[RayCon]

While the idea of starting over has its strong points, and while some feel that reviews by "paying customers" should not be eliminated, no one mentioned that many problematic posts harken back to problematic times, the pre-2.1 days, when a majority of apps were crashing or, in the worst-case scenario, actually bricking the iPhone. This happened to me with the American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed.). After the OS upgrade, most of problems were resolved. Apple did actually delete pre-2.1 AHD4 posts and, of course, there were some complainers. Nonetheless, I feel Apple was justified and certainly fair to the developers. Finally, I absolutely agree with the need to have reviews dated, a la VersionTracker and MacUpdate. Tell us which version is being reviewed. Otherwise, the reviews are near worthless.

[Stormchild]

There is no need to delete ALL of the reviews. They should simply delete the ones posted by accounts that have not downloaded the software in question.

[alansky]

Although it would entail some work on Apple's part, it would also be great if customers could comment on other user reviews, ala Amazon. Paying for an app doesn't guarantee that the reviewer isn't a moron or doesn't have some axe to grind. It would be very useful if there was a way for other users to comment on unfair or otherwise butt-headed reviews.

[PureBlend]

montgomery_burns said:

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.

Good idea. I'd also like to see the version number of the app that was reviewed. Mac software sites Macupdate and VersionTracker do this, and as a user I find it very helpful. After all, comments on a 1.0 bug are probably no longer valid on a 1.5 release.

As an iPhone developer, I'd favor the ability to post informational follow-ups to reviews of my own products-- without impacting the ratings.

Even if existing ratings from non-owners don't get purged, irrelevant opinion-based posts tend to sink to the bottom of the stack over time-- thanks to the iTunes feature that helps users rate the ratings as un/helpful. Of course, the star ratings are currently highly suspect as a result of non-owner postings.

[horvatic]

Yes, I think the reviews should come from the customers only.

[elitabak]

I'm all for resetting and starting from scratch. I too will be missing the entertainment. However, saying "Developers have been gnashing their teeth at this shortcoming, as there’s no way for them to counter the comments", although true, is inaccurate as many of them are submitting 5 star reviews to comment on another review. The lack of ability to post counter comments does not justify, IMO, abusing the system.
My concern is that even with the new system, it may be worth it for developers to purchase their own application just to be able to submit a review. Developers should be contractually bound to refrain from submitting reviews for their own apps, or use someone else to do it for them. Difficult to enforce but better than nothing.

[doglesby]

There is an argument to be made that Apple shouldn't average all reviews but use some sort of sliding window. Average the last x reviews. This would address reviews from miscreants, reviews of old versions of the app, and reviews from old Apple firmware. I don't know how large x should be, but that seems like the simple/best answer.
I agree that different presentations of reviews would be nice. I would like to look at all 1 star reviews to see if there are legitimate complaints (or to report the review as off-topic/offensive).

[PXLpainter]

IF they were to remove existing posts, it should ONLY be the "trolls" - not actual reviewers who paid for the products. I don't think you need a time limit though to tell if something you just paid $5-10 for for is totally cool or totally blows. It's pretty evident right way - not too many apps out there are THAT complicated that require a long user experience to make a qualified judgment. ;)