Counterpoint: Stars can reflect the degree to which the item or service satisfies utility or expectations. b/c I don’t even know how I would compare a burger joint and a Michelin rated restaurant.
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“Facts don’t care about your feelings.”
“I’m afraid of 5G microchip needles that magnetize you!”
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This is why I always read 1 star reviews, regardless of whether it’s a product or an establishment or a service. 1 star reviews on ratemyprofessors often complain about the instructor forcing you to do work in the class. 1 star reviews on Amazon can often tell you not to buy a product for the reason you were thinking of using it because it doesn’t work for that purpose. 1 star reviews on restaurants can tell you that anti-maskers likely won’t show up there because the business is serious about the restrictions. All useful information, even if you disagree with the perspective of the person leaving the review.
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Unfortunately, your counterstrike forces would need to mobilize 10-star reviews (in a nevertheless 5-star system).
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Too bad.
As the saying goes, “Nobody’s Perfect”.
It sure is.
The way I figure it:
1 Star= Utter crap. Stay away/do not buy
2 Stars= Below average, needs work
3 Stars= Product/Service works as advertised and/or expected. Average.
4 Stars= Product/Service better than expected
5 Stars= The land of Leprechauns, Unicorns & The Big Rock Candy Mountain
IOW, it’s more like a bell curve.
What these people want is akin to a Participation Trophy just for existing.
If they choose to get butthurt because their product/service is average, that’s not my problem.
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I have a review to share, and you can quote me: “Yelp sucks. No star.”
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As a general rule, if I choose to check reviews on anything, I read some of the 5-star and 1-star reviews. Knowing why somebody downvoted a place (or product) gives me an idea whether or not they had realistic expectations going in (or if they’re just griping to gripe), and that way I can decide whether or not it’s useful feedback for me.
If I saw a restaurant with 1-star reviews that all complained about having to wearing masks, that would make me more likely to eat there, not less. 
If all the bad reviews mentioned slow service, hostile waitrons, and dirty dishes, I’d take more notice, and stay away. 
But as others have said, when you realize the results can be manipulated, it’s less helpful, and harder to tell if the reviews are worth paying attention to. So I try to take the best and worst reviews with a healthy dose of salt.
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And yet it defies mobility. We need Simon Says with stack smashing!
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This may sound stupidly low tech, but rather than use Yelp or other review services when I’m out of town (and thus unfamiliar with local restaurants), I just ask a local. If you’re genuine about it, people setting up tables at your business conference, a random store clerk, some security guard bored out of his gourd… they’re generally more than happy to talk about their favorite local places (which are usually not the places that hotel staff would send you to). I’ve been sent to amazing little holes in the wall, and bigger places that you wouldn’t have expected to be good.
People like sharing the things they love, and most people love food.
(got sent to a sandwich shop in New Orleans where the ladies behind the counter swore at the collared priest in front of me in line! Good sandwiches though.)
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Review sites should require that you post a picture of a dated receipt to prove that you actually patronized the place recently.
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I try that every time I’m in a different part of town and sadly I usually get something like “Subway” as a response. I still ask because it’s not like I have to go there.
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I remember watching “Contagion” in theaters and seeing how easily people were duped by Jude Law’s huckster character. I thought to myself at the time, “Oh come on, Soderbergh doesn’t really expect us to believe that people are that stupid, does he?” It turns out he was being generous; people turned out to be much stupider than depicted in that movie.
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Talking about the 5-star system-I got an employee review one year where my attendance was rated 3 out of 5. Since I had had perfect attendance at that job, never missed a shift, never got in late, didn’t get unauthorized overtime, etc. etc. I was curious as to how I could improve my score. I was told that since perfect attendance was what was expected, there was no way to get a better score than three. Mind you, my boss was looking for ways to score that review so he could give me the smallest raise possible, but still.
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I don’t understand how these review sites haven’t been reigned in. The damage and suffering their commenters have caused by anyone who has a gripe or half arsed opinion is horrendous. Trial by social media in it’s pure form.
There’s an easy society-wide solution for this: stop using Yelp. I have no idea why people are still treating the review equivalent of YouTube comments as though it’s a reliable and useful source of information instead of a toxic sludge pile like every other form of social media.
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I thought that when a person used the word “we” in a sentence they were referring to someone or something that they themselves were involved or associated with. So again, specifically who is the “we” ?
I agree with you, it is fucking gross and just another racket for unwarranted profits, but I have a question for you. What about reviewers who have a legitimate complaint about poor service or bad food or bed bugs or whatever, and then get attacked by the reviewed site? It’s not just Mom and Pop’s corner tavern that’s getting screwed, it’s everybody and their brother that uses these things. The whole system is fucked up, because people don’t know how to be decent human beings.
- Before the internet there was a thing called word of mouth. Some establishments got the social justice they deserved, some didn’t. We used to have to pull from different instincts on such choices and actually ‘think’. Also maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing if everyone knew what a bad version of something tastes like. What’s so painful about that?
- If there is a health violation there are systems to deal with that already (albeit imperfect ones).
Not to say review sites couldn’t (somehow) be useful. Even a review site has to keep the lights on. I think this is a classic case of assholes ruining a potentially good thing for everyone else.
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