Posted: Sep 13, 2013 3:05 pm
Oh sure, there are a lot of fake reviews around (seemingly including many commercial ones from dodgy PR companies).
But then there are also reviews from people with nothing better to do, and reviews from people with one or other axe to grind, and reviews from people who can't seem to string a sentence together or write a paragraph that is internally consistent.
Personally I put limited trust in reviews in general, and (especially regarding creative works) largely judge by other means.
I do use reviews for functional items like MP3 players, but not *too* much on the star rating but what people are saying, and seeing if recurring real problems (other than operator error) seem to emerge in the 1/2-star reviews.
For creative stuff, if there are internal comparisons with other work by the same source, that can be handy because it's relatively immune to hype - if most of the people making comparisons rate an album I like as the best or worst an artist/group has produced, that can give me a fair guide to whether I might want to buy any other ones.
But then there are also reviews from people with nothing better to do, and reviews from people with one or other axe to grind, and reviews from people who can't seem to string a sentence together or write a paragraph that is internally consistent.
Personally I put limited trust in reviews in general, and (especially regarding creative works) largely judge by other means.
I do use reviews for functional items like MP3 players, but not *too* much on the star rating but what people are saying, and seeing if recurring real problems (other than operator error) seem to emerge in the 1/2-star reviews.
For creative stuff, if there are internal comparisons with other work by the same source, that can be handy because it's relatively immune to hype - if most of the people making comparisons rate an album I like as the best or worst an artist/group has produced, that can give me a fair guide to whether I might want to buy any other ones.