iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews
developer.apple.com
developer.apple.com
Then, when customers write (many of them do), I write back a nice response and then add:
P.S. If you enjoy Mindscope, would you take a minute to write a short review? It would mean a lot and helps give Mindscope visibility on the App Store.
I don't know why people write AppStore reviews though. If I like an app, I'll go on my computer and tell people via social networking. Typing out a credible-sounding review on my phone sounds like work, not fun.
> Using the SKStoreReviewController API, you can ask users to rate or review your app while they're using it, without sending them to the App Store.
[1]: https://twitter.com/iCalvin/status/823977790382993409/photo/...
We've tried plenty ways to make this happen:
1. append a footer in the email asking for a review Finding: People ignore it.
2. include custom copy in the emails asking for a review People say yes yes, and then most do nothing.
3. The annoying rate us with stars popup and redirect to appstore. People rate 5 stars inapp, and then close down the AppStore before they apply a rating
Getting reviews is hard for b2c - but the real issue at work is the amount of friction AppStore imposes. I've tried to leave reviews and it asks me to re-sign in to the AppStore, minimum character requirements (can't just leave 5 stars).
I often need to re-authenticate to download a new app (irrespective of cost). I always need to re-authenticate to leave a review.
Generally I now get the iTunes url on my PC, send it to my phone and open it in safari so it opens the app store. It's actually faster that way.
Every now and again I click through on that to leave a shitty review as a disincentive to a) annoy me with a dumb pop up every time I use the app and b) dark pattern it such that I only get sent to the app store if I give you a positive review.
I get to the review page and have to sign in/up/whatever and I can't be bothered, even with all that spite motivating me. I sure as heck am not going to as a way of being nice about a product especially when I know reviews have such a short half life to an even slightly actively updated app.
Basically I have never written an app store review - and I think that means the first one is a hassle. I suspect most people are in the same boat and when faced with a form to fill in before you can do a quick review will move on to something they care about more.
I just wanted to suggest that despite a relatively strong motivator - I don't complete. So my motivation may be an outlier but I suspect my experience of "eh, can't be bothered" is less so.
Once you determine that, try showing those users a modal that says something like, are you enjoying "my product", with yes and no answers. If no, ask if they would like to provide feedback so you can make their experience better. If yes, ask if they could rate your app.
I've found that by using this method you, a) show the cta to users that matter, b) get feedback from frustrated users, and c) get positive ratings from people who have expressed a positive intent.
GL
I find that when we place an ask for review button after there is a reward, bonus or after something fun, they perform better. As an example, after you play a level and possibly have a reward screen on the result, you do a random/progression based bonus per level or some sort of prize chest/box etc.
Popping review dialogs or buttons to ask for reviews after giving them something is a good way to make them not so angry it is there, you can't do after they rate as a reward as that is gaming the system but before you can butter up their perception. You can game it a bit, give them something then ask.
Timing the ask is key, you don't want to do that randomly as it may be after someone just had a bad level.
I make utility apps for some side income and one of the strangest reviews I received was a 1 star -- "cannot beat level 6. Paywall. Deleted."
The moron somehow reviewed the wrong app, from some game. Apple however is pretty good at responding to review removal requests.
5 one star reviews out of 100,000 known installs is very different to 5 out of 10.
I wish that the app review had stats for 1/2/3/4/5 star ratings as percentages of the known user base.
Now how about tackling fake reviews?
From apples point of view, why?
If an app gets fake positive reviews, it will sell more, and give Apple higher income.
If an app gets fake negative reviews, the developer will just bump the version, the reviews will be forgotten, and there will be no negative effect to Apple.
Like the old SNL sketch, Apple doesn't care. They don't have to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHgUN_95UAw
I ended up just creating a new account, but it was surprising how difficult they made it to give them money.
I get a "please review" popup pretty much every day. When I got back from Christmas vacation and synced a bunch of apps, my iPhone was painful to use for about three days and every app begged for my help.
I actually review apps I use and like, I just wish I didn't have to do it every update to help keep the developer eating.
Seems like enough people have started doing it that app developers no longger do this that much, at least on Android. There was even an article how to properly beg for reviews. Boils down to:
* Do it after you have delighted the user, not during startup.
* Do it respectfully without annoying the user (e.g. with an additional entry in a long scrolling list, not a modal dialog).
* Ask the user whether they're happy. If they say no, ask if they want to provide feedback (which you then read and act upon), if they say yes, you ask them if they're willing to leave a review. If they don't want to provide feedback/a review, you leave them alone.
Imagine I'm comparing two apps, A and B. If A has the higher rating because it steers unhappy people away from posting reviews, that's not useful to me. On the other hand, if B has the lower rating because it keeps bugging its users to post reviews, that's a good reason to choose A instead.
We've had a few 5.0 releases of our iOS app, but usually a few silly 1 star reviews make that impossible and knock us down to 4.5. Too many of those are "uggg, don't ask me to review, 1 star".
Secondly, the 3rd items you list is actually a dark pattern. If you are going to ask users to review, let them be honest. Directing 5 stars to app store and 4 or fewer to an internal system is gaming the system.
If the user is unhappy, leaving a review won't make them happy. Providing support via some other mechanism to try and fix their issue, that's what makes them happy.
If the user is already happy, they don't need support. But maybe they'd like to leave a review to tell other people that they're happy.
Fair enough, if that's the way you feel, but if that's really what you want ... put it on the app page, not some off-store forum. I question your sincerity.
If this is your only solution to biased reviews, then you have no solution, you just have a way to move the problem around some. If you don't want silly one-star reviews complaining about the prompt, don't interrupt people when they're trying to get something done.
From the Dev prospective it's just a minor inconvenience/1 app, from the users perspective it may be 100 apps and the problem becomes a real pain in the ass. And there is no way to opt out.
Then the 1 star review makes sense, doesn't it?
The original post said a popup is annoying enough to deserve a 1-star review. I strongly disagree and if you enjoy free apps, it's one of the few ways to really thank the developer.
If you only ever ask once, don't you lose out the next time you release a new version and all the reviews get reset? The standard seems to be to ask for every new version, which is a major pain in the behind.
Speaking only for myself, I don't one-star any app just for asking once. I only do it to repeat offenders. I'd prefer never to be asked, but if it's just once, it's easier to just dismiss it and get on with things.
It is pretty standard, and it turns out that I have more than a hundred apps installed that all do it.
I too routinely give one-star ratings to try and de-incentivise this kind of thing. I'm sorry that you don't seem to have an alternate way of going about getting balanced reviews but I don't have an alternate way of never seeing that popup again.
Edit: Thinking about it further, it's remarkably arrogant to dismiss our complaints as effectively the wrong kind of complaint to put in reviews. That's not something you get to decide.
If you honestly think that a single popup makes an app deserve of a 1 star rating regardless of anything else, I disagree. It's like being a single issue voter. It's also more damaging than you know to the app developers who's work you are using (in most cases for free) and I'd encourage you to reconsider. Apple could fix this issue. A few vigilantes can't
Apple aren't going to fix the issue without it being a problem for them. I'm making it a problem by poisoning the review well in my own little way. I think this is a considered response - it's literally the only push-back that users have against the practice.
My preferred outcome would be a complete ban on asking for reviews.
Edit: my initial post was a bit abrasive, edited. But I'd like to end with a question:
What's your preferred user response to the practice of seemingly every single app begging for reviews? An actual, actionable response.
Two-star reviews? Three?
Complain to Apple for having a broken system, but don't hurt the developers of the very apps you're F-ing using.
As OP said above, Apple could fix this issue. Maybe weight recent reviews more, but don't just wipe the history for every upgrade.
The profound sense of entitlement that users express is really frustrating to app developers.
We can either never ask for reviews and watch as 1 in 100 people EVER review our app (and THOSE reviews are skewed to the people who have a complaint, so the review average is typically crap), meaning that we barely get any downloads and can't actually make a living selling apps, or we can ask for reviews and have people complain with 1-star reviews because the app they continue using for free annoyed them once.
And entirely because of Apple it needs to annoy them more than once in order to stay relevant.
Here's what I'd love to do: Make it so that, if you rate an app 1-star, or even 2-stars, you can't use it any more. If you rate it that low and you still use it, you're lying to other users and harming the creator of the app that you're using for free. Give me a developer API to know what users rated the app how, and I'd implement that in a minute.
People could still rate it 1-star if it sucked. Because if it sucked they wouldn't want to use it.
Drop the review to 4 stars if you're annoyed by it, but know that the developers really, really have no choice. You're basically telling them to commit economic suicide for your minor convenience.
Rude assumption.
I always, as a matter of principle, buy the "remove ads" IAP if I use an app regularly. Even if I didn't it wasn't my choice to charge nothing for the app. That's on the developer. Apple doesn't owe you a living, I don't owe you a living. The state of the app store has been known for years now and you've had a long time to decline to participate.
Your problems with Apple are not my problems as a user.
The only real solution is for Apple/Google to not wipe the slate every app update. You have to see the user benefit to that - apple right now literally has a direct disincentive to updating an app.
So as a user my problem with Apple is that search is crappy. Is this best fixed by the search being improved or app developers begging for reviews?
I'm sympathetic to developers for the problems of discoverability and customer support and think Apple could probably do a lot better for them. But by the same token I completely reject having it pushed back on to me via the annoying review popup every damn time I update something. I'll continue to express my displeasure with one-star reviews.
> The only real solution is for Apple/Google to not wipe the slate every app update.
As I understand it Google don't wipe reviews between versions, and this is still a problem.
My problems with Apple are exactly your problems as a user.
If you want the apps that don't ever ask for reviews, then search past the first 100 that show up. Almost no one does. You'll find them there, because they don't rank at the top of the results.
Guess how much money those apps make? Not enough to pay for development. It's a power law distribution. At the top of the search you can make a decent living. By the time you're down to 20th place, you might be making $20/month.
You want good apps to use? Even apps you pay for? Then work within the system that exists, and work to change the system. Don't screw the developers who provide you the apps your using.
All you're doing by using the apps that you're slamming is being a hypocrite. The very reason you found those apps is that they asked users to post reviews. And the only reason that an app developer can continue to make and support the apps you're using is that they stay near the top of the rankings. Meaning that they really have no choice, most of the time, but to ask for reviews.
You want to have apps that work, and that aren't exclusively created by huge companies that can afford to get them to the top of the charts with big ad buys? Then support the developers who create them.
You don't want those apps? Then why do you have them installed on your phone at all? Easy solution here. Uninstall the annoying apps.
No, you owe us nothing. But neither do we owe you anything. If you're using our apps, and you want us to be able to afford to continue to make such apps, your one time $1-2 payment to remove ads isn't enough to pay for development for more than a couple of minutes. It's appreciated, don't get me wrong. A typical user of an ad-supported app probably makes $0.25 in a lifetime (depending on many variables). So the only way to actually make app development work is to get hundreds of thousands of downloads.
I actually have stopped trying to participate as an indie app developer who depends on the arbitrary and awful rankings that are ubiquitous in all the various markets. But I have empathy for those who keep trying, and I do want apps to continue to exist.
If one annoys me, I'll uninstall it. That's the honest thing to do, and by the way, it also hurts the ranking of the app. Rating it one star for a single annoyance is effectively lying out of spite. A "one star" ranking should be reserved for an app that you intend to immediately uninstall. Period.
It's unlikely and rare for an app developed exclusively for native iOS, with no existing user base built on desktop or physical business presence in the real world, to ever have a chance of succeeding. The fault for misguided expectations lies entirely with the developers, not Apple or its users. The real purpose of the App Store - that is, what a majority of users find valuable - is having mobile apps for brand names and services they are already acquainted with.
Your primary install base should be from users explicitly searching for your app by name because they already interact with you elsewhere. If you're depending on people to "discover" your app without having ever heard of you, then you are choosing to gamble and attempting to game a system that every other gambler is trying to game right alongside you.
The only real problem here is developers trying to use mobile apps as either a) a get-rich-quick scheme, or b) feeling entitled to earn full-time income solely from their dream job of working as their own boss from home. The App Store is a cesspool of every developer who figured out how to install XCode acting like they automatically deserve to win the windfall lottery. If you choose to develop apps that have no business plan behind them other than "hope I get popular through a closed-garden algorithm", the resulting fallout has nothing to do with Apple or device owners.
Bingo! All the popular indie apps that don't use every possible strategy to get to the top of the heap will fail.
By choosing the top rated apps in the top 20, you are playing the same game. If you don't like indie apps, don't download them. "The only way to win is not to play." You don't like that game, play a different game. Don't hurt the many, many developers who are in fact making a living making apps.
And don't spite them just because they're living the dream of earning a full time income working as their own boss from home and it's what you'd like to be doing.
>The App Store is a cesspool of every developer who figured out how to install XCode acting like they automatically deserve to win the windfall lottery.
I don't disagree, but it also has some very nice apps. If you think an app really sucks, by all means slam it in the reviews. It's a service to other people who may download it.
But I'm complaining about people rating apps they otherwise consider to be 4- or 5-star apps, and that they then vote down to 1-star because they're pissed about being asked to review. That's lying out of spite, is hurting a developer who otherwise did a good job on their app, and is uncool.
I suspect what lies at the heart of this whole issue is that some developers think that attention is not a cost to the user.
i think it's the only effective thing i can do, the message is: stop wasting my time
Sure, so subtract one star from your regular review. A one-star review is a grossly disproportionate and unfair response.
I mean I hate being nagged as much as the next guy but let's face it: the only reason these apps are begging for reviews is because Apple store discoverability sucks.
If it was an isolated incident sure. If someone cold calls me then I'm going to say "sorry, I'm not interested", but if you're getting 10 calls a day then the response changes. It's a constant problem and I'm willing to lash out at anyone I see making it worse.
As much as we blame it on the app store, we see similar behavior with subscriptions on a heap of websites.
> I mean I hate being nagged as much as the next guy but let's face it: the only reason these apps are begging for reviews is because Apple store discoverability sucks.
Or just not create apps if apple aren't creating a viable platform. It's not something that should be left up to the app developer or the users.
In fact, I'd rather app stores themselves were responsible for review prompts, it would provide better sampling.
I will never understand this complaint. If you are depending on people to "discover" your app, you have no business plan and should never have developed the app in the first place. The majority of useful apps are not "discovered" - they are searched for by name by users who already interact with the company via their web service, desktop app, and/or real-world business.
I don't understand why developers, trying to jump on the get-rich-quick or "be my own boss working from home" bandwagon, are so surprised that there's no such thing as an algorithm that is going to give their one app any visibility over the other 90% of similarly unwanted apps vying for the same treatment.
Build a business outside of iOS that makes money providing value to its users. Then add an iOS app as a convenience and incentive for mobile users to continue doing business with you. The percentage of apps released solely to try and "make it big" which will ever do so is laughably small. Ignoring that fact and then complaining that the system is unfair shows a complete lack of common sense. Being capable of simply developing an app does not entitle one to earn a living doing so.
Perhaps don't pop up things begging for reviews?
There doesn't seem to be any way of turning it off ("Disable app review requests") for people, thus these kind of user responses. :/
Almost no one goes out of their way to review your app, so the majority of reviews you'll get are disgruntled people, often with unfair or unrelated issues.
Personally I don't think it ends up not mattering because you get better results with the dark pattern people have outlined - ask how they feel about the app, then route positive people to review, or negative people to a feedback form.
Just sucks when someone rates your entire app 1* because of a single, small decision made, despite you having made great decisions at every other point.
The problem is that anything other than small, one trick apps are unsustainable. Look at Sketch for example - a perfect app for the iPad form factor but it doesn't exist because the App Store economy sucks.
The thing is it isn't just discoverability, but there are way more problems to deal with. Especially in terms of customer service. As a dev you get no info from a purchase of your app unless you mainuallu collect it inside your app. Have an upset customer and want to refund them? You can't. Want to discount an existing user for a new paid version? It is a super awkward process with app bundles. Want to give out a coupon code for a new product to existing users of another? Nope, can't do that.
You aren't selfless enough to make it in software. You can't think about the customer, only yourself. That's not how business usually works.
So, life is hard. Awwwwwwwwww. There's your sympathy. Now, succeed without bugging your customer or admit defeat and get out.
Or keep complaining that you're getting 1 star reviews.
Up to you.
I am speaking of people who rate an otherwise 4-5* app with 1* because of one prompt screen (that also prompts for feedback) per major version.
Apple needs to stop nuking reviews/stars on every release (give us the option!), then we'd stop asking for reviews.
If apple want a vibrant ecosystem of apps then they can make the changes, but as a user it's not my responsibility.
In 7 years I've never prompted for a review in any of my apps. Users that write reviews do so genuinely, and if they are happy, they often leave extremely detailed feedback explaining why, and that is much more valuable to me.
Sorry, but that particular pattern is 100% appropriate, IMO.
* If someone has a problem with my app, I absolutely don't want to send them to the reviews where they'll post a "tech support review". Yes Apple finally got off their collective behinds and caught up to Google's Play Store in that developers can respond now to reviews, but it's still a terrible venue for helping people with an app. Send them to somewhere that they can get real help, and turn their mediocre to poor review into a positive review.
* If someone has a problem with an app, the odds are roughly 7x greater that they will post a bad review. People who are frustrated are just more likely to seek out the review process to vent their spleens. There's absolutely no reason for me to attempt to be "fair" by reminding everyone to review my app; the haters will find the review button entirely on their own without my assistance.
I might send 4-5 stars to the app store, but if they rate it 3 or less, then damn straight I'm going to ask them what's wrong and not have them rate it. That's just common sense, not gaming the system.
I bet about 95% of people would disagree with you. This is a very dark pattern, few people are engaging in it, and if you told me non-anonymously that your app does it I would put you and your app on my blacklist of "not to be trusted, ever".
I'm not really anonymous here anyway. Check my profile. It points at my company web page. Feel free to never download any of my games. Please.
FWIW none of my games follow this pattern. But apps live and die based on ratings. I've had people rate my app one star simply because it was a paid version, and the Google return policy at the time was 15 minutes. So the review? "I can't judge whether this app is good in 15 minutes, so I'm rating it one star in protest." [1]
My fledgling, otherwise 5-star app that never even had a single review ask, with its measly ~5 reviews or so, now was pulled down to 4 stars because of one jerk. Who likely downloaded the app to pirate it. Yes, he almost certainly pirated the paid version; it showed up shortly thereafter on pirate sites. And his complaint was specious since I had a free demo you could also download.
We're not talking about voting for a politician here. We're talking about encouraging the people who like an app to vote for it; as I mentioned, the people who hate it already are motivated to slam it. So you're telling me that it's a dark pattern to encourage people who like your app to rate it, and to help the people who are having trouble with your app? Then you have zero empathy or understanding of the life of an indie app developer.
[1] EDIT: Actually, my current app under development is explicitly designed to not care about ranking in the various stores. And it will be Cordova (or similar) based, so I won't need to "reset" the reviews when I push patches to the app. But I don't promise that I won't occasionally ask for a review, so please feel free to blacklist my company and not download it anyway.
If I order a steak at a restaurant and it is overdone, I tell the waiter, I don't eat it and go immediately post a 1 star yelp review. I mention that in the review later on, but their response to my displeasure is part of the review itself.
When you live in a world where reviews can make or break your business, of course you're going to do whatever is possible to encourage good reviews. There's too much riding on it, and too many jerks out there that will rate you 3 stars or less because you weren't exactly right for their needs (or tastes in the case of a restaurant). Because people are going to just not go to a restaurant that rates a 3 star average, and they mostly won't download an app with a 3 star average.
A little bit of reality here: You can't always make everyone happy. You just can't. And because people who are unhappy are something like 7x more likely to leave a bad review than people who are happy, you pretty much have to encourage people who are happy to leave reviews. In other words you have to game the system just to have an accurate review profile.
EVERYONE games the system, even if you don't realize that. Asking for a "fake rating" and then sending them to make the real rating is the obvious way to game the system, and it clearly troubles some people. A far more subtle approach is to just wait for someone to use your app several times over a week and then ask them to rate it. Anyone who's using it that much probably likes it. Halfway in between could be the app that asks you if you're having any problems before asking you to rate it.
But really it's just a matter of degree, and it's life in the app ecosystem, and even in restaurants and other domains today. Railing against it is like railing against the tide.
This is what I meant by keep the developer eating.... and providing updates.
I really, really hate this practice - it just feels scummy as hell to me.
It sounds like this is the first step to a solution - route applications through this class and then Apple can add a preference to "take no action if nagged for reviews."
If you do that the only way to turn them back on is to go into system settings.
https://twitter.com/gruber/status/824022727870861316
[UPDATE] There's also an App Store setting so you can disable requests:
> 4.5.4 Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used for advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes or to send sensitive personal or confidential information.
It's a should and not a must... I'm not sure if they enforce all "shoulds." Also, from a review perspective, how could you tell? These sort of notifications are typically triggered after days (or hours) of inactivity, and I don't think they observe your app that long.
If you, as a user, complained about an app doing this to Apple, I wonder if they'd pull it.
What I do now is that I complain to the developer/company twitter accounts. Most of the time I receive very hopeful and polite replies and ... nothing gets fixed.
If you're at a company that does scheduled releases (e.g. once every three weeks), you'll need to continually ask people to review the app to keep that rating high.
Otherwise you only get ratings from new users and users that are discontent with the particular version. It's rare that people who have already rated the app 5-stars will continually go out of their way to rate the app 5-stars again without prompting.
I don't need to redo Yelp reviews for my favourite neighbourhood restaurant whenever they update their menu, for instance.
> If you're at a company that does scheduled releases (e.g. once every three weeks), you'll need to continually ask people to review the app to keep that rating high.
implies that the best response to such antisocial behavior is to give any pestering app one star. They're mining this dark pattern for publicity.
Steam does it that way and it makes sense. Quality of software changes, some of the apps have seen several major updates and redesigns - an overall rating is slow to account for those. A per-version-rating jeopardizes established good ratings for minor updates.
http://www.recode.net/2017/1/24/14375558/apple-limit-app-rat...
Only that API should be able to control going to the app store review page.
This would greatly cut down on fake apps, as the users would actually have to use the app to leave a review.
Also, usage data should be correlated against a review. If the user doesn't really use the app, then the review should be quite low priority or filtered out. This would cut down on fake reviews and also PO users who use the app once, leave a trashy review, and leave. Those messages are better directed as PMs to the developer.
even if you try to turn it all off, they still come at you relentlessly. it's exhausting.
1) prohibit popups asking for review
2) show ratings inside of app store and only after iOS knows you used this app for a while
3) stop asking for damn password every time and requiring review "title". This will make it easier
For instance, a malicious app could falsify the user data before submitting it using the new API, dark patterns in the feedback form (1 star could be the highest rating), or just omit sending in poor reviews altogether.
We could debate all day (see the other threads) about that particular case, but the bottom line is they're at least aware of potential abuses and working on them.
Also, curious if developers will be able to respond to old reviews written before this was the policy. I'm thinking so.
Been hoping for this ever since the App Store was released, especially after being able to do it on the Google Play store for some time.
I know I'm not the first to stay it, but I'm still so shocked how limited the Mac App Store is. No trial versions, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions, etc. This has led to companies like Bohemian (makers of Sketch) [1] leaving the Mac App Store.
I'm not being facetious when I ask people more knowledgeable than me: why does Apple put so little effort into the store? Is it just too small to warrant their attention? It just seems to me like they don't even try.
http://bohemiancoding.tumblr.com/post/134322691555/leaving-t...
I know that most people that post on HN are early adopters and trend toward power users, but they also use a lot more apps in total than my casual computer-using friends.
I thinks it's fantastic because the don't allow nickle and dimeing customers.
When you've got an application like Coda from Panic that can't even manage to exist on the Store, that should be a sign that the thing needs to change.
I shared more details about this on our blog a few months ago:
https://www.omnigroup.com/blog/providing-the-best-possible-a...
In the case of OmniGraffle 7 the free functionality that it retains after the trial expires is that the app can continue to be used as a free viewer for OmniGraffle documents (in much the same way as people use free PDF viewer apps).
When we first shipped OmniGraffle 7, some people thought that perhaps we'd just managed to slip its free trials past some Apple's reviewer's radar. But we were very careful and intentional about designing the app to follow their guidelines, and we've shipped several updates that have passed review since then--and at the end of the year Apple awarded the app a "Best of 2016" App Store award.
So now that we know for certain that Apple is OK with this approach, we're in the process of bringing this model to the rest of our apps on both Mac and iOS.
I assume Apple did not have a problem with your use of the "Free Trial" wording in the app? After the trial period expires, does the app display a launch screen directing you to purchase the full version?
After the trial period expires, all documents are read-only with a small badge in the title bar that you can click on to bring up the in-app purchase choices.
Are you aware of any other Mac apps that use this model, or any rejections for the same?
The latter sounds like an unholy mess, the former is very annoying as a developer, since you lose all of your reviews and history, and customers generally don't really understand how to download apps they've purchased which are no longer listed on the App Store, and presumably you'd pull OmniGraffle v7 from the App Store.
Also, right now in the U.S. Mac App Store, you have 3 reviews on the current version of OmniGraffle, and 2 out of 3 are 1 star reviews complaining about the way your free trial is presented.
The Mac App Store is a broken mess.
I agree that it's sad to lose all our previous reviews, especially as our earlier apps had very high average ratings. But the bigger issue is combating confusion, which leads to bad ratings when people miss a feature that the app actually has, or are confused when a "free" app actually costs money. I'm hopeful that being able to reply to confused customers will help to clear some of that up!
If you read my latest blog post on the subject (linked in my first comment in this thread), you can see full details on how we're offering upgrade discounts to all existing customers, free upgrades for recent purchases, and free trials so new customers can check out the app before they pay—all in the App Store.
Maybe Apple apps need an app dev <-> user support mechanisms for private feedback, FAQ and bug tracker to funnel bitching productively.
Good developers who actively respond to reviews will improve their apps. Somebody who left a low review due to a misunderstanding now has a chance to increase their review because of a diligent developer.
A developer who doesn't care and/or doesn't monitor their reviews will not turn that user around.
Are users able to remove bad ratings once they are left? Bribery potential...