Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   kiwi1960
   Member

   How accurate can the comments on a product be if;

   OVER 50% of the people give it a thumbs down, BUT, only 5 comments all loving it...

   OR

   UNDER 50% of the people give it a thumbs up, BUT, only 5 comments all hating it...

   As for the comments, this is how I base my opinion. How ignorant is the person.

   Warning people not to trust a offer because the company is in the Czech Republic and that is... (shudder) part of (cringe).... Russia, ON NOES, Vlad Putin will be able to hack all your passwords... NOTE TO THE IGNORANT...

   The cold war is over, the Berlin wall came down, most former Soviet nations are now free and, like the Czech republic, belongs to the E.U. and possibly even NATO.

   By the way, there is no more "Soviet Union".

   Based on those kinds of comments... as the reason for a thumbs down... the only way you can really see what an offer is like is to try it yourself. Make your own opinion based on what you can see.... not what someone else THINKS they can see, its usually based on crap logic.

   If a comment is based ONLY on the offer, how it works, looked and any bugs, then heed it well. PRICE should not be a factor, you're getting this for free, so its not really fair to comment on that UNLESS... they want an outrageous amount for something that is below par or better alternatives can be found in the freeware world.

   I think that is good, telling a publisher that they are charging too much, provided it IS too much as that will make them reconsider their prices and they maybe drop the price based on the comments.

   So, lets recap... and this is only my opinion, and I am entitled to it.

   Ignore the thumbs UP and thumbs down, it abused often and has no value whatsoever.

   Ignore the comments that appear to be biased, Unless the software is made by The Peoples Liberation Army of China OR... The North Korean Intelligence Service...

   or worst yet... The Nigerian Small Business Owners Society

   then where a program is made is immaterial, BUT, a company with a known name and address is always good for support.

   Rating the give away on its merits are the comments you should take note of, but at the end of the day, that is only one persons opinion, judge for yourself what its like.

   If you don't like it... uninstall it.

   Posted 10 years ago #
2. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   FWIW I agree

   In fact you can apply the same criteria to any sort of product review.

   Does it need to be said? Is a reminder like your post needed? My guess is most definitely. Not talking about the companies that provide favorable reviews & comments for a price, but comments & reviews in magazines [on-line or off] & web sites. Amazon provides a great example, with legions of in effect paid reviewers who tend for the most part to write pleasant reading fluff.

   Reviews & comments are good primarily to give you an idea of a product's failure rate &/or longevity, & even then it can be pretty iffy. I'm more critical -- if I had an ego I'd say discerning -- & in a great number of cases [maybe a slight majority], I've found rather glaring problems that no one ever mentioned. That said, if 30% of reviews say a hard drive failed, unless a really great price makes it worth the risk to you, don't buy it [the actual failure rate is probably higher]. If several comments say a GOTD won't install or won't activate or crashes/stalls, unless you really, Really want it, you're likely best to skip that download.

   If/when you do read reviews &/or comments, separate opinions & facts as best you can. Stuff like "Great app" or "very fast" or "does a great job" are all opinions -- "requires .NET 4.0" is a fact. How fast an app is depends on the PC/laptop hardware, the other installed software & OS, and is only valid relative to other software performing the exact same task with the same input as comparison. In the absence of some sort of hard numbers, how good a job any software [or hardware] does is going to be opinion.

   Reviews & comments are like any discussion you might overhear or take part in, whether it's about sports or weather or politics etc. Sometimes you agree -- sometimes not -- but either way you're probably not going to base decisions on a friendly conversation, or change your outlook because of anything that was said. Don't give comments or reviews too much weight unless many or most say the product under review fails.

   Posted 10 years ago #

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