rgg_32
I am not 100% sure about this, I wish it were so. Maybe it's just that we get this feeling because of the people we usually talk to, the people in our close circle of connections who are likely to be like us in terms of this kind of rasoning/thinking. I think most people may not be aware of it.
> They had little short-term interest in doing so
I just want to add a possible scenario here and I would like to hear opinions about it:
As we all know, people really tend to buy products with 4.5+ stars and we think twice if the product has 3 or even 4 stars. On the other hand, let's suppose that since everyone is selling on Amazon now, worse products are likely to be put on sale, so the average scores start to decrease.
Having said the above, if I, as a user, periodically look for products on Amazon, I will probably start seeing/finding bad products, so it may be that in a long period of time, I will start looking for alternatives other than Amazon and may attribute the image of "not high quality products" to Amazon as an e-commerce.
[Edit]: So if my two previous scenarios are correct, if you follow the money, they actually have some long-term interest in allowing some fake(good) reviews and eliminating some real bad ones. In the end, most people will not be aware of these fake reviews and the quality of the products will be perceived as higher, resulting in more sales and in a better reputation of Amazon products, thus avoiding the scenario discussed in the second answer.
Today, Google results are a big problem in the sense discussed in the article, there are no more sources of information that can be trusted like in the old days. Some days I reflect with myself trying to figure out how it can be solved…I hope someone ends up finding a solution.
Becoming more productive at this level makes the programmer environment significantly tougher and it has negative consequences over time to every human being. It’s a fact that many people don’t even think about it. If you optimize yourself to near –let’s say 95% of your actual capability, you are making everyone else optimize themselves to this number over time. This is great on the context of capitalism and economic growth, you produce more in less time, but we are forgetting that we are humans, not machines being optimized. Of course it’s okay to strive in this life to progress and achieve certain goals, but as happens in almost everything in this world, there should be some limits. If you are getting to the point where you have to monitor yourself, schedule every part of the day and establish X number of controls on yourself, you are being a company, not a human being, and you really aren’t understanding the point of life.
This is a common trend I’ve been realizing for years, we have been sold the idea that we should improve more and more and be more competitive, but without any limits, this is going to negatively affect our lives, indeed, it’s happening right now.