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Comment by SixSigma | Hacker News Reader

One problem I have with Amazon reviews is this type :

"Just got the product, arrived really quick. It worked when I tried it a minute ago, 5 stars."

Or, "UPS driver threw package over fence, and it sat in the birdbath for 2 weeks before I found it. Didn't work when I plugged it in. One star."

People should have to take an IQ test before being allowed to post reviews.

These are better than Windows Store reviews. Somehow, MS has managed to get comment quality lower than YouTube. One word reviews. Half sentences. Utterly worthless.

Are customers pestered to leave reviews? For example, every time you open the app, it asks you for a rating, etc. That might cause worthless reviews.

I have a feeling there's some kind of reward system in place for reviewing products and answering questions. There's so many answers to fairly simple questions that are along the lines of

> will this HDMI cable connect my laptop to my tv?

> i don't know but it sends a good signal from my xbox to tv

They help nobody and just clutter up the actual helpful answers

As I understand it, when you send a question, random customers get mails from "Amazon Answers" titled "(First Name): Can you answer this question about (product)?"[1]. And even if they can't, they still answer to the best of their knowledge which sometimes leads to half-helpful discussions.

[1] http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y14/m04/i15/s03

You get imaginary internet points and if you do it enough, and well enough, you can get into the top X reviewers which earns you a badge. The real lure is Vine Voice where Amazon sends you stuff for free in return for a review.

You used to have the ability to downvote useless answers, but that seems to hav3ew gone away.

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