If you haven't been objective in your reasoning and the jar of jam is undoubtedly a magnificent product, you might have robbed that small family business of work. The damage is more apparent if the next product in queue to take top spot in the algorithm is made by a huge multi-national corporation that can probably afford to skip a few sales when it comes to competing with a local family businesses (yes, the people working for the large factory still have jobs that can be lost based on changes in the marketplace, but they're less likely to be worried about a handful of sales, whereas the local family business might only expect to sell 25 jars a fortnight).

When it comes to the algorithm, someone else might have really enjoyed their corporation jam and decided it was really worth their 5-stars. The corporation takes the top spot, and the 25 jars the family company was expecting to sell dwindles – within a week the business starts suffering, because they've dropped further down the list, into the wastelands of "below the fold" (a lawless place where one must fight off others for scraps thrown to them by the worthy traveller that can be bothered scrolling down the page slightly). A month after your 4-star review, they've sold all their organs to make ends meet and are considering eating the children. You monster. Just look at what you've done.

Now – of course if there was a justifiable reason to mark them down that extra star, then fine, we wouldn't want to reverse the problem and over inflate an unworthy product. No, you've submitted an honest review and made it clear why you felt why the jam wasn't quite a 5-star experience when you smeared it on your morning toast. Right?

That brings me to my next point: Ratings without reviews. Where a review feels that a product is wonderful (or absolutely abysmal) and have gone through the effort of tapping the array of stars, but call it a day when it comes to the extra few seconds it takes to type out a few words to explain this conclusion.