# Review system broken?



## TheLe (Dec 22, 2005)

Is it normal to have five 5-star reviews of the same product appear on the same day, back-to-back? Three of the reviews were only a couple sentences long.

While am not questioning the legitimacy of the reviews, something does seem odd about it.

I have been very concerned with ENWorld's review systems ever since I received those bogus 1-star reviews that were on the front page for over 3 days. The lack of oversight or ability to remove reviews makes me believe that it is easy to abuse.

~Le


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 22, 2005)

TheLe said:
			
		

> Is it normal to have five 5-star reviews of the same product appear on the same day, back-to-back? Three of the reviews were only a couple sentences long.



And all three of the posters that posted those three short reviews had one or two posts to their name.


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## Arnwyn (Dec 22, 2005)

I think it's broken - there seems to be serious problems with the review system for quite a while, and it's only been getting _worse_.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 22, 2005)

There is this, too, of course (found it via lior shapira's thread in General).  It doesn't really shed too much more light on the situation, but might explain things a bit.


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## Pinotage (Dec 22, 2005)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> There is this, too, of course (found it via lior shapira's thread in General).  It doesn't really shed too much more light on the situation, but might explain things a bit.




I can't access that link - something about insufficient member or somesuch. What does it say?

Thanks!

Pinotage


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## Crothian (Dec 22, 2005)

The Review has been not working right for almost a year now.  There have been improvements and things fixed there, but there are still problems.  I'm hoping Chris or Spoony can solve this latest problem for us.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 22, 2005)

Sure.  I guess the fora require registration.  Basically, Vascant's calling for reviews (post dated 12/21/05 at 2:26 PM).







			
				Vascant said:
			
		

> If anyone has not noticed NPC Designer is now also available at ENWorld Game Store, this also has opened up room for some reviews. In 5 months the only person who has really given any kind of a review has been Mr Cook on his own site, be nice if some other users would share their honest review NPC Designer.
> 
> The link: http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=product&productid=1605 06


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## Pinotage (Dec 22, 2005)

Crothian said:
			
		

> The Review has been not working right for almost a year now.  There have been improvements and things fixed there, but there are still problems.  I'm hoping Chris or Spoony can solve this latest problem for us.




Wasn't the idea that all reviews posted get viewed by moderators before being submitted to the reviews database? Or at least that's what I gathered from the reviews page.

Pinotage


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## Pinotage (Dec 22, 2005)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> Sure.  I guess the fora require registration.  Basically, Vascant's calling for reviews (post dated 12/21/05 at 2:26 PM).




Ah, OK, thanks. Still, I think people should differentiate between comments and reviews. I don't think you can add comments to ENWorld Gamestore, although you can rate a product, something which is also open to abuse.

Pinotage


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## Crothian (Dec 22, 2005)

Pinotage said:
			
		

> Wasn't the idea that all reviews posted get viewed by moderators before being submitted to the reviews database? Or at least that's what I gathered from the reviews page.
> 
> Pinotage




We read them all but not before they get posted.  RPGNet does that and I like that but doubt we can set something like that up.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 22, 2005)

Pinotage said:
			
		

> Ah, OK, thanks. Still, I think people should differentiate between comments and reviews. I don't think you can add comments to ENWorld Gamestore, although you can rate a product, something which is also open to abuse.



I agree.  That's the problem with an open system like this, but, then again, the low barrier to entry for posting reviews can lead to some really decent fan reviews.


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## billd91 (Dec 22, 2005)

I'd be concerned about any easy way to remove reviews as well. If there were a way, the burden of the challenge should be on whomever wants it taken down. People are, after all, entitled to their opinions of a product.


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## TheLe (Dec 22, 2005)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> Sure.  I guess the fora require registration.  Basically, Vascant's calling for reviews (post dated 12/21/05 at 2:26 PM).




As is his right to. I have no problems with that.

My issue is that poorly written reviews are being posted, and nothing is done about it until after someone complains. Even worse, the review are not removed.

What's to stop someone from posting links to a porn site?

`Le


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 22, 2005)

TheLe said:
			
		

> My issue is that poorly written reviews are being posted, and nothing is done about it until after someone complains. Even worse, the review are not removed.
> 
> What's to stop someone from posting links to a porn site?



That's a problem, and I know it's come up before.  I know this is partially a semantic issue, but it's not that nothing's being done so much as (as Crothian's pointed out) nothing can be done at the moment because of some issues with the code and what not.  I'm sure Chris or Michael are looking into it when they can.

Nick


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## TheLe (Dec 22, 2005)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> That's a problem, and I know it's come up before.  I know this is partially a semantic issue, but it's not that nothing's being done so much as (as Crothian's pointed out) nothing can be done at the moment because of some issues with the code and what not.  I'm sure Chris or Michael are looking into it when they can.
> 
> Nick




Fair enough. I just wanted to address this since a problem has clearly occured twice in as many weeks.

As soon as people start catching on that they can post anything they want with almost no reprecussions, then this problem could potentially get worse.

`Le


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## Crothian (Dec 22, 2005)

TheLe said:
			
		

> Fair enough. I just wanted to address this since a problem has clearly occured twice in as many weeks.
> 
> As soon as people start catching on that they can post anything they want with almost no reprecussions, then this problem could potentially get worse.
> 
> `Le




WEll, people can still get banned, that works.  So, its not like they can post anything without reprecussions.


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## TheLe (Dec 22, 2005)

Crothian said:
			
		

> WEll, people can still get banned, that works.  So, its not like they can post anything without reprecussions.




Very cool.

~Le


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## Mark CMG (Dec 23, 2005)

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=160869


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## TheLe (Dec 23, 2005)

Wow! *NINE* five-star reviews of the same product on Enworld within 24 hours!


`Le


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## Crothian (Dec 23, 2005)

Some have been delt with others have been warned


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## diaglo (Dec 23, 2005)

does that mean the reviews are nerfed now?


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## Crothian (Dec 23, 2005)

diaglo said:
			
		

> does that mean the reviews are nerfed now?




Nope, the standars of the reviews have not changed and enforcement hasn't either.  Its just now being noticed.


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## Michael Morris (Dec 23, 2005)

I have to analyze the code to make sure I won't crash it and check Chris' changes before I can do anything.  Trust me when I say this does have a high priority and I should have something up and going before the end of January. I can't move onto other projects until this is done.


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## Morrus (Dec 23, 2005)

The basic problem is that, somewhere along the line, the code which allows the review mods to delete reviews got buggy and stopped working.  That meant that someone could spam the reviews system with his stance on advertising policies, and it has meant that a bunch of people have been able to post reviews which don't conform to the guidelines (in this case, length - many of those NPCDesigner reviews are comments, not reviews - they're perfectly valid opinions, but not as reviews).

Once we get that bug fixed, we'll be cleaning house.  Notmally, a short, one-paragraph review would not last long there, because that's not what the reviews system is designed for.  If people want to post short comments, then we have a wonderful messageboard for that sort of thing!


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## Roudi (Dec 23, 2005)

While you're at it, could you find out why some of us have been trouble posting reviews at all?  I had to jump through a couple hoops with the system just to get to to accept new products to the database, and now folks cannot add reviews for those products.


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## Michael Morris (Dec 23, 2005)

Again I promise I will look at this - it is #1 on my list of things to do


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