I haven’t bought a book or piece of software for years without reading about it in the Amazon reviews. Many people must be the same. But recently I’ve noticed that “Amazon Vine” reviews have appeared that violate a fundamental strength of the social web – unbiased, unincentivised, honest feedback.
Here’s what Amazon themselves say about Amazon Vine:
“Amazon Vine™ is a programme that enables a select group of Amazon customers to post opinions about new and pre-release items to help their fellow customers make educated purchase decisions. Customers are invited to become Vine Voices based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews. Amazon provides Vine members with free copies of products that have been submitted to the programme by publishers or manufacturers. Amazon does not influence the opinions of Vine members.”
Why Amazon Vine is a bad idea
If you are given a free copy of something to review, you may feel obliged to give it a favourable review. Amazon counter with the fact that only trusted reviewers reach this status, and that’s fair enough – except of course, to quote Lord Acton: ”Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
But who’s most disappointing is that on the product I was viewing (an accounts package), a decent proportion of reviews were from the Amazon Vine source. They ranged from thinly disguised rehashes of the back of the box features list to short, superficial reviews from people who do this for a living. The only negative review from this source said “I couldn’t get it to work” (well you wouldn’t try very hard if it was free, would you?).
I know all about this, as I used to do the same thing years ago reviewing books and records for a local newspaper, and I can recognise a review knocked up in 10 minutes from a mile away.
Amazon Vine is well intentioned but ultimately fails
So while this scheme is obviously designed to help publishers, software house etc shift units, could generate reviews for niche items where formerly there were none, and is well intentioned insofar as it attempts to only allow reviewers with some integrity to write these reviews, for me the Amazon reviews just got a lot less useful. I wish you could filter out these new semi-paid-for reviews as the ring of authenticity is not there. Amazon vine represents an unfortunate turn for the worse.
By Phil Morse
Tags: amazon, amazon vine, reviews, social media
I disagree. I have been giving unbiased reviews for Amazon Vine. If something sucks – I tell them. The only difference between me reviewing products I purchase and products I get from Amazon Vine is that I don’t tend to review food and CDs if I buy them. Through amazon Vine, I’m actually required to write reviews on different food product I buy, so that gives me “homework” to do so.
As an Amazon.co.uk Vine reviewer, I can sort-of see where you’re coming from in that yes, there are some terrible reviewers who write 2 line efforts or just rehash the manufacturer’s description. That is not just true of Vine reviews though – that’s true of Amazon reviews in general. There is a big range of reviews going from highly detailed through to useless and that’s what the “Was the review helpful to you?” button is for. If you don’t think the review is helpful, say so and then other readers will be able to see it that you felt that way and will not bother to read it.
I don’t for a second think that the majority of us Vine Voices give things automatically favourable reviews just because we’re getting something for free. If anything, I’d say that the majority of us (in my experience) manage to find fault with pretty much everything and from discussions I have had with other Voices, not many of us give “5 star” reviews unless we really are truly impressed. Of course, there will always be a few people who will play the system, get their freebies and offload them straight to eBay then write a 5 minute “review” but you find those kinds of people in any walk of life.
tig
I’m a member of Vine and many of us actually share your concern. We’ve often discussed members who do the bare minimum, rarely even testing the item they’re supposed to be reviewing. We’re aware it gives us all a bad name when, in reality, most of us take it very seriously and approach it honestly. In fact, one or two have been reported for this very thing.
Regarding the accounting software you had a look at: I assure you, most have no problem with trashing something if it’s trash. It’s simply not true that we’d somehow feel obliged to leave a more positive review. Perhaps you’d be willing to say which software it was, and we can report the reviewers to Amazon. If not, you’ll forgive me for being skeptical as to the idea that every single review was dodgy.
Further, the idea that we have some sort of power is preposterous. We’re given the odd item to review – we’re still unpaid reviewers, just like everyone on Amazon. In any event, given this blog entry is about angling an invite onto the program, I’m sure you’ll discover this all for yourself soon enough.
May I respectfully disagree?
I was worried about some of the issues you raise when I was first invited to join Vine. But that has never stopped me saying exactly what I think. I’ve just looked back through my Vine reviews: on the whole, they are more critical than my ordinary reviews are. Consider this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1WJHCCHWU9KAM/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
or this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2WRS3UZ0TX9O3/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
I can’t speak for your accountancy application, because I haven’t had it to review, but, generally speaking, reviewing a Vine product takes a long time — most of the Vine items are books and, to be fair to even a ghastly book, you have to read all the way through. I remember reading through this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3KKDFRVOV525M/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
and reaching page 300 and wondering why I was bothering.
That said, Vine has turned up some real gems for me that I wouldn’t ever have otherwise read, such as: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R39FN8XWW7T5SV/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
which I was determined to hate but ended up really enjoying.
There definitely are some duff Vine reviews, but that’s also true for regular Amazon reviews as well. It’s usually a fairly easy matter to spot which is which. And, in any case, with any review, the fact that the reviewer liked or disliked it is no indication that you will.
As a Vine Voice since 2007, I take offence at your sweeping generalisation. I didn’t order or review the item you’re talking about, but I have given items all manner of ratings from a 1* to a 5*, regardless of the fact they were free. I call a spade a spade. I’d hate to mislead another customer or for someone to waste money on something that’s less than satisfactory, on the strengh of my review. Yes, some Vine Voices do fit the criteria you suggest, but please don’t tar us all with the same brush.
I’m a Vine member and I think what you’re saying is wrong because 95% of Vine reviewers do review properly because they have been chosen on their trustworthiness. A review submitted by a Vine member clearly states this is a Vine review so If you despise or are jelous of Vine just ignore those reviews
You seem to be judging from a fairly narrow range of items. Software and accounting are quite technical things and most of the reviewers will be amateurs in those fields -I’ve reviewed software and I’m not an expert but you can only speak as you find.
However, if you check out book, CD, and DVD reviews you may find a far more diverse range of views. This is not to say that I agree with you in the first place.
I offer my Vine review of the novel Fragment by Warren Fahy for you to check out. If you look up some of my other Vine reviews from there, you’ll find in several cases I’m less than enraptured of the item. My colleagues on the Vine forum would, I imagine, say pretty the same.
Sorry I don’t agree with your blog at all! Vine reviewers are members who have proved their worth by producing reviews that were deemed to be helpful BEFORE they were selected for the programme.
You also don’t seem to be taking into account that Vine Reviewers actually have a choice and select their items for review and are therefore more likely to select items that they actually want and will like.
Vine reviewers are under no obligation to give a favourable review and are encouraged to be honest – I am not aware of any member being removed from the programme for slating review items and I myself have done it if I felt an item was bad enough.
There are obviously exceptions, but on the whole the Vine Community are honest reviewers who tell it like it is – there is no incentive for them to do otherwise.
Wooahh, judging by the number of replies here, I’ve hit a nerve. Now I know how Jeremy Clarkson felt when he had a dig at horse owners in his Sunday Times column!
Seriously though, I accept that one shouldn’t tar all with the same brush, and that I don’t have a full picture of the Vine community, having written my post following my first encounter with it. It was also not my intention to upset individuals, whom I would hope generally submit reviews in good faith.
However, I still hold that the overall quality of Vine reviews for that particular product was not good. I think it was the cursory nature of the reviews (they were for the Business Accountz Basic software package) and the dominance of Vine reviews against “organic” overall that I picked up on the most.
To me, if someone feels genuinely moved to review something, it is usually because firstly that item was really wanted, and secondly that it either turned out to fulfil the need extremely well or conversely to be totally useless! This explains the predominance of either 1 star or 5 star reviews for many products, and the relatively lower number of 2s, 3s and 4s – those buyers who thought “It’s OK” are less likely to post their feelings.
I also accept that you get awful reviews within the normal items too. But as someone who dearly loves Amazon and its reviews, I still wonder what their end game is with Vine. If a product has no reviews, well that says something too, yet if the manufacturer loads Amazon with 50 free review copies, the ability to judge a product’s popularity by the number of reviews is taken away along with inevitably some objectivity.
Phil, I entirely agree that the manufacturer/publisher gains by having lots of reviews for a product which previously had none. But that’s a fairly sophisticated understanding of PR by the manufacturer — far better than the clearly bogus reviews which we’ve read about on the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8118577.stm) which the less enlightened engage in.
Amazon Vine reviews are like the reviews that have appeared in newspapers for years. The manufacturer/publisher sends out free copies in the belief that even a negative review is better than no review. Because they send them to people who write a lot of reviews, and have their own reputation to consider, they know that their product/book has to stand up to tighter scrutiny — but if they really believe in it, then they’re willing to face the scrutiny. If they don’t believe in it, why do they bother to release it to the public?
I don’t know how many general Amazon reviews you’ve read (and thank you for your honesty in admitting that you wrote your article based on just one product), but I’ve frequently seen biased, incentivised or dishonest feedback — both in the reviews and in the voting that goes on the reviews.
Biased: the so-called ‘fanboi’ wars between Mac and Windows users, iPhone versus Nokia, Canon vs Nikon, fans of Dan Brown vs enemies, fans and enemies of Richard Dawkins, and so on. These are like a rash across the internet, and you certainly see them appearing on Amazon. This also extends to fans of a particular kind of boxed-set of Friends versus opponents. It’s amazing where bias comes from, but there’s a lot of it about.
Incentivised: Vine is not an incentivised programme — you don’t get fewer items to review for writing negative reviews. At least one Vine reviewer almost only ever writes negatives. But, judging by the voting against people who diss particular products, someone is in there for it. And see the BBC article mentioned above. ‘Pay to review’ is all too common on the internet, and even on Vine.
Dishonest: have you never read the reviews where it becomes clear, after a while, that the person has never tried the product, or tried it for such a short amount of time and with such scant regard for the instructions that they may as well not have tried it? You criticise the Vine reviewers on your accountancy package for that, but there are no end of reviews out there which are patently dishonest in this way. There are also lots of reviews which are cut-copied-and-pasted from the manufacturer’s specs, or from other websites, or even from print-published reviews. Some of these are quite dangerous. Why do people do this? I’ve absolutely no idea. At least with Vine, there is a community behind it which actively alerts Amazon to people who appear to be doing these things.
As Viners, we all got invited because someone thought our reviews were good. Most of us have experienced a massive upsurge in negative votes — from where we don’t know — but we persevere, trying to make sense of new products month by month, investing time in reviewing things we wouldn’t normally review. In this way, we broaden the Amazon perspective. That must be a good thing, surely?
I am a Vine Voice and I have just reviewed a book that was so bad that I would have liked to give no stars. But the Amazon system will not allow me to hence one star. However other reviewers have given it 5 stars. So I don’t think it is Vine or not just people with differing opinions. Happens everywhere. The reviews I complain about are those that are cut and paste from the manufacturers literature or by people who have obviously not used the product or read the book.