Fake online reviews

[gfweb]

NPR says that one should go by the majority of reviews and ignore outliers http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/09/12/160755775/five-ways-to-spot-a-fake-online-review-restaurant-or-otherwise?ft=1&f=139941248. That may avoid fake reviews, but isn't usually useful to me in deciding where to eat.

I say the opposite; look at the outlier. So many reviews are by regulars who like the place and are thus biased toward the positive. Like Zagat's problem.

I like the outlier, the guy who goes to a new place (to him) and sees it with fresh eyes.

[Norm Matthews]

I am not familiar with outliers. I have only a passing contact with Zagat's. I got the impression that one of the top rated BBQ restaurants by Zagat's in Kansas City was put there by tourists, not locals who knew better.

My concern is the ability of a random sampling of people to be able to judge what is good. For years I lived in a small midwest town and was often amazed at how many people raved about professionally prepared food that I thought was mediocre or not well prepared- like perhaps it had sat on a warming table too long.

Here is an example: I was at a private affair where the menu was designed by a CIA trained chef and executed by professional caterers. One of the items was gumbo. Apparently the caterer didn't know what that was and served okra. That is what they pointed to when I asked where is the gumbo. I over heard one person eating the okra say that the gumbo was very good and several agreed.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Norm Matthews (log)

[LindaK]

I heard the NPR story this morning and thought that his point about the outliers was mostly about how to identify fake reviews that were planted there by hotel and restaurant owners. They were reporting on academic research that did a cross-comparison of hundreds of thousands of reviews on Expedia and Trip Advisor.

The conclusion was that a glowing review by someone who's offered no other reviews, when the majority say otherwise, is suspect as a fake review. Especially the case on a site that lets people post anonymously. TripAdvisor, which doesn't require registration to post, had significantly more outlier reviews than Expedia, which does require registration.

I don't look at those sites often, but had pretty much reached the same conclusion on my own.

The report: Promotional Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of Online Review Manipulation

[Edward J]

Please, do a little more research, in particular "Yelp' and how it reviews.

Reviews--if favorable are taken down if the reviewer has fewer than 10 posts.

This is only fair, and I understand the logic.

But Wait!!! There's more!!!

If the review is negative, it stays, irregardless of the reviewer's track record. Some of the negative reviews go all over the place, have nothing to do with the restaurant or food, and can be personal attacks on employees or owners. .

IMHO, you get what you pay for. If the review costs nothing, it is worth nothing.

[pyrguy]

Here is an example: I was at a private affair where the menu was designed by a CIA trained chef and executed by professional caterers. One of the items was gumbo. Apparently the caterer didn't know what that was and served okra. That is what they pointed to when I asked where is the gumbo. I over heard one person eating the okra say that the gumbo was very good and several agreed.

In South Louisiana okra is gumbo. But gumbo is also the soup-ish dish made with almost anything sometimes including okra.

[Mjx]

Please, do a little more research, in particular "Yelp' and how it reviews.

Reviews--if favorable are taken down if the reviewer has fewer than 10 posts.

This is only fair, and I understand the logic.

But Wait!!! There's more!!!

If the review is negative, it stays, irregardless of the reviewer's track record. Some of the negative reviews go all over the place, have nothing to do with the restaurant or food, and can be personal attacks on employees or owners. .

IMHO, you get what you pay for. If the review costs nothing, it is worth nothing.

Yelp will take down negative reviews in a heartbeat, if offered the right incentive.

I reviewed a hotel whose main problems were A) no material existence B) the owner did her damndest to defraud me (this incident involved the police, mind you, no question of my making this up).

However, the next review of this non-existent hotel was glowing, as was the one that followed (openly by the owner), which also said they couldn't please everyone.

The next day, my review was taken down.

I was not notified, and asked 'Why?'

I was told I'd violated guidelines.

I asked them to indicate to which guidline they referred (since I was posting a negative review, I was particularly careful to double-check posting guidelines before posting).

Their next response ignored my question entirely, but offered me a deal if I rewrote the review so it was positive.

I declined, and closed my account.

I do not trust online reviews much; although I do post on tripadvisor (which does require registration to post review), you get much closer to the truth if you read their discussion forums.

[pastameshugana]

I will usually look for specifics in a review, rather than trust the generic 'it's great!' nonsense. You can usually spot a fake review if you pay close enough attention.

As I travel a lot, sometimes those review sites are helpful!

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[gfweb]

Agree about tripadvisor. Truth can be found there.

[Norm Matthews]

Here is an example: I was at a private affair where the menu was designed by a CIA trained chef and executed by professional caterers. One of the items was gumbo. Apparently the caterer didn't know what that was and served okra. That is what they pointed to when I asked where is the gumbo. I over heard one person eating the okra say that the gumbo was very good and several agreed.

In South Louisiana okra is gumbo. But gumbo is also the soup-ish dish made with almost anything sometimes including okra.

The menu had both okra and gumbo but only okra was served. The gumbo was supposed to be the soup with the sausage and shell fish.