With everybody buying online at the moment, due to… issues, I figured I'd write a little about something that has bugged me for a while now: Online Reviews.
Specifically, the irksome trend that they might as well be a randomly generated 5-star rating.
There seems to be a large number of people that do not understand how a score-based system works and how to accurately use them to portray your feelings towards a particular product or experience to other internet users.
The first problem with the sliding scale approach, impacts more than one might think.
Consider your own rating "strategy", are you one to never give a 5-star for some foolish notion that it would dilute or sully the concept of your "superior" ratings in the eyes of the public? I'll dispel that myth quickly now, unless you're an extremely trusted influencer *cough* reviewer on a dedicated platform, no one knows who you are on Amazon, nor do they care. They are not looking for you specifically, nor are they interested in your intellect in any way. People reading your review about a product are interested in finding out more about the product, you will not gain their friendship, and you will not be remembered review-to-review. As an aside to this, apparently my own mother (somehow) has a fairly strong following as a local food critic on one of them-thar foodie websites and has influence on where people eat – this is obviously the exception to the rule, and requires the wider trust of the quality of your honest, well-thought-out reviews.