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Amazon tests new star ratings that are even harder to read (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Star rating systems don't accurately convey opinions. The majority of reviews will be either 5* or 1* with only a few wannabe critics voting in between applying their own arbitrary votes.

If Amazon are going to change things then why not adopt something more meaningful. Simple up/down votes for things that actually matter.

Was this product as described: 👍/👎

Are you satisfied with the quality: 👍/👎

Are you satisfied with the value for money: 👍/👎

Then a few optional questions for things that aren't relevant to the product such as postage/packaging etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Star ratings are very broken, because everyone seems to think of the rating differently. IMO the criteria should be like this:

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ = The best thing ever.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⚫️ = Above average.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⚫️ ⚫️ = It’s ok. Get’s the job done. Not great, not terrible. The usual. Nothing special. Totally average.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⚫️ ⚫️ ⚫️ = Below average. I’m disappointed.

⭐️ ⚫️ ⚫️ ⚫️ ⚫️ = Worst thing ever. Crime against humanity. Ban this product and burn the remaining stock immediately.

However, in reality people tend to use it like this.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ = It’s ok. I don’t have anything to complain about. Could be ok, could be great or anything in between.

⭐️ I’m not happy. Minor complaints, big complaints and anything in between.

When it comes to book reviews, the five star reviews tend to be useless. Especially when it comes to self help books, it seems like those reviews were made by people who are completely incapable of noticing any flaws in the book. I’m inclined to think those people shouldn’t even review a book if they can’t think of it critically. On Amazon there are always lots and lots of fake reviews produced in a click farm, but in other places you’ll also find genuinely incompetent reviewers too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Five stars also means "this was just delivered to me and I haven't even used it yet".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh, totally forgot that one. The box exists -> instant 5 stars.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just noticed this.

As others have mentioned the stars have been largely useless in the last little while so to be honest I’m not sure this has any impact. Even sites that try and give a rating based on fake reviews are not helpful because so many reviews are faked. The only helpful part is to try and read negative reviews.

I imagine this star fiasco is something that’s easy for browser plugins to reverse.

I would love to see AI and Machine Learning used to filter out fake reviews. This would actually be useful.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

they removed the number or ratings.

I know most of the high counts are bots but 5 star means a lot of things based on the count of ratings.