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Comment by ajsnigrutin | Hacker News Reader

What should we/they do?

Even in real-life, you're never sure, when someone recommends a product, be it a salesman in a brick and mortar store ("this one here is a lot better then that one there", even at the same price, could mean different profits). With platforms like youtube, you have atleast minimal trust in a few youtubers you follow regularly (and this literally means "a few"), but doing a random search means 80% chance the reviewer got sponsoder or atleast received the product for free in exchange for a good review. Star systems on sellers pages have their own sets of issues... usually people don't write reviews at all if the product is good, and complain only after it breaks (unless they're 'paid' for the review).

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They can do what legacy retailers have done for ages, which is to not stock goods from fly-by-night sellers. Offer customers choice among established brands, and eschew becoming the Western version of DealExtreme, AliExpress or Wish.

I don't see fake reviews of TVs or headphones on Best Buy's site, and I've begun purchasing from brick and mortar establishments (buying online or doing instore pickup) more often now. Amazon's supply chain can't be trusted.

having worked on a system that managed reviews for a certain giant electronics retailer, I have bad news for you.

I'm less worried about possibly astroturfed reviews if the brand is something I've already bought from, like Samsung or Sennheiser, or a cheaper but otherwise reliable one like Anker.

> Even in real-life, you're never sure, when someone recommends a product, be it a salesman in a brick and mortar store...

This is real-life too but the difference is the dis-honesty of the influencers is more damaging than the next-door salesman's whilst at the same time affording more convenience with proportionally limited accountability to the said influencers.

> What should we/they do?

Force on-demand transparency and information disclosure? I am not really sure, to be honest, but regulation might be one way to curb or limit the game to a few enterprising entities (which comes with its own down-sides)?

Exactly. This problem is not new. The issue is that people feel like they should have easy access to truth and that is just not the case, ever. The best we can ask for is a good way to do research to try to discover what is true, which is what the internet is for and basically what we have now.

> be it a salesman in a brick and mortar store

Never believe what salespeople tell you when they're trying to make a sale.

They are always trying to make a sale.

Which was probably your point. Honestly, I have no idea why anyone ever engages with salespeople. There is no upside.

Because they're knowledgeable about their domain and want to make a sale, so want to push you towards a product that suits your needs? It's a positive-sum interaction.

If most salespeople did that, then there wouldn't be a problem. But that's not what most salespeople do -- they're much more likely to push you towards products that will earn them the greatest commission, or will help them hit whatever sales targets they have.

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