[Macworld]

Post your comments for Apple should reset all App Store reviews here

[maclia]

Or, to kick it up a notch, only leave the reviews from people who bought/downloaded the apps...they should be able to cross-reference the data.

[bonesb]

I agree completely!
There is, however, the potential for lost entertainment - some of the drivel in the reviews is really quite laughable...

[adobephile]

That's a good idea, Peter!

[unixdude71]

Good idea and I'm all for it. You buy it, you can review it, you don't then you can't. Fair is fair and as a consumer I'd prefer to read informed reviews instead of bandwagon pro or con posts.

[natmusak]

I agree with maclia. The reviews from those who actually downloaded/bought the apps shouldn't be erased.

[montgomery_burns]

Two more things:

1) Include date and time stamps on all user submitted reviews. This is really important because an application might be updated after the review is posted.

2) After clicking on "See all reviews", the user can choose to sort by most helpful, most recent, or highest rating. But iTunes does not remember this setting. Instead, it keeps defaulting to sorting by most helpful. iTunes should remember the user's Sort setting. It is really irritating when applications do not remember the user's settings.

These improvements should be made to all iTunes reviews, including music, movies, tv shows, and applications.

[vudoo]

Great idea to zap all reviews and start over!
But Apple should not have the ability to go back and delete negative reviews either, as they have done with some of the apps there currently. This superficially inflates app's ratings, and of course, then you can not rely on the reviews.
I've been searching (not actively anymore) for un-biased, non-Apple controlled, reviews of Apps because there have been instances of applications that suddenly jumped in the ratings because all the 1-star ratings/reviews were removed, leaving only 4-5 star ratings. How reliable/trustworthy is that?
I can't trust the reviews, there are no demos (except for the free versions), and now you have to buy/download the application before doing a review ... is Apple trying to drive everyone AWAY from the App Store? Sheez!

[rcmeyer]

Great Idea!
Apple should also require at least 24 hours after you download the App. before you can review it. This will give people time to actually use it first.

[marsmouse]

Speaking as a developer who has received mostly favorable reviews, I'd really rather Apple didn't erase all reviews and start over at this point. In fact you'll forgive me if I find the idea rather absurd. If there were a way to clean up reviews submitted by people who have not downloaded the product, I'd be for it... But I just haven't seen the degree of problem that would justify more draconian actions.

[waveracr]

Apple has never really had a very good process for filtering out spammy/inane reviews from any part of the iTunes store...Amazon, by contrast, has a much richer set of reviews for music/movies/books/etc because they've made it a priority to screen them at least superficially.
I'm guessing Apple doesn't really want to devote costly labor toward screening reviews of low margin content, but the large number of low quality reviews ("click Yes if you love this app!") definitely compromise the Apple experience. Apple needs to take the presentation of their content a little more seriously.

[mhgorsline]

Agreed. Also agree with the notion of time / date stamping reviews. For instance I want to know how the scrabble app is doing since the updates. But the 3 star review hasn't budged, so I need to have a look at recent reviews to know whether the app is any better.

[m_flo]

It would totally be throwing the baby out with the bath water to just zap all current app reviews, but Apple should...
Keep the reviews from the people who've bought the app, and include a date/time stamp along with the version number that was current at the time of the review (like MacUpdate).

[sandman619]

Bad idea to just start over. Although there are many useless posts, those are rather easy to spot & ignore. Deleting the good quality posts makes no sense. Those are of value to many