Appirater; helping iPhone app developers get balanced reviews | Hacker News Reader

Appirater; helping iPhone app developers get balanced reviews

arashpayan.com

33 pointssh1mmer21 comments

I can't help reading this name as App-Pirater rather than App-i-Rater.

I read it that way too.

I notice that iPhone app ratings often look manipulated.

On Amazon, if something is good, its ratings look like:

    **********
    *****
    **
    *
    *

If something is not so good, then there won't be this curve. Instead you might get something like:

    ****
    *****
    **
    ****
    **

But what I see time and again on the iPhone App Store:

    **********
    *****
    **
    *
    ************

How I interpret this: You have a good or decent app, and other developers are gaming the system with bad reviews in an attempt to assassinate their competitor.

In my case, this backfires. I now see this pattern for what it is, and this makes me more anxious to see the app: if the competition is so afraid of it, that they're driven to cheating, there must be something to it!

Another thing I take away from this phenomenon: a disturbingly high percentage of iPhone app developers are scumbags!

There are many possible explanations for that phenomenon. I wouldn't necessarily assume malice.

Rate-on-delete tends to produce a lot of one star ratings, especially for free apps: if they liked the app, they wouldn't be deleting it.

For paid apps, review copies tend to produce high ratings, since getting a special freebie primes people to like the app. Developers often give copies to friends, too, and they'll be much more likely to rate than the general public.

But I seem to see the phenomenon much more with paid apps than with unpaid.

Maybe I need to figure out how to characterize these patterns statistically and do a survey.

Or maybe it's biased by the "prompt user to rate when deleting it", like the article says. If you delete it, you probably don't like it very much - and you select the most extreme "don't like" option presented.

And I say "maybe", because we need more experiments to see what the causes really are.

I think that the "ask to rate after using it for a while" is superior to only asking when deleting, but of course you should have both to get the opinions of both satisfied and dissatisfied users.

Or maybe it's biased by the "prompt user to rate when deleting it"

I delete a lot of apps, simply because I find I no longer use them. I don't even bother to rate them. I'm certainly not motivated to vote 1-star on them.

Yes, I did read the article. I've also read a lot of the reviews on the App store. Often, the bad reviews just smell fishy to me. My assumption is that there aren't really so many more somewhat dim pig-headed users who like to vote 1-star on the App Store than there are on Amazon. Both of those "sites" are aimed at the general public. Maybe there are the same number, and Amazon has developed better moderation?

>other developers are gaming the system with bad reviews in an attempt to assassinate their competitor.

Or the actual developer gaming the system with 5 star ratings of his own app.

Then the thing would be shaped like:

    *****************
    *
    *
    *
    *************

The distribution is what makes me think ratings are genuine for a genuinely good app.

    *****************
    **********
    *****
    **
    **

Wow turn down the text-shadow there buddy. Alpha to 0.4 or something similar.

Agreed. Ouch. Even his code has text-shadow.

text-shadow:0px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.4);

Just a small change and it looks so much better!

This is a good idea. Amazon does something similar, after you buy something, it sends you an email a month or so later asking you to rate the buying experience (and sometimes the item itself). When I have a good experience, I often don't think to write a review, but this reminds me, and I usually do it. The result is that there are often a lot of positive reviews for things on Amazon, which makes me more comfortable buying from them.

FWIW my app has a web site part to it, and I put up a banner there asking users to write a review. It's easier on the desktop that it is on the iPhone. Seems to have worked - at least I know that people are clicking it and there have been quite a few reviews.

This will be useful until they're popular.

This has huge potential to annoy the hell out of users. I hope developers use it with prudence. Ask me once after 10 startups or whatever. Fine. Ask me again? Your score is going to be F, 0, horrible, awful, stole all my contacts and sold them to the Russian mafia. Deleted all my music. E-mailed all my private photos to everyone in my address book. Lies? Maybe, maybe so. I don't like being nagged. Once is enough.

It only asks once per 30 days, and only IF you used it at least 15 times within those 30 days.

Actually, it'll do it just once per version and only after 30 days and 15 launches. So if they tap 'Rate' or 'No, thanks', they won't be bugged anymore unless they update to a new version. Even then, only after 30 days of usage and 15 launches (which are both customizable).

Ever heard of adequate response? No? Well, in this case it would be writing a review about the app being nagware. In general adequate responses are good because they prevent situations from escalating into hostilities. Yours also has a sideffect of making it impossible for any buyer in the app store to make an informed decision, and therefore makes it hard for good apps to stand out on the merit. It ends up giving a boost to the actual crappy apps because now, with your generous help, all apps have bad reviews - both truly bad apps and the ones that had the gall to ask for your opinion.

Could have a better name. App pirater? Sounds like a cracking tool.

Like someone pointed out in the post itself, since this is intended for use by developers and not end users, I'd say it doesn't matter what it's called.

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