The only thing that sucks about it is that Amazon seems to mix around reviews of "the same" book (different printings, possibly even slightly different content since some may be expanded, have different forwards, et c.), plus sometimes ship different products with the same product page, so you can't be sure whether the review that says the binding fell apart or the paper felt crappy was for the same product you'll receive if you press "buy now".
Which would be why I basically only buy books on Amazon if someone gives me a gift card (still safer than buying electronics there). Their product pages at best suggest what you might receive. I continue to be confused at how the shit they pull doesn't put them on the wrong side of several laws.
Amazon's packaging and the delivery boy is pretty funny though.
Googling 'site:amazon.in "delivery boy"':
- There is no problem with the product,but the delivery boy charged extra 12 Rs,and said it will be adjusted in the next order.
- But delivery boy is very bad. Delivery boy has no manner how to talk with costumers.
- Ur delivery boy was not ready to do door delivery. He called u from the main road asked me to pick. I went to the main road and asked him, y u rnot doing
Now, the worst I've ever encountered are books with pages out of order.
Maybe you think that is too niche; but Amazon has Amazon-specific versions of some books and also does print-on-demand. Without people reviewing the quality of these things, how am I to know the quality? This also extends to Blu-Ray collections and other things which contain content. Even a Kindle book isn't just the content; how well the book has been formatted matters.
To the extent there is a norm, the norm is that anything related to the thing you are purchasing is fair game; things related to the seller or shipper are not. (Understanding that sometimes Amazon is more than a seller.) If you want reviews specifically of the content, you should go to sites that are specifically for reviewing content.
To the extent there is a problem, the problem is that the star-rating is global for the entire review. I can't give a book 5 stars for content and 2 for book quality. And no matter how good the content, if you're charging me $20+ for a book with pages falling out, you're not getting five stars from me.
If you're just doing reviews independent of medium, review just the content. The fact that you were reading a poorly stapled together print out from Jimmy down the hall is immaterial.
If it's more like Amazon, where I'm reviewing this particular item I bought, people should know that the item being sold is of substandard quality and they should get the item elsewhere.
If you bought a Dyson vacuum at Target and it was rubbish, you wouldn't later go to a Walmart to buy a Dyson for your mum because you trust Walmart more than Target (ok, contrived example). However if you go to a store and buy generic products that turn out to be shoddy, you're likely to hold it against the store.
There's really no mystery in the Podcasts app getting very good reviews, people really love the experience even if the app itself might not be that good.
It's just like happy Tesco customers that enjoy their Pringles and not nerding over the store design. From customers perspective, the store design and the Pringles are not separate experiences.
I've never seen a grocery store review mention how good the non-store-brand potato chips or chocolate bars are. I _do_ see reviews regularly mentioning the quality of produce and meat, which stores do have some control over. I think most people who take the time to go to Yelp / Google Maps / whatever and leave a review are aware that they're reviewing the store and not their Mars bar.
The experience using an app is completely different. Here's my dumb analogy.
You're browsing the snack food aisle in the grocery store. You really want a Mars bar, so you pick one off the shelf and go to put in your basket. As you're picking it up, a voice asks you from the heavens: "How much do you like this?"
How much do I like what? The grocery store? The Mars bar? Being asked the question at all?
My guess is that most people leaving 5 star reviews for the Apple Podcasts app had a similar experience. If you just finished listening to a 2 hour podcast that you enjoyed and are greeted with a "rate your experience" pop-up after unlocking your phone, you might be inclined to select 5 stars without thinking about what you're actually rating.
Is this some dark pattern from Apple added to pump up their app ratings? I have no idea. But I do think that the lines are very blurred, intentionally or not, in something like a podcast app. An app certainly _could_ mislead its users into leaving positive reviews.
I'm not saying that that's how app reviews should work, just answering your question regarding where the blame should fall in your store example.
Precisely. The author of the article is certainly not mystified by what is happening, and no-one responding here seems to be so, either. You are not suggesting that the quality of the podcast and that of the app are inseparable issues, are you?
I am, actually. The experience is the listening of the podcast, how that is produced and how that is delivered are technicalities that you cannot know without investigation or prior knowledge and that is useful only if you are looking into improving or duplicating the experience.
So, it makes sense to me to rate the app based on the podcasts you listened as well us the UI experience. After all, that would be the experience of other people who are about to download the app.
If you've gone through the trouble of downloading the app, and finding a podcast and listening to it, I'd say you're more likely to give it a positive review.
More technically inclined people, who know the difference between the player and the podcast, are probably also more likely to use a different player, like Overcast.
> That’s right: they’re reviews of the podcasts themselves, not the Apple Podcasts app.
Yep, this happens all the time. People often rate the message and not the messenger. If you think about it, kind of make sense since many people would not understand who provides what in the experience.
I wouldn't be surprised if Google Chrome has 5 start reviews about that great website they visited or 1 start reviews about website that was not nice to them.
To put yourself in their shoes, consider how do you review a shopping experience in a supermarket. Are the low quality products the shop owners fault? Are the high quality products shop owners success? You might think that the answer is straightforward but it is not, some shops simply sell stands where the producers put their products and in other shops they are very involved through the whole experience.
Time that with the recommended pattern of "Ask for a review when something good happens in your app" and you have a glee of happy users recommending the experience to everyone.