#slaves & #drugs or #review mafia. #AmathronFreedomGame.
- Eschew leaving reviews on commercial platforms like
AppStore&Amazon. Channel your invaluable review-time towards projects you're passionate about. Share this to your friends battlingcompulsive-review-disorder(c).
Why Reviews?
"First, God created ads and then the 5-star rating system" (c)
- As a changemaker and "improver of the world", your feedback propels the projects you engage with.
- Giving feedback is deeply embedded in our nature, transcending both digital and physical realms. Your review can be a game-changer for a product.
- Reflect: your time and insight are precious. They are the lifeblood of both terrestrial and virtual communities.
- Redirect your feedback energy: do you really think your rating of Google Maps matters more than advising your Mother on healthier diet choices? Do you understand how the world works and why Google Maps is free and your Mother suffer from the hidden sugar epidemic of the 21st century?
By providing feedback, YOU are doing FREE work. The true aim of constructive feedback is to elevate a product/app. Big players with resources can easily overshadow your voice. Managers gathering feedback for commercial purposes are often paid in the 6+ digit area, so do your maths.
"Bad Reviews"
A. Refrain from condemning in hate. Reset your emotional compass: try counting from 5 to -5 with eyes shut (or use a punch mitt if at hand). Relish the irony in reading archaic 1-star rants about long-resolved glitches a gazillion versions ago.
B. You needing a feature/bugfix/anything-in-the-offline-world to make YOUR life easier, but developers only notice and tend to react to negative ratings? Well, instead of stressing the guys, created something useful for you, consider using a direct/best channel for the feedback, like creating an issue on an issue-tracker. Other solutions include ignoring/unsubscribing/abandoning.
Exercise (good for offline life too!): compare "constructive critique" with a "bad review." Would you rather be told: "Oh, you did this wrong" or "Hey, if you try it like this next time, this could improve the whole thing."
Decoupling Review Quality and App/Product Merit
- Abundance of 4-5 stars reviews are often a facade, where reviews are manipulated. Revolut, Zoho or any sellers actively flag reviews because they have capacities, which leads to the elimination of constructive feedbacks/peer warnings.
- Apps with bad reviews might be actually good. Your best shot is to actually try them out and see for yourself. The bigger the app/more features in the app - potentially more "bugs" and bad feedback.
Usages of Reviews by the Capitalistic Machinery
"Instantly" diffuse the uncontrolled anger and for you to "feel" heard and cared about by the platform/other humans.
They keep you on the platform and keep the affinity. When you hear "but I have good reviews/many followers there, so I like the platform and I'd like to stay."
Camouflage it as taking the complexity of choice away, which is inadequate in many ways. All are psychological tricks.
Easy Ways to Counter Those Tricks
Any kind of brain dumping like writing your thoughts down has a soothing effect because you think and concentrate on typing/writing and giving time for the neurotransmitters to calm down.
When the automated AI algorithm obliterates your 100k account, you built by investing 5 hours a day for 15 years - there's no one to turn to. You'd be just gone, over, fini. To avoid that - use a medium over which you have control. A personal website has its pitfalls but it's much better than BigBro options (yes, Snapchat sucks too.)
Example
#Apple, being a bit late to the AI and "Cloud" party (with useless Siri and iCloud), has been scrubbing many more App Store reviews in 2023 based on the amount of review takedowns. That way, with only "better" reviews available, soon there will only be "good" Apps, which You "should" buy-buy-buy without any suspicion.
Developer advice
TIP
If you're integrating any kind of feedback in your app, never use star-based anything. Keep it simple with like/give a star and re-post/boost. Check how it works in Mastodon, Pixelfed, Gitlab, and others!
Takeaways
Proclaim a new day and a new freedom! Seize all non-open-source feedback aka making slave-work for corporations, no Amazon, App Store, BigBro Store!
If you have something to say, post it on your blog, telegram or any unaffiliated platform.
Understand, that the feedback/review theory applies in the real life too, how and what you communicate and what impact it can have.
Steer your attention towards projects/people you're passionate about, create useful content by removing time from annoyances and useless consumption tasks.
Avoid impulsive feedback, both on- and offline.
Never make your descision based on reviews.
Opinions help us to pause and think. Thinking, validating, researching, and being aware of something makes wonders.
That's all folks, stay productive, stay strong on our path of freedom and unicorns, and of course... give us 5 stars!