- cross-posted to:
- technews@radiation.party
- cross-posted to:
- technews@radiation.party
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Ah yes, Amazon stars. Constantly gamed by companies.
Star rating systems don’t accurately convey opinions. The majority of reviews will be either 5* or 1* with only a few wannabe critics voting in between applying their own arbitrary votes.
If Amazon are going to change things then why not adopt something more meaningful. Simple up/down votes for things that actually matter.
Was this product as described: 👍/👎
Are you satisfied with the quality: 👍/👎
Are you satisfied with the value for money: 👍/👎
Then a few optional questions for things that aren’t relevant to the product such as postage/packaging etc.
Star ratings are very broken, because everyone seems to think of the rating differently. IMO the criteria should be like this:
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ = The best thing ever.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ = Above average.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ = It’s ok. Get’s the job done. Not great, not terrible. The usual. Nothing special. Totally average.
⭐️ ⭐️ = Below average. I’m disappointed.
⭐️ = Worst thing ever. Crime against humanity. Ban this product and burn the remaining stock immediately.
However, in reality people tend to use it like this.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ = It’s ok. I don’t have anything to complain about. Could be ok, could be great or anything in between.
⭐️ I’m not happy. Minor complaints, big complaints and anything in between.
When it comes to book reviews, the five star reviews tend to be useless. Especially when it comes to self help books, it seems like those reviews were made by people who are completely incapable of noticing any flaws in the book. I’m inclined to think those people shouldn’t even review a book if they can’t think of it critically. On Amazon there are always lots and lots of fake reviews produced in a click farm, but in other places you’ll also find genuinely incompetent reviewers too.
This is good. I would consider adding “Would you recommend to a friend” but that may be redundant given what you have already.
I also found that an odd question.
"you ordered a two pack of Durex extra small and a packet of malteasers. Would you recommend them to a friend? "
No. Because who the hell recommends stuff…? Unless it’s something truly unique im not going to recommend it
I get where you’re coming from, but my wife did really appreciate a recommendation for a feminine hygiene product (menstrual cup) from a family member. We rarely recommend products of any sort, much less inexpensive products, but my wife has already recommended that product multiple times.
That said, I think it’s a poor question. I wouldn’t recommend a feminine hygiene product to my single, male friends, nor would I recommend that point and click adventure game to coworkers who mostly play competitive FPSs. I’ll even recommend “bad” products if I think it’ll fit whatever niche my friend wants to fill (e.g. that crappy screwdriver may not be good for screws, but maybe it’s decent for an art project).
Maybe a better question is: would you buy this again if it was lost/stolen? As in, did this fill your need enough that you wouldn’t look at other products?
“Would you recommend this to a parallel universe instance of yourself in a similar situation, who is not yet decided on a purchase?”
Haha you’re right, it probably doesn’t really apply to most things. I do get asked what I recommend more than the average person because my friends and family know I research purchases too much. I hate buying junk.
I find it a bit difficult to take this seriously when that page is literally 70% ads.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Amazon is testing a new way to show star ratings for products in search results that is more difficult to parse at a glance, as reported by Android Police.
I don’t like this change because it gets rid of the easily glanceable stat of the volume of ratings in favor of the percentage of how many are five stars.
A statement from Amazon didn’t confirm that it’s making the changes shown in Android Police, but it did leave open the possibility that it might.
“We are always innovating on behalf of customers to provide the best possible shopping experience,” Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti said in an email to The Verge.
(Note that Amazon’s star ratings aren’t a simple average but are calculated using “machine-learned models,” according to a support page.)
While writing this article, I’ve warmed up to my colleague Sean Hollister’s proposal that Amazon get rid of star ratings altogether.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I just noticed this.
As others have mentioned the stars have been largely useless in the last little while so to be honest I’m not sure this has any impact. Even sites that try and give a rating based on fake reviews are not helpful because so many reviews are faked. The only helpful part is to try and read negative reviews.
I imagine this star fiasco is something that’s easy for browser plugins to reverse.
I would love to see AI and Machine Learning used to filter out fake reviews. This would actually be useful.
they removed the number or ratings.
I know most of the high counts are bots but 5 star means a lot of things based on the count of ratings.
