The Potential Misleading 5 Star Trick

[CaithLynnSayes]

 

I'm sure you've seen it before, since it apparently is the latest trend. Merchants change their store name, or should I say, add Unicode stars to their shop name.

You could say it's very cute that they do that, and the first time I saw someone doing that, I rolled my eyes so far back in my head that I make direct eye contact with the goblin that operates me like a marionette. Anyway, I thought it was silly. But it seems to becoming a trend now, i see more and more merchants do this. Even established brands that i respect and regularly buy from.

 

I think this is potentially misleading in trying to trick someone in thinking this is a "5 star product".

I want to make it absolutely clear that i'm not hating on anyone, i just find this new trend a tad bit devious.

[Casidy Silvercloud]

I haven't seen anyone doing that. But if people are, I don't think it's devious, I think it's stupid, lmao. This goes double for anyone trying to use it as some sales tactic. 

Unicode is so prevalent in sl, in store names, user names, display names, notecards, gestures. Although individual icons, smileys, flowers, hearts, stars, whatever mean exactly that, they won't carry the level of importance and significance to make any sort of impact on sales. 

Sl, like rl, goes through weird trends, if this is another well,  it could be worse, lmao. It's not a good marketing tactic if that's the goal, though. 

[Ceka Cianci]

I shall call it ***** verified..

hehehe

[PheebyKatz]

Despite my system having a very widely comprehensive set of fonts (almost too many), I still sometimes just see boxes with numbers or question marks, instead of whatever rare, ineresting, and fun wingdings people decided to use to get my attention. It's bad enough when the title of a forum topic tries to freeze my browser; if the MP starts doing it, I'll just have to make ALL my own stuff, I guess. Saves money, so hey, no biggy.

[xDancingStarx]

The only intent is to mislead and trick people into thinking that the product has a 5 star rating. Only a few days ago I tried reporting a store for this, but a corresponding report option is missing.

[Casidy Silvercloud]

1 hour ago, xDancingStarx said:

The only intent is to mislead and trick people into thinking that the product has a 5 star rating. Only a few days ago I tried reporting a store for this, but a corresponding report option is missing.

If that is the intent, it's stupid, and not likely to work. In the event it does work on someone, that person is far more gullible than they should be and likely needs some handholding on the internet for a while.

I'm sorry but, who in the hell actually believes that means the product is 5 star? I have some friends who aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, a couple fries short of a happy meal even (self included at times, we freely admit our shortcomings, lmao) and there is no way I, or they, would see those stars and think "oh this MUST be a five star rated product". I would think absolutely nothing of it, because people use unicode all over sl so much that none of it has any special meaning (and certainly none related to quality of anything).

Maybe I'm using rose colored glasses here but I can't imagine anyone in sl is actually that dumb when they see the five stars, lmao. Dumb about other things, sure, aren't we all dumb about some things? But that, no, that's just preposterous. 

And also, trying to report a store for using those five stars, even if it's dumb, is just as preposterous and time wasting for LL, stop that crap, report real problems with the mp!

Edited October 21, 2023 by Casidy Silvercloud

[Blaise Glendevon]

This seems like someone looking for a problem to fix instead of there actually being a problem. Keep it pushing.

[MoiraKathleen]

I haven't seen any store names that have done this, so far.  I would think they were doing so to make their store name stand out - I'm having a hard time making the leap to think they would be doing so in order to make people think they had a 5 star product.  

[xDancingStarx]

46 minutes ago, Casidy Silvercloud said:

If that is the intent, it's stupid

No, it's not. In the same way that phishing mails are not stupid. You may not fall for it 99 times but that one time fall for it not because you're stupid but because you may not be paying attention and happen to be in a situation where you're more receptible for it. The 5 stars are of course meant to mislead people, what else? Assuming otherwise is just off reality.

Furthermore, saying that only "dumb" people would fall for it (which isn't true as explained) doesn't make a good argument for having this practice allowed either, cause it says that scam is allowed unless smart people would get tricked. But people are allowed to be dumb and still get protected from scammers.

Edited October 21, 2023 by xDancingStarx

[Love Zhaoying]

7 hours ago, CaithLynnSayes said:

 

I'm sure you've seen it before, since it apparently is the latest trend. Merchants change their store name, or should I say, add Unicode stars to their shop name.

You could say it's very cute that they do that, and the first time I saw someone doing that, I rolled my eyes so far back in my head that I make direct eye contact with the goblin that operates me like a marionette. Anyway, I thought it was silly. But it seems to becoming a trend now, i see more and more merchants do this. Even established brands that i respect and regularly buy from.

 

I think this is potentially misleading in trying to trick someone in thinking this is a "5 star product".

I want to make it absolutely clear that i'm not hating on anyone, i just find this new trend a tad bit devious.

Idea: Make a store with a name including "💩💩💩💩💩"

"We are a 5 Chocolate Ice Creams-Rated Store!"

Edited October 21, 2023 by Love Zhaoying

[Casidy Silvercloud]

39 minutes ago, xDancingStarx said:

The 5 stars are of course meant to mislead people, what else? Assuming otherwise is just off reality.

Obviously some people think it's meant to mislead people and some people may use it for that. But, my point is that it will not be effective and it IS NOT effective. It does not do this, regardless of how the person doing it intended for it to behave. That is a huge part of why it cannot be compared to phishing attempts because they have a certain success rate, guaranteed, always, and it can be documented as such. They also cause all sorts of irreparable damage, there is no such thing as an innocent, harmless, victimless phishing attempt. This is not that. 

39 minutes ago, xDancingStarx said:

Furthermore, saying that only "dumb" people would fall for it (which isn't true as explained) doesn't make a good argument for having this practice allowed either,

I never once said people should use it as a marketing tactic, in fact, I have said multiple times it's not a good marketing tactic (ineffective and stupid as such), and won't accomplish what anyone thinks it will. 

39 minutes ago, xDancingStarx said:

But people are allowed to be dumb and still get protected from scammers

 Unless that product is not at all as advertised in its description and title, no one is getting scammed. No one is taking your information. No one is stealing your money. No one is doing anything to harm you (unlike phishing, yet another reason they are not alike). It's not a scam. It's a stupid marketing choice for anyone who does use it as that, not a successful one, but it's not a scam.

You're applying words and descriptions here that don't fit, and don't apply.  It would apply if someone had a product name or description that was misleading, and you'd have reason to report that (which is why LL gives us that option!). The store name, however, is a horse of a different color. It's not a product name or description, it's a store name. Does everyone with the word "star" in their store name sell star-related products? Doubtful. Are they scamming people by using the word star in their name? No. Apply that to any other naming tactic people have tried and will try. A store name is not a product, it's a store name. 

I'm not trying to just be a jerk, but his is a mountain out of a molehill situation. The comparison to phishing just isn't reasonable.  Even though phishing is intended to fool someone, it really is something completely different (and quite serious) in function and even intent. 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Casidy Silvercloud

[Ceka Cianci]

I haven't really noticed anything.. If this is like on the market place or something, I doubt I really would notice unless they can manipulate the review stars in some way.. otherwise I'm gonna know they added them there themselves, which that won't move me one way or the other really..

to me it would just be like another add gimmick which don't work on me.. Product quality in what I'm looking for is the only thing that counts for me..

They could have a quote from Fergie endorsing them and it wouldn't make a stitch bit of different to me.. hehehe

[Love Zhaoying]

5 hours ago, xDancingStarx said:

No, it's not. In the same way that phishing mails are not stupid. You may not fall for it 99 times but that one time fall for it not because you're stupid but because you may not be paying attention and happen to be in a situation where you're more receptible for it. The 5 stars are of course meant to mislead people, what else? Assuming otherwise is just off reality.

Furthermore, saying that only "dumb" people would fall for it (which isn't true as explained) doesn't make a good argument for having this practice allowed either, cause it says that scam is allowed unless smart people would get tricked. But people are allowed to be dumb and still get protected from scammers.

It's not a "scam". RL companies put "AAA", "Best", "#1", etc. in their names all the time. Nobody is dumb enough to think those same RL companies are "AAA Rated" or "the best" just because of their names. It is an absolutely normal business practice.

Phishing is COMPLETELY different, because phishing aims to trick the user into giving up their login credentials, personal info, etc.

[ValKalAstra]

So, I've got this vivid memory of being a wee lass, sitting hunched over at school  - as you do - and scribbling little hearts, flowers and stars onto any piece of paper I could get my hands on. It was just something I did. I learned a great many things doing that! For example, better hand writing, a bit of drawing, why the bloody hell I was failing in math - but the lesson I did not learn was that apparently, little scribbles were a highway to scam artistry. This is the whole Funny Pen Marker Smell - > Hard drug pipeline again, isn't it?

Look, all cheekiness aside - why does the assumption have to be malicious intent? Is the world not angry enough already? People have been scribbling and adding little symbols and what not to their names for decades at this point. It has gone in and out of style so many times that there are multi-generational memes about xxxDarkSonicShadowSlayerxxx style names going around.

It's just someone trying to be fancy with their name. Any trick to stand out.

Edited October 21, 2023 by ValKalAstra

[Rowan Amore]

4 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

It's not a "scam". RL companies put "AAA", "Best", "#1", etc. in their names all the time. Nobody is dumb enough to think those same RL companies are "AAA Rated" or "the best" just because of their names. It is an absolutely normal business practice.

Phishing is COMPLETELY different, because phishing aims to trick the user into giving up their login credentials, personal info, etc.

Kind of what I assumed they were doing.  Wouldn't using those symbols and such put a store near the top of search?  Like using ! or * in front of folders in our inventory push them to the top?   If 2 stores have similar names, the one with the stars would filter to the top.

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Kind of what I assumed they were doing.  Wouldn't using those symbols and such put a store near the top of search?  Like using ! or * in front of folders in our inventory push them to the top?   If 2 stores have similar names, the one with the stars would filter to the top.

Yes, good point! I left that part out. A lot of RL businesses put "AAA" or even the word "A" in front of their name, so they are first when searching alphabetically.

This had some advantages with old printed  "telephone directories", but so many companies did it, there was a cluster of "A"/"AA"/"AAA" businesses in the front of the list. This was most common for "home service" companies like landscape, plumbers, electricians, etc. 

[xDancingStarx]

5 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

It's not a "scam". RL companies put "AAA", "Best", "#1", etc. in their names all the time.

That comparison doesn't work. This is NOT about claiming in your store name that your company is the best. The stars are appearing on the right side of the shopping page, in around the same area where you would expect the actual rating. So if you don't pay 100% attention and see 5 stars on the right side (especially if there are 0 reviews and the actual rating stars are grey and small), people may easily made believe that this product has a 5 star rating. The circumstance that a store may be claiming that they're best at something hasn't got anything to do with this. It's about KNOWING that people have an expectation to see official review stars, and trying to mislead them into thinking that those are the official review stars. How can you defend this?

 

9 hours ago, Casidy Silvercloud said:

Obviously some people think it's meant to mislead people and some people may use it for that. But, my point is that it will not be effective and it IS NOT effective.

I didn't make a claim how affective it is, in fact I used 1 out of 99 as comparison which isn't really super effective? But since we agree that some people may use it to mislead people, I think we're not too far apart

 

9 hours ago, Casidy Silvercloud said:

The comparison to phishing just isn't reasonable.  Even though phishing is intended to fool someone, it really is something completely different (and quite serious) in function and even intent. 

Of course it's reasonable. It's ONLY about the intention to fool someone and hope that they're not paying full intention. That's the comparison. It doesn't matter that the consequences of phishing are completely different, the consequences don't matter. It's about the method.

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by xDancingStarx

[Rowan Amore]

The store name is no where near the ratings.

This is the first one I found using a star in it's name.  Not sure how anyone would be confused.

Probably be removed but here ya go...

 

[xDancingStarx]

3 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Probably be removed but here ya go...

No, this is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this:

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by xDancingStarx

[Love Zhaoying]

14 minutes ago, xDancingStarx said:

That comparison doesn't work. This is NOT about claiming in your store name that your company is the best. The stars are appearing on the right side of the shopping page, in around the same area where you would expect the actual rating. So if you don't pay 100% attention and see 5 stars on the right side (especially if there are 0 reviews and the actual rating stars are grey and small), people may easily made believe that this product has a 5 star rating. The circumstance that a store may be claiming that they're best at something hasn't got anything to do with this. It's about KNOWING that people have an expectation to see official review stars, and trying to mislead them into thinking that those are the official review stars. How can you defend this?

 

I didn't make a claim how affective it is, in fact I used 1 out of 99 as comparison which isn't really super effective? But since we agree that some people may use it to mislead people, I think we're not too far apart

 

Of course it's reasonable. It's ONLY about the intention to fool someone and hope that they're not paying full intention. That's the comparison. It doesn't matter that the consequences of phishing are completely different, the consequences don't matter. It's about the method.

 

That's fine, we can disagree. It doesn't make either of us "wrong" if our opinions differ. 

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, xDancingStarx said:

No, this is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this:

 

The only difference is the color of the stars, the number of stars, and the fact you showed a different part of the screen. It's exactly the same.

[Ceka Cianci]

2 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

The store name is no where near the ratings.

This is the first one I found using a star in it's name.  Not sure how anyone would be confused.

Probably be removed but here ya go...

 

Ya, that's not even anywhere near to  being misleading..  I'm all over that MP all the time and never really pay much attention to what the name of the store is boxed in, unless I have to make it part of my search when I first go there in the merchant search.. Then have to include all them symbols on some of them.. It actually takes more time if anything to add those.. hehehe

 

[xDancingStarx]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The only difference is the color of the stars, the number of stars, and the fact you showed a different part of the screen. It's exactly the same.

If you don't see the difference between this and putting one black star on the left of your store name and one black stare on the right of your store name, please let's not discuss further and agree that we disagree.

 

edit: @Rowan Amore you react with a confused smiley to this. You don't see a difference between 5 golden stars with a black outlining and one black star left and one black star right of the store name? How many ratings on the internet have you seen that look like 5 golden stars with black outlining? How many ratings on the internet have you seen that show a black star left/right of something? How can you be confused about this?

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by xDancingStarx

[sirhc DeSantis]

10 hours ago, xDancingStarx said:

No, it's not. In the same way that phishing mails are not stupid. You may not fall for it 99 times but that one time fall for it not because you're stupid but because you may not be paying attention and happen to be in a situation where you're more receptible for it. The 5 stars are of course meant to mislead people, what else? Assuming otherwise is just off reality.

Furthermore, saying that only "dumb" people would fall for it (which isn't true as explained) doesn't make a good argument for having this practice allowed either, cause it says that scam is allowed unless smart people would get tricked. But people are allowed to be dumb and still get protected from scammers.

Digital Darwinism - it is a good thing.  OK it might be an age thing (knocking on 60's door) but still - really?

[Ceka Cianci]

Dammit, I went looking for the stars and ended up SHOPPING!!

This thread made me buy stuffs!! \o/