Sock Puppet Spectacular: Are Online Reviews Completely Worthless, Or Only Mostly Worthless?

"Nicodemus Jones" was a big fan of bestselling crime author RJ Ellory. His five-star Amazon reviews of Ellory's books were littered with phrases like "modern masterpiece", "will touch your soul", "a magnificent book." He was less kind to Mark Billingham and Stuart MacBride, both of whom were victims of one-star reviews by "Jones." Last week, author Jeremy Duns found out why: "Jones" was actually Ellory himself. He was following an old and well-worn trail. In July, Duns outed another bestselling author, Stephen Leather, as a sock-puppeter. Some years ago, Amazon accidentally revealed a clutch of other authors praising their own work and ripping into others'. Since then, hundreds of other authors have simply bought fake five-star reviews by the dozen. It's not just books. The same thing happens with app stores, and Yelp. Even the honest reviews are mostly written by people who are stupid, or blinded by fury, or both. It really makes you wonder whether online reviews are only mostly worthless, or actually completely worthless.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/jLTq_w6vPS8/

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