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Re:Amazon Reviews: How We Spot the Fakes by logicallee on Friday May 13, 2016 @03:48PM (#11692782)
>if you didn't pay to read it, you probably read an advertisement.

But your own comment (that I'm replying to) isn't one, and we're not paying for it - you're speaking to us frankly and off the cuff (and if anything, against your own interests on those other sites) because of the informal club-like forum that this is. In the end I and any other readers here are giving you all due weight. in exchange everyone else speaks frankly about stuff they know about. You can read stuff here that probably posters are explicitly prohibited by their employers from posting. some guy from (insert whatever state agency here) can probably post from a throwaway but still waaaaaaaaaaay in contravention of whatever their policies are, and with only a little bit of indirection.

So it's hardly as simple as you suggest. yeah you have to read through the bullshit, but this has always been true everywhere. caveat emptor.

Re:Amazon Reviews: How We Spot the Fakes by powellzer on Friday May 13, 2016 @04:12PM (#11692915)
Or jonstokes works for a paid, members-only site that provides owner-verified reviews, making his post a subtle advertisement.
Re:Amazon Reviews: How We Spot the Fakes by jonstokes on Friday May 13, 2016 @04:34PM (#11693060)
That's not a bad business idea :)
Re:Amazon Reviews: How We Spot the Fakes by jonstokes on Friday May 13, 2016 @04:35PM (#11693069)
That's why I qualify with "probably". Also, it's sort of a deliberate overstatement intended to encourage the hearer to err on the side of caution.