As mentioned further up, it's brutally difficult without anything like this. The App Store shows ratings for only the current version by default so after you slave over each upgrade, you lose all the great reviews you've carefully collected. Those ratings are critical to your success in an already difficult marketplace.

Almost no one goes out of their way to review your app, so the majority of reviews you'll get are disgruntled people, often with unfair or unrelated issues.

Preverse actions aren't a good response to preserve incentives, though it is often required. The same argument is used to auto playing to take over ads. You can't blame content makers who can't continue unless they add more aggressive ads any more than you can blame the users from installing ad blockers.

I understand that that is a bad position for developers to be in, but is that the user's problem? Also assuming users showing this behaviour are evenly distributed across apps, didn't this end up not mattering?

It becomes the users' problem when app development becomes unsustainable due to serious difficulties like this. If you're a good developer playing a clean game, you will lose out to more aggressive developers.

Personally I don't think it ends up not mattering because you get better results with the dark pattern people have outlined - ask how they feel about the app, then route positive people to review, or negative people to a feedback form.

Just sucks when someone rates your entire app 1* because of a single, small decision made, despite you having made great decisions at every other point.

It is a problem because in the end developers will just move to the next big platform. Right now Apple and Google essentially charge 30% just for card processing and distribution. Discoverability is no longer a benifit of the App Store.

The problem is that anything other than small, one trick apps are unsustainable. Look at Sketch for example - a perfect app for the iPad form factor but it doesn't exist because the App Store economy sucks.

The thing is it isn't just discoverability, but there are way more problems to deal with. Especially in terms of customer service. As a dev you get no info from a purchase of your app unless you mainuallu collect it inside your app. Have an upset customer and want to refund them? You can't. Want to discount an existing user for a new paid version? It is a super awkward process with app bundles. Want to give out a coupon code for a new product to existing users of another? Nope, can't do that.

App stores are relatively recent things and devs made butt loads of $$$ before the first App Store opened. You are being uncreative depending on nags to get publicity. If you have to annoy users to make a go of it, you just might be in the wrong business. It's not my fault. Not Apple's fault either. Blaming others for failure is Psych 101. Yeah, we get why you do it. Humans are extremely reticent to blame themselves for anything. Furthermore, we owe you for "using" your app and getting pelted with your ads. Except that right there is beyond simple selfishness, and crosses the threads hold into soft psychopathy.

You aren't selfless enough to make it in software. You can't think about the customer, only yourself. That's not how business usually works.

So, life is hard. Awwwwwwwwww. There's your sympathy. Now, succeed without bugging your customer or admit defeat and get out.

Or keep complaining that you're getting 1 star reviews.

Up to you.

This is an app that won an Apple Design Award, was one of Time's apps of the year and has done just fine otherwise.

I am speaking of people who rate an otherwise 4-5* app with 1* because of one prompt screen (that also prompts for feedback) per major version.