New Rules For Review Spam In The BST Section?

Afternoon guys,

I just wanted to post this and see if it gets much support as I personally think service providers spamming reviews in their own threads is beginning to get out of hand now and is misleading.

Although a service provider should always have the right to display reviews of their service to help display social proof I feel the rules could be tightened up to help the BHW community and potential buyers. Some of the threads have reviews being pasted that are from months and sometimes years ago, SEO and IM is a rapidly changing land scape where these reviews are often out of date and defunct now. I have also seen a few people pasting reviews from other forums that cant be verified, surely the service provider should just give out a few review copies to Jn VIP members and get reviews right here on BHW? Additionally some threads quote reviews from suspicious accounts that have very low post counts.

I have taken the liberty of drafting a few ideas for both the mod team and the community to look at and I am interested on how they feel about them and if there is any chance of getting this sort of thing implemented. Obviously the numbers such as time frames, post counts and such as just an example.

• The Review of the service has to be posted here on BHW.
• When quoting the review the service provider also has to post a direct link to the post with the quote so potential buyers can check it has not been edited in anyway and inbox the reviewer with any questions they may have.
• The quoted review has to have been posted with in a specified time frame such as three month.
• The service provider is only aloud to quote a maximum of three reviews per post.
• The reviewer who posted the review has to have a minimum of 50 posts for their review to be quoted.

What do you guys think of this idea?

Shaun

I totally agree with you. It will even make it more difficult to cheat that way however it won't help to avoid fraudsters!

I get more annoyed when the first two pages (sometimes more) are filled with 'any review copies' or 'good luck with sales'

But yeah i agree with what your saying.

Also the niche and the authority site's screenshots making 9999999$/month.

Some noble ideas but I don't see there being that big an issue. If you have a problem with how a vendor is acting in their sales thread it will likely put you off and stop you buying.

One of things every vendor gets asked repeatedly is "are there any reviews of this?" and they can be literally all over the previous page yet people still ask, because of this often the easiest way is to have a stock response copy and pasted ready to go.

What you are talking about is not really something I engage in myself but I have noticed it and tbh I don't see the issue with it.

I have a bigger problem with the 100 vendors of yet another linking package that is the only one guaranteed to give ranking increases. I would hate for this place to become the next WF and it doesn't seem like it will do as people are much quicker to call bullshit where it is due.

Trying to enforce rules above are not overly feasible or needed tbh. Generally people want to see the reviews, if they look fishy people will look deeper and they will call the person out. If they are patently false then the BST thread will be removed.

While I do agree with your post, you do realize that there will always be ways to get around those extra measures right? They will of course not be implemented (not the first post of this kind), and all you will be doing is giving more work to the cheaters (like they care). There are also exceptions like tommy once said regarding the low post count of some of the reviewers, not that he's an angel but still he has a point.

My best bet is you (and we) will have to live with this system, and I believe the only improvement is to get people to use the iTrader system more often.

Totally support this thread, assume some buyers will come and argue about it

VinceC said:

Totally support this thread, assume some buyers will come and argue about it

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The only arguments really are:
1) That it is currently not a big issue
2) Those bothered by it simply won't buy from that seller
3) Legit sellers will just be answering the question of "do you have any reviews"
4) Dodgy sellers will continue as they always have
5) Ultimately it won't change much if anything

Let people run their BST how they want unless they are purposely being dickish about it or trying to scam. If anyone is taking the piss a mod can tell them to get in line at any time they want.

jimbobo2779 said:

The only arguments really are:
1) That it is currently not a big issue
2) Those bothered by it simply won't buy from that seller
3) Legit sellers will just be answering the question of "do you have any reviews"
4) Dodgy sellers will continue as they always have
5) Ultimately it won't change much if anything

Let people run their BST how they want unless they are purposely being dickish about it or trying to scam. If anyone is taking the piss a mod can tell them to get in line at any time they want.

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I'd stand to agree with both parties in this case, as I hate it when service providers spam their own threads with copied reviews.

I never knew it went as far as being "copy and pasted", but I figured some of the reviews (that were stemming from month or so old accounts, mind you) was the OP trying to get ahead of the competition.

I've had newbies contact me through my BST thread before - they always ask for samples and such; but I've definitely never taken it upon myself to copy and paste reviews. Unethical service providers should be dealt with, or at least be penalized with a suspension of some sort (even though it won't stop them; well, probably won't).

If they're legitimate posts, it's whatever - Jimbobo pretty much hit the nail on the head regardless.

This is something we're going to address with the forum upgrade. For the time being though, be vigilant and keep reporting fake reviews with as much info as possible. Fake reviews and sellers promoting/bumping each others threads is something we take very seriously.

Don't just ignore it and assume someone else has reported it. I'd rather delete 5 duplicate reports than let someone screw the system and deceive members.

Apricot said:

This is something we're going to address with the forum upgrade. For the time being though, be vigilant and keep reporting fake reviews with as much info as possible. Fake reviews and sellers promoting/bumping each others threads is something we take very seriously.

Don't just ignore it and assume someone else has reported it. I'd rather delete 5 duplicate reports than let someone screw the system and deceive members.

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Thanks for the post Apricot, glad to see its already on the RADAR .

I mean you guys can clearly see the fake review post, most have 1 post and its the review post lol. If u go through the thread you can see the same writing style, and its even more noticeable when its one after the other.

You cant stop it, there is always a way to bypass any security feature they have set in place.

EmailMaster said:

I mean you guys can clearly see the fake review post, most have 1 post and its the review post lol. If u go through the thread you can see the same writing style, and its even more noticeable when its one after the other.

You cant stop it, there is always a way to bypass any security feature they have set in place.

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Thats only one small part of what I was getting at....

Hawkster said:

I get more annoyed when the first two pages (sometimes more) are filled with 'any review copies' or 'good luck with sales'
But yeah i agree with what your saying.

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thank god with 5 sales threads never done a review copy ever.
thankfully it was bhw users who came to my sites years b4 i even came here
between 2005-2007 - i came here mid 2007, having an established name
thankfully meant i never had to do review coppies and lets be honest half
the people who take 1 never buy they just want a freebie

Totally agree with you on this.

I'm more annoyed by the multiple people asking for review copies even after the seller has stated multiple times that there are no review copies available. It makes it harder for someone considering a service to find recent, legitimate, reviews. After reading two pages of the multiple variations of "I'll take a review copy" I can feel my eyes glazing over. I realize as a buyer and adult I need to do my own research/due diligence prior to purchasing a service, but those useless posts searching for freebies and the (sometimes) inane bumping makes it difficult to find real feedback from real users of the service. The gems of information are getting buried in mountains of bs.

It might have already been implemented but I would suggest a verified/ unverified reviews system...something like amazon reviews. I mean...if you've bought a service from a BHW provider, your review should have the Verified badge. If you haven't or you've bought the same service from the same provider but from a different place (eg: his website) you could also post your opinions on BHW but your review should have the Unverified badge.
This way we could easily see if a member has actually paid for that service and his opinion could be a bit more trustworthy in this situation.