that I have seen.
One option Apple might consider is giving the developer a chance to respond to each review.. so have the review display, then have a "developer comments" section.... so we can at least defend ourselves!
Lets face it, there are a lot of REALLY DUMB people out there, and the iPhone and iPod get a lot of them... you get some dummy that does not know how to reboot his phone after loading the software then writes a review because it wont work... thats a crock.
One app I have (I dont remember which one) had one review "Does not work, had to REBUILD my iPod to get rid of it!!!"
Total BS... and I knew it. But its people like that who make developers upset.

[NONfinis]

Me personally, I think I would like to see a special Apple Review Board that reviewed all of these apps and applied their own ratings to them. This way you at least knew who the reviewers were, which would remove a lot of concern about bias and rigged reviews. I would also keep the customer reviews, and have both sets of reviews, side-by-side, for potential customers to look over. This way the customer gets a voice, and purchasers can use the Apple Review Board as a way of judging how accurate customer reviews are.
I don't know if it would actually work, but it might be worth a try... (and it would create a few jobs in the process!)

[adobephile]

nmpike said:

I do think there is padding, but I think it balances out. We have had competitors on our apps post advertisements for theirs in our reviews... pisses me off.

Then again, I always post raving reviews (when I post them)... (First let me say I do not work for any of these companies)..

I gave iToilet a 5 star review.. i bought iFart.. it was good, I found iToilet, I loved it, I gave them both 5 stars, and reasons for doing so. iToilet is my favorite.. good looking, and the sound is great.

I posted 5 star reviews for The Weather Channel app... because it's great.

If I see an app that is taking it in the rear on reviews that I know took a lot of work (Monopoly for example), I will post a 5 star to even it out.. as a developer I know how hard it is to make things perfect, and even though an app may have some issues, you must look at what they have done.

I've never done an "in the middle" review.. they either terribly suck, or they rock.

I would like to see the reviews removed all together.. I cannot tell you how many apps I have bought that have negative comments that turn out to be among my favorite... had I gone by what others said, I would not get them.

At the very least, apple should take the "report a review" link seriously... they never remove reviews that I have seen.

One option Apple might consider is giving the developer a chance to respond to each review.. so have the review display, then have a "developer comments" section.... so we can at least defend ourselves!

Lets face it, there are a lot of REALLY DUMB people out there, and the iPhone and iPod get a lot of them... you get some dummy that does not know how to reboot his phone after loading the software then writes a review because it wont work... thats a crock.

One app I have (I dont remember which one) had one review "Does not work, had to REBUILD my iPod to get rid of it!!!"

Total BS... and I knew it. But its people like that who make developers upset.

Taken together, yours and Schneb's comments would seem to support my own opinion about reviews: I don't read them--because they're most likely: false, stupid, biased, the person blames the product for his situation in life, bad spelling/grammar is indeed a give away (don't know HOW many times I've seen people use "it's" and "you're" for possessive).

So reviews are uselsss and this article is useless, because the buyer is his own best adviser.

[OldMacDude]

Macworld said:

InfoMedia CEO Joel Comm counters that he doesn't see anything wrong with a developer's posting an anonymous review of a competitor's app. "If people purchase the app, they can do whatever they want within the guidelines of the iTunes review system," Comm wrote via e-mail. "I see no reason to disclose that you are a competitor."

Wonderful. And I see no reason to spend money with someone with these kinds of ethics. What a maroon. Thanks for the warning.

[Schneb]

I do not know how many times I have been saved from a bad purchase from Amazon due to good reviewer comments. If I remember correctly, there is a check box that says "I am the author or developer of this product" to let you know the bias for the comment. This should be present and used honestly. It really floors me how the lack of integrity in our society is being deemed as a business tactic.

[kresh]

"If I see an app that is taking it in the rear on reviews that I know took a lot of work (Monopoly for example), I will post a 5 star to even it out.. as a developer I know how hard it is to make things perfect, and even though an app may have some issues, you must look at what they have done."
How moronic. So if the application is really horrible and does nothing that it purports to do, but since you know the developer was really trying, you are going to give it a 5 star review because every one is piling on with bad reviews?
That just defies common sense. The review system gauges the merits of the application, not the level of effort by the developer!

[derekm]

[quote name='OldMacDude']
>

Macworld said:

> InfoMedia CEO Joel Comm counters that he doesn't see anything wrong with a developer's posting an anonymous review of a competitor's app. "If people purchase the app, they can do whatever they want within the guidelines of the iTunes review system," Comm wrote via e-mail. "I see no reason to disclose that you are a competitor."Wonderful. And I see no reason to spend money with someone with these kinds of ethics. What a maroon. Thanks for the warning.

Seriously? That's an 11 on the cynical scale. I don't know Joel Comm (and I felt no obligation to disclose that, BTW), but I think it's fairly clear that he meant "within the guidelines of the iTunes review system" to mean that the reviewer has to give a fair and unbiased review. I haven't read Apple's guidelines, but that has to be in there somewhere. If a reviewer has a stake in the app or its competition, but is fair in the review and doesn't obfusacte his or her own identity for the sole purpose of hiding behind a biased opinion, and only submits a single review, and does not participate in astroturfing, who cares if it is anonymous? We're not talking about stock analysts giving opinions about stocks that they have an interest in, are we?

[cv]

Heck, this isn't just an issue for the iTunes Store. It's an issue for ANY online store that accepts reviews (Amazon, Yelp, eBay, whoever). Just take the reviews with a grain of salt. I'm more likely to ignore poorly written reviews regardless whether or not they are positive or negative.

[hillstones]

cv said:

Heck, this isn't just an issue for the iTunes Store. It's an issue for ANY online store that accepts reviews (Amazon, Yelp, eBay, whoever). Just take the reviews with a grain of salt. I'm more likely to ignore poorly written reviews regardless whether or not they are positive or negative.

Well said. It annoys me when someone on Amazon gives a product 1 star because they complained about price or taking too long to arrive and they never even bothered to use the product. Any review on iTunes that complains about price should be deleted, especially ones that complain that .99 cents is too expensive. Review the actual product. So I don't pay much attention to reviews, nor do I bother to leave any. My honest review would get lost with all the pointless ones. And the "Click Yes if you Agree" just irritates me.

[lwdesign]

Just because millions of people own computers and iPhones, it does NOT mean that millions of users are necessarily logical, unbiased or have IQs above the level of the average ferret. Even some of the comments to Macworld articles leave me gasping at the lack of observation, ethics, atrocious spelling, and even worse grammar. Yes, there are a higher proportion of well thought out remarks and pithy commentaries from people on the Macworld site than, say, Engadget.com, however, the iTunes store suffers from the plague of the semi-literate the way all public comment sites do. I simply take this into consideration when reading reviews (of anything) and try to do my own research as much as possible.
I despair on the general state of literacy when I read comments like "your going to love this" instead of "you're", or the frequent misuse of "their, there and they're" and the hundreds of other common ways the English language is butchered on the web.
Until everyone becomes altruistic and perfectly ethical, the main thing to keep in mind is: YES, there will be padded reviews, and YES there will be skulduggery afoot when making money is involved. Ethics and honesty is unfortunately at a low ebb in our society. The safest thing to do is to trust your own observation and your own research. Then if you screw up you can only blame yourself. Feel free to post reviews and comments, but expect that they will be seldom believed or trusted.

[Terrin]

I think it would be helpful to know how long a reviewer has had an Apple account and how many posts that person has made.

[Mac007]

The best way to know whether a review is worth it is the way it's written. Good reviews include all the pertinent facts both pro and con, are written in a logical manner, have good grammar, good spelling, and have the number of stars appropriate to the context of the review. Apple could further help things, though, by including a way to ignore posters who give unacceptable reviews. It works in other forums although it tends to make the riff raff of the net howl in childish protest which can be dealt with simply by hitting the ignore button.