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Comment by gojomo | Hacker News Reader

You make a reasonable case for showing up with a review, to match competitive practice. And you didn't use a fake name.

But as CEO/Founder of a 4-person company -- and perhaps a code contributor as well? -- you really "haven't used the driving directions yet"? Even if that's true, it sounds like an embellishment to make the review sound like it's coming from a casual user.

Does Apple have a policy on self-reviews?

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No, my review was honest. I liked Map Bookmarks, and I haven't used the Driving Directions feature (which we actually cut from version 2). As you point out, I use my standard nick name for my reviews. A Google search for the word andrewljohnson is dominated by me, so when the other poster suggested I would be mortified at being found out... clearly not.

Apple doesn't seem to have a policy on self-reviews, but I'd assume that their feeling is anything goes since they know about companies hiring firms to write reviews and don't do anything about it.

I'm the other poster, and I believe you weren't Technically Lying (http://lesswrong.com/lw/11y/not_technically_lying/) but why did you bring up that you hadn't used the driving directions? Maybe this had nothing to do with deceiving people into thinking you weren't associated with the product but I find it doubtful. A more honest self-review (if this really is accepted practice on iPhone) would just say why you think your product is good. It seems you're skating a little over the edge at best.

Ironically, I think that my review is probably obviously not from a "casual user" and that changing it to be a general praise would make it more effective.

I don't think there are hairs to be split here. It's going to be deceptive as long as I don't announce who I am in the review.

It occurs to me that signing the review might be the most effective thing to do - at least I would be unique.

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