This isn't recent news, but I have thought about it today, so why not start a thread about it?
Here's an article about the topic at hand:
https://www.feedbackwhiz.com/blog/heres-how-amazons-removal-of-the-comments-feature-on-customer-reviews-affects-sellers/ (https://www.feedbackwhiz.com/blog/heres-how-amazons-removal-of-the-comments-feature-on-customer-reviews-affects-sellers/)
While I can understand that sometimes comments can get out-of-hand and cause much friction, I think, on the other side of the coin, that a lot of conversing about say a composer or a particular recording for example can be hugely enjoyable. I have met many nice people just by commenting on a review. Another disadvantage to removing review comments is you can't correct someone when they made a mistake in their review. Perhaps the reviewer got a story wrong or a year wrong, how can you offer correction when that feature has been removed?
This is something that has bugged me about Amazon as I think it has given them a more impersonal image. I would think if anything Amazon would want to build a community instead of closing the door on that opportunity. But, hey, I don't run a business, what do I actually know? IIRC, they also did away with their own forum. All I see now is Q & A on the product pages.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on the deletion of the comment feature on Amazon reviews?
No more than Facebook, Amazon is not about fostering community, they're all about monetizing us.
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 13, 2021, 10:45:52 AM
No more than Facebook, Amazon is not about fostering community, they're all about monetizing us.
And therein lies the problem!
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 13, 2021, 10:45:52 AM
No more than Facebook, Amazon is not about fostering community, they're all about monetizing us.
Earlier this year, I deleted all of my reviews, for exactly this reason.
--Bruce
I've long been disenchanted with Amazon, especially in the classical music area. I purchase from them as little as possible.
No great loss to me: the Amazon database has become so FUBAR that the product being reviewed rarely seems to be the same as the one viewed.
And for many non-music products and product lines, shill and bogus reviews dominate. So at this point I'd only trust classical reviews written by reviewers I recognize.
Oh well, another reason to avoid Amazon. I'd better get used to discogs, eBay, importcds.com, bandcamp, ...
Yeah, I buy less and less from Amazon and more from Presto now.
When searching for recordings for Penderecki's Polish Requiem on Amazon, ads and products for nail polish come up. ::) :-\
I do the same. Since I only buy CD's now as a last resort, preferring FLAC albums. Since Amazon doesn't sell FLAC albums, and Prime became totally useless to me anyway, Presto ended up with my business by default, with a little help from eClassical. Of course, this opened me up to getting 10-12 emails a day with ads for everything I've ever looked at there. It's amazing how much stuff they have saved since I opened my account back in 1999!!
🤠😎
I first had a problem a few years back when they removed downvotes. If only likes are allowed it can allow really bad reviews to be pushed to the top. Ex: a review has +100, -200 then the -200 is stripped and all of sudden the review is well received when the massive downvoting (which was swept under the rug) indicated a potential problem. And it makes it easier for scammers to take advantage of the system with fake reviews and upvotes.
And now you can't even leave a comment to correct a bad review? No. Terrible. I have a problem not just here but everywhere. There are so many bad articles written by journalists that used to be immediately fact checked in the comments... and that is no longer possible.
Youtube is thinking of going the same way (not with comments) removing the downvotes. Not a fan!
I've never paid attention to Amazon reviews. For me they are useful if they list the contents of a set when (as it often does) Amazon doesn't.
Quote from: JBS on October 13, 2021, 07:56:16 PM
I've never paid attention to Amazon reviews. For me they are useful if they list the contents of a set when (as it often does) Amazon doesn't.
Similar experience, and there can be other objective data such as the recording date, mono vs stereo, whether the master has been redone since a previous release, which is often hard to determine from the listing or official information.
I don't use amazon proper that often. Mostly I buy used discs from Marketplace seller. Sometimes they have the lowest price on a box set, often not.
One can at times win in the lottery there and find an obviously valuable review, including regarding rarely reviewed material. But odds are low, and it will mostly be hiding within a lot of uinteresting ~shrubbery ...
Amazon is my vendor of choice for coffee, for canned tomatoes, small electrical items and trainers. They deliver the coffee at a price which matches stores. They stock DOP San Marzano tomatoes which I love and can't get easily elsewhere. They have an impeccable returns policy for small electricals and trainers (including cost free returns for clothes.) I also like all their options for minimising delivery costs. Their customer service is fine too.
I also tend to use them for new books because I can be reasonably sure that they will deliver quick.
I'm not so interested in the reviews now, just because it's become so easy to hear a recording for myself with Spotify etc - I don't need reviews really. There are one or two articulate and thoughtful reviewers I know of, they're few and far between.
Quote from: JBS on October 13, 2021, 07:56:16 PM
I've never paid attention to Amazon reviews. For me they are useful if they list the contents of a set when (as it often does) Amazon doesn't.
Same here.
This hurts most because there are a lot of Amazon reviews of classical music that contain falsehoods or lies. I remember somebody gave a "Warner" box set 1 star because it didn't say "EMI" on it, and they were upset about that. No way to comment to say that Warner is legally banned from using the EMI logo. The misinformation just has to spread.
It's like Karl wisely said:
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 13, 2021, 10:45:52 AM
No more than Facebook, Amazon is not about fostering community, they're all about monetizing us.
And much like Facebook, spreading misinformation is a good way to make money.
Quote from: OrchestralNut on October 13, 2021, 11:11:02 AM
Yeah, I buy less and less from Amazon and more from Presto now.
When searching for recordings for Penderecki's Polish Requiem on Amazon, ads and products for nail polish come up. ::) :-\
I know! All kinds of strange non-related products have popped up for me. Can't remember what CD I was trying to pull up (It was a classical one though) and one of the options which came up was for a very skimpy piece of women's lingerie. Thanks Amazon. >:(
Another example, I was typing in extremely specific information for a kitchen product (including size) and was suggested too many other things that basically wasted my time trying to scroll through to try and find what I had been requesting. ::)
PD
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on October 14, 2021, 07:34:42 AM
I know! All kinds of strange non-related products have popped up for me. Can't remember what CD I was trying to pull up (It was a classical one though) and one of the options which came up was for a very skimpy piece of women's lingerie. Thanks Amazon. >:(
Another example, I was typing in extremely specific information for a kitchen product (including size) and was suggested too many other things that basically wasted my time trying to scroll through to try and find what I had been requesting. ::)
PD
Woof!
Quote from: Mirror Image on October 13, 2021, 10:25:28 AM
Here's an article about the topic at hand:
https://www.feedbackwhiz.com/blog/heres-how-amazons-removal-of-the-comments-feature-on-customer-reviews-affects-sellers/ (https://www.feedbackwhiz.com/blog/heres-how-amazons-removal-of-the-comments-feature-on-customer-reviews-affects-sellers/)
While I can understand that sometimes comments can get out-of-hand and cause much friction, I think, on the other side of the coin, that a lot of conversing about say a composer or a particular recording for example can be hugely enjoyable. I have met many nice people just by commenting on a review. Another disadvantage to removing review comments is you can't correct someone when they made a mistake in their review. Perhaps the reviewer got a story wrong or a year wrong, how can you offer correction when that feature has been removed?
This is something that has bugged me about Amazon as I think it has given them a more impersonal image. I would think if anything Amazon would want to build a community instead of closing the door on that opportunity. But, hey, I don't run a business, what do I actually know? IIRC, they also did away with their own forum. All I see now is Q & A on the product pages.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on the deletion of the comment feature on Amazon reviews?
I did very much like comments in Amazon's heyday; it was great to have a conversation about viewpoints on recordings. Knowing where reviewers were coming from when listening provided an angle to their likes and dislikes, and I still follow a few from those days who continue to review.
On the other hand, in the classical music section of Amazon at the time, trolls were rampant. I admired classical recording reviewers who took time to reply to each and every commenter, but dealing with numskulls became too much for many of them. I quit writing reviews on Amazon for a while around that time as well.
In the end, I understand Amazon is a store not a forum, and I just think they were unprepared for the oversight they needed. Just look at Amazon's cherished book-section review problems, with reviewers receiving pay for positive feedback, not to mention fake products and the like. Even removing the dislike review option has been a result (I assume) of an inability to patrol ne'er-do-wells.
VS
I believe comments, ratings, reviews, ... on almost all major websites have been rendered useless (or worse) by the onslaught of bots, trolls, shills, fraudsters, ...
Pity, I used to pay attention in the old days but have learned to live without.
Quote from: T. D. on October 30, 2021, 08:18:06 AM
I believe comments, ratings, reviews, ... on almost all major websites have been rendered useless (or worse) by the onslaught of bots, trolls, shills, fraudsters, ...
Pity, I used to pay attention in the old days but have learned to live without.
+ 1
Quote from: Mirror Image on October 13, 2021, 10:25:28 AM
This isn't recent news, but I have thought about it today, so why not start a thread about it?
Here's an article about the topic at hand:
https://www.feedbackwhiz.com/blog/heres-how-amazons-removal-of-the-comments-feature-on-customer-reviews-affects-sellers/ (https://www.feedbackwhiz.com/blog/heres-how-amazons-removal-of-the-comments-feature-on-customer-reviews-affects-sellers/)
While I can understand that sometimes comments can get out-of-hand and cause much friction, I think, on the other side of the coin, that a lot of conversing about say a composer or a particular recording for example can be hugely enjoyable. I have met many nice people just by commenting on a review. Another disadvantage to removing review comments is you can't correct someone when they made a mistake in their review. Perhaps the reviewer got a story wrong or a year wrong, how can you offer correction when that feature has been removed?
This is something that has bugged me about Amazon as I think it has given them a more impersonal image. I would think if anything Amazon would want to build a community instead of closing the door on that opportunity. But, hey, I don't run a business, what do I actually know? IIRC, they also did away with their own forum. All I see now is Q & A on the product pages.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on the deletion of the comment feature on Amazon reviews?
I've just seen this and totally agree with you John. I made at least one very nice (and continuing) friendship due to the Amazon comments section and had many very nice exchanges with people. I was very sorry to see it go. Personally I didn't experience anything bad on the Amazon comments section.