Marketplace reviews and comments are now anonymous. Thoughts?

[Chris Corvinus]

LL doing dumb things like this is why aliens won't visit us.

Or maybe a mouse ran across a devs keyboard and they will fix it in a few years.

[Prokofy Neva]

9 hours ago, Lucia Nightfire said:

Marketplace reviews and comments are now anonymous.

Even the store owner will not see who posted them.

The only time the store owner will see who has made a review is via email.

Thoughts?

Very bad move, but in keeping with many bad moves over the years that have created less transparency and less civil society.

If you leave a bad review, which the store owner cannot remove without deleting that product entirely, you should own it. I think all ARs should be public and on a Police Blotter. People cry that this will unleash vengeance. To which I can say, are you telling me that the Lindens can't control their world? They can't govern it enough to stop vengeance? 

A bad review is not an AR given the consequences -- AR can lead to bans or permanent expulsions, even if not true as there is no due process in examining them (no right to face your accusers, etc.)

But it hurts business and ruins the stars others have legitimately given. So often the bad review or one star comes from someone who can't grasp how to use the product. 

The only solution with ignorant bad reviews is to delete the product, thereby getting rid of its good reviews, and renaming it, which apparently is legal 

But the Lindens did this because they think "something should be done about shoddy products and deception". Oh, I have a good idea for that -- let people post allegations on the forums, and let the targets defend themselves without banning the participants or even disappearing the thread. That's the cure. Free speech. Anonymity is not a cure; it is a vector to more deception.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

7 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

Why not?  I leave reviews on Amazon without having to.submit my full name.  Merchants can report a bad review or relist an item with bad reviews (isn't that against the rules?) They can also ban a resident for giving a bad review.  Perhaps this is meant to give the consumer a bit more privacy when giving a less.than stellar review?

The Marketplace is not Amazon for a 100 reasons which I could spell out to you.

If you are in the public marketplace, facing the public, selling wares and services and taking money from them, you should not have privacy in the sense you mean, escaping the knowledge of bad reviews. And the people making them should also be accountable; it only enables more griefing.

[Prokofy Neva]

3 hours ago, Lucia Nightfire said:

The store owner still gets an email when a review is made telling them who made the review with its url.

The store owner still gets an email when a review is made telling them who made the review with its url.

The reviews and comments on any listing page no longer show the names of the posters to anyone.

I assume logged in Lindens can still see who made the reviews/comments.

But the public can't, and can't assess the bad review. If I see a ridiculously stupid bad review from a day-old alt, I get it. If their name is Griefer McGrief, I get it. If I see it is someone who rules the forums with a vengeance, I get it. People who make bad reviews should have the civic responsibility to show their identity. This is a basic tenet of justice -- the right to face your accusers.

[Nick0678]

I always leave negative reviews on MP items so i suppose... less SL drama for me. Thank you Linden Lab

 

[Salt Peppermint]

I have mixed feels about this. Probably certain items might get reviewed now that people felt uncomfortable to review before, but much more I feel that creators already have little to none protection and this just opens very much the path for bullies on top.

[Qie Niangao]

I can't tell whether this is a step towards closing Marketplace, but anything that reduces its use is a win by me. 

[Ceka Cianci]

It's prolly to protect us sin..... I mean protect y'all sinners from gittin spossed!!\o/

 

[PixelBerry]

Now I can review all the lewd stuff without getting recognized.

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Salt Peppermint said:

I have mixed feels about this. Probably certain items might get reviewed now that people felt uncomfortable to review before, but much more I feel that creators already have little to none protection and this just opens very much the path for bullies on top.

How does it open up a path for bullies when the creator will still know who wrote a review and retaliate?

[Rowan Amore]

After the information about merchants still knowing who wrote the review, I'll amend my statement that it's a good idea.  If it's anonymous, it needs to be so completely and not just pseudo-anonymous.  Kind of defeats the entire purpose in my mind.  

[Luna Bliss]

20 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

bullies

There are just as many bully customers as there are bully merchants. We don't really know, at this point, why LL made this change.

[Rowan Amore]

4 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

There are just as many bully customers as there are bully merchants. We don't really know, at this point, why LL made this change.

You missed the point of my post.  The 'bullies' will still be known by the merchant.  Nothing has changed there so why the change at all.  The bullies I was talking about ARE the customers.  Hiding them from everyone except the merchant won't change that.

[Coffee Pancake]

On the whole I think anon marketplace reviews are a good thing.

A review can no longer be used or seen as an endorsement or as a reflection on the purchaser (especially good for notable SL users and adult items).

As a merchant I would like to see something on market place pages where a customer can contact a merchant if they need support and a route to resolve issues. This is especially important to smaller vendors who genuinely want their customers to be happy and have the time to put into making things right.

I would also like to see a page that prompts shoppers to leave reviews for recent purchases, maybe even rewarding them for doing so in some way.

 

Reviews are always subject to being gamed in someway (good and bad), the counter is to get more people to leave reviews and drown less than genuine comments out by sheer weight of numbers.

Gamifying the act of leaving reviews a little by adding an average of all star ratings left by an account in the accounts profile is a good counter to review bombing, no one wants to be a 2 star shopper.

 

 

[Salt Peppermint]

36 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

How does it open up a path for bullies when the creator will still know who wrote a review and retaliate?

Because a lot already misuse it and not having their name next to it, even when it’s sent by email, does make it more anonymous and I think it’s clear from many different websites where people post anonymously, that manners and respect disappear even more , replaced by passive aggressive, disrespectful speach. 

[Silent Mistwalker]

2 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

A review can no longer be used or seen as an endorsement or as a reflection on the purchaser (especially good for notable SL users and adult items).

It may not be used but it certainly can be seen that way. I know I have my opinions about the reviewers when I read the reviews. Most are a waste of my time. Very few are actually informative or constructive.

I don't publish my reviews. I send them directly to the creator either by IM or notecard.

[Rolig Loon]

5 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

I know I have my opinions about the reviewers when I read the reviews. Most are a waste of my time. Very few are actually informative or constructive.

I agree. I rarely bother looking at reviews and I never leave them. 

[Ceka Cianci]

I put more faith in the 2, 3 and 4 star reviews, than a 1 and 5 star..

That's just about anywhere that uses a rating system like that..  1 and 5 are just too corruptible..

It's not 1 and 5's fault either.. It's those damn 1 and 5 users.. hehehe

[Vengeance Villota]

5 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Very bad move, but in keeping with many bad moves over the years that have created less transparency and less civil society.

If you leave a bad review, which the store owner cannot remove without deleting that product entirely, you should own it. I think all ARs should be public and on a Police Blotter. People cry that this will unleash vengeance. To which I can say, are you telling me that the Lindens can't control their world? They can't govern it enough to stop vengeance? 

A bad review is not an AR given the consequences -- AR can lead to bans or permanent expulsions, even if not true as there is no due process in examining them (no right to face your accusers, etc.)

But it hurts business and ruins the stars others have legitimately given. So often the bad review or one star comes from someone who can't grasp how to use the product. 

The only solution with ignorant bad reviews is to delete the product, thereby getting rid of its good reviews, and renaming it, which apparently is legal 

But the Lindens did this because they think "something should be done about shoddy products and deception". Oh, I have a good idea for that -- let people post allegations on the forums, and let the targets defend themselves without banning the participants or even disappearing the thread. That's the cure. Free speech. Anonymity is not a cure; it is a vector to more deception.

 

I am kind of indifferent to it. I didn't see an issue before but have been noticing creators banning and blocking people a lot recently for leaving negative reviews rather than addressing said reviews whether it be an issue with the product or some sort of user error. It doesn't take a lot of effort to find out that maybe there was some sort of miscommunication with the product or that something is in fact wrong with it.

I got an offline message just as I logged off the other day about a customer having an issue with a sword. I hopped back on and spent 2 hours trying to resolve it with the customer at 3am my time. The customer was new and I assumed they just didn't know how to use them. But it turned out I used a couple capital letters in the gesture which I guess causes them not to work on some viewers. I also found out that not everyone uses ASWD for movement and use the arrow keys instead. So my instructions telling people to use ASWD probably wasn't helpful to people who didn't know those are movement keys. So in the end it was an issue with my product and explains why I've gotten other negative reviews on it before. It got resolved and I even got a good review out of it in the end.

[Coffee Pancake]

3 minutes ago, Vengeance Villota said:

I am kind of indifferent to it. I didn't see an issue before but have been noticing creators banning and blocking people a lot recently for leaving negative reviews rather than addressing said reviews whether it be an issue with the product or some sort of user error. It doesn't take a lot of effort to find out that maybe there was some sort of miscommunication with the product or that something is in fact wrong with it.

I got an offline message just as I logged off the other day about a customer having an issue with a sword. I hopped back on and spent 2 hours trying to resolve it with the customer at 3am my time. The customer was new and I assumed they just didn't know how to use them. But it turned out I used a couple capital letters in the gesture which I guess causes them not to work on some viewers. I also found out that not everyone uses ASWD for movement and use the arrow keys instead. So my instructions telling people to use ASWD probably wasn't helpful to people who didn't know those are movement keys. So in the end it was an issue with my product and explains why I've gotten other negative reviews on it before. It got resolved and I even got a good review out of it in the end.

Encouraging creators and customers to engage with each other more is a win win. The customer gets the help they need and the creator gets important feedback to refine a product.

Far more productive all round than a 1 star "thanks I hate it" review.

[Rowan Amore]

4 minutes ago, Vengeance Villota said:

I didn't see an issue before but have been noticing creators banning and blocking people a lot recently for leaving negative reviews

Exactly.  The anonymity seems to serve no useful purpose IMHO if the merchant can still do this.

I'm sure the majority of merchants aren't banning for bad reviews but the new change still gives them that option.  

5 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Encouraging creators and customers to engage with each other more is a win win. The customer gets the help they need and the creator gets important feedback to refine a product.

Far more productive all round than a 1 star "thanks I hate it" review.

I agree but anonymity isn't going to change a bad customer nor a bad merchant.  I've always had positive results when contacting creators.

[Vengeance Villota]

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

Exactly.  The anonymity seems to serve no useful purpose IMHO if the merchant can still do this.

I'm sure the majority of merchants aren't banning for bad reviews but the new change still gives them that option.  

I agree but anonymity isn't going to change a bad customer nor a bad merchant.  I've always had positive results when contacting creators.

Ya but I'm kind of leaning toward the email still sending the user's name is an oversight and likely won't be a thing going forward. Otherwise, what is the point? 

[JordonBanks]

That is ashame if a store owner cannot see who posted.  On a few times I have posted a comment, I have had the store owner contact me in SL to discuss the feedback, and update me on any changes they have made to the product based on my feedback.  And in one instance this has led to a really great friendship with a creator.  Ashame if that kind of rapport will be lost.

Also - will anon comments lead to more aggressive, unfair feedback.  (if people feel they can hide more - a bit like on Twitter, they can often be a bit more unreasonable).

Edited November 9, 2021 by JordonBanks
typo

[JordonBanks]

What I wish they would change though, is why they only show two comments per page, with no way to increase this.  It is a pain when there are more than 10 comments to keep going through all the pages two at a time.  That's a right pain.  Be good to get at least ten comments per page.

[Coffee Pancake]

17 minutes ago, JordonBanks said:

What I wish they would change though, is why they only show two comments per page, with no way to increase this.  It is a pain when there are more than 10 comments to keep going through all the pages two at a time.  That's a right pain.  Be good to get at least ten comments per page.

More than 2 comments per page (like 30 per page) would also help counter store owners getting a couple of fake 5 stars to push a bad review down.