So, this is kinda weird...

[diver_doug]

First let me state that I realize I have too much time on my hands—so no need to address that.

On the reviews posted by customers at scuba.com there is an approval rating for each review (e.g. 100 out of 210 people found this review helpful, 23 out of 40 people found this review helpful etc.). As I was looking up various reviews for products I noticed that every single review had an approval rating of about 50% (40%-60%). It didn’t matter if the review was in-depth, well-worded, comparing the many pro’s and con’s of a particular product and arriving at an intelligent conclusion; or if it simply said something like “Bitchin’ reg” or “I love my pink snorkel!” Regardless of how good or how lousy a review was, more than 40%, but less than 60% of people found it helpful. This stood out as being totally ridiculous to me (and not actually possible). I looked up a bunch of reviews just to see if there was an exception, but try as I might I couldn’t find one. As a sort of lame experiment, I made up 2 reviews for items I had purchased. Here they are:

Review 1:
Product: Highland in-line shut off valve
Title: Great Mask!
Review: No leaks, big FOV, and a world-class buckling system. A+
3 out of 6 people found this review helpful

Review 2:
Product: OMS regulator necklace
Title: I like pizza!
Review: Is there something you’d like to share with the rest of us Amazing Larry?!?
3 out of 7 people found this review helpful

So review 1 is helpful to 50% of people despite the fact that it is a mask review FOR A SHUT-OFF VALVE! And review 2 has been helpful to 43% of people despite the fact it is about pizza, and the entire review consists of nothing but a quote from “Pee-Wee Herman’s Big Adventure”. So, I can’t conclude anything other than that scuba.com makes these numbers up. I’m not exactly sure why they would do that; maybe they don’t want any particular review carrying more weight than another or something like that. Whatever the reason, if they are fabricating these numbers (it seems to me that they are), that seems kinda weird.

 

[JPENDERGRAST]

go diving....

 

[diver_doug]

go diving....

lol. I went friday. I realised when I posted this it might fall into the category of "who cares"...but I was a philosophy major in college so these kinds of things bother me.

 

[Garrobo]

Yep, you got too much time on your hands. I suggest that you spend more time in the real world doing useful things. LOL.

 

[friscuba]

Pizza, yummy!

 

[Web Monkey]

people found this review helpful etc.). As I was looking up various reviews for products I noticed that every single review had an approval rating of about 50% (40%-60%). It didn’t matter if the review was in-depth, well-worded, comparing the many pro’s and con’s of a particular product and arriving at an intelligent conclusion; or if it simply said something like “Bitchin’ reg” or “I love my pink snorkel!” Regardless of how good or how lousy a review was, more than 40%, but less than 60% of people found it helpful. This stood out

Unfortunately, people believe stuff they see on the computer. A number of years ago, I worked for a large web hosting company doing application support.

One of the customers owned a few "dating service" websites that were marketed to different target audiences (professionals, college students, etc.).

We were doing some maintenance on the site and noticed that most of the people looked like desperate losers, except for a few. One of the women was really hot. Her profile said she was a doctor and loved to fly off to tropical locations every couple of weeks. She was a gourmet cook, loved adventure and wanted a good-looking, successful, professional guy.

We didn't think much of it until we were working on one of his other sites and found the exact same picture only this time she lived in a different state had no professional credentials and wanted to stay at home and have children.

It turns out that he had too many boring, ugly people and was seeding the database with stock photos of people who weren't actually customers and didn't actually exist (at least not with the "profile" provided).

At least half of everything on the internet is just crap made up to sell you something.

Terry

 

[Gambitt]

Diving is like Sex.... Some people will follow you, just because you have the "biggest tank"

 

[StevenN]

I found the OMS regulator necklace review useful because I too like pizza.

J/K sounds fishy to me and now I want to try the same experiment because I also have too much time on my hands.

 

[vladimir]

So, I can’t conclude anything other than that scuba.com makes these numbers up.

Flimsy evidence for an inescapable conclusion--especially from a philosophy major--but I think you're probably right. Kind of an interesting experiment for somebody who puts stock in those reviews, but I always assumed they were rigged to some extent, so I don't find it surprising at all.

 

[diver_doug]

Flimsy evidence for an inescapable conclusion--especially from a philosophy major--but I think you're probably right. Kind of an interesting experiment for somebody who puts stock in those reviews, but I always assumed they were rigged to some extent, so I don't find it surprising at all.

I don't think the evidence is really that flimsy. I mean EVERY review is approved by 40%-60% of people no matter how useful or worthless the review is. If a review is fairly new something like 10 out of 22 people found it helpful...if a review is old something onto the order of 256 out of 520 found it useful-they are all like that. When i was looking up reviews at one point I found a mask review for a pair of fins that was helpful to like 25 out of 54 people. I mean seriously, what else can someone conclude from this?

Here's a good example:
Rating: 5stars. Great Watch, small band
This watch is great however, my only complaint is the band. I am not a big person and the band is even small on me. I have to wear it on the second to last hole. Just a little annoying nothing big though!

188 out of 379 people found this review helpful (49.6%)

This helpful watch review is for Oceanic Viper fins.