Comments on: Why Amazon Vine is a Threat Worth Talking About

By: Vine reviewer for 2.5 years

Vine reviewer for 2.5 years — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:46:40 +0000

JS IS INCORRECT.

Amazon stamps every Vine review in green font with this statement:

"Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) "

This cannot be removed in any way by the Vine member. This appears under the summary statement and on top of the main body of the review.

The badge that JS refers to is just a little graphic badge that appears by the reviewer's name to define themselves. This is optional. The reason I removed this from my profile was that I feared that people like JS would make an error and think EVERY review that I wrote was a Vine review, when it is not. I review things I buy from Amazon and things I buy from used book vendors or books from the library.

Since some of you feel that Vine reviews are trumped up to be better than they really are just because they are free (even though this is not the case with all Vine reviews and it's not true with mine) the last thing I want to do is have anyone thinking my customer reviews are fake.

Since some of you give "not helpful" votes to all Vine reviews because you hate the program I also don't want you making a mistake to think the thing I bought from Amazon was given to me for free.

By: JS

JS — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:07:22 +0000

I agree with you in many ways. There is the possibility that the vine reviews will just be automatically ignored by the consumer and I don't blame them. It makes the review seem disingenuous. I am a vine member and there is now an option in our accounts if we wish to show our “Vine Badge” in our review. So if the reviewer chooses he can submit his review just as anyone else can without preferential treatment and let the consumers indicate if it is helpful or not. Anyone showing the badge is doing so for their own ego, nothing more. many of the viners play the reviews like a game to see who is known as the best reviewer which is pointless. Nobody cares what their rank is but themselves. Many of the viners will neg the other reviewers just to stay in the coveted top 3 most useful reviews spot on a product page. As far as I can tell Amazon has not dogged anyone for a negative review yet and doubt they will. I do not use the badge. I do disclose that I received the item via vine incase the consumer wishes to gage my honesty on my previously written reviews. I think it is a neat program that needs to be altered to eliminate the review game. It needs to be about helping each other from buying crappy products. Or helping each other discover new things.

By: facebook-720191994

facebook-720191994 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:25:40 +0000

Reviewers for print outlets are usually reading review copies (often advanced proofs missing things like indexes). I have been a book review editor for academic publications, and processed many very negative reviews of free books.

I don't commit myself to reviewing a book unless I have reasonable expectations of a positive experience, but still am sometimes disappointed, and my VINE ratings are not all 4- and 5-star. I do not think I am corrupted by getting books free but choosier about what I commit myself to reviewing than about what I buy (and sometimes don't finish)—or, indeed, start).

Personally, I think there is much more of a problem of Amazon review raters rating on whether they agree with the review rather than whether the reviewer makes his/her case for her/his evaluation.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:19:22 +0000

I was invited to join Amazon Vine about a year ago. I take your point that reviewers could be being 'bribed' but I think you have missed a point. Vine reviewers are selected on the quantity and usefulness of their reviews. If you simply give a positive review to a crap product, nobody will find the review useful.

Personally I am honest about the items I review on Vine. I only order items I can use, and I only post a review once I've read the book, used the software, etc. Not many of my reviews get five stars. If there is a flaw in a product, I will point it out.

In summary - people get selected for vine because they (a) post reviews and (b) the reviews are flagged as useful to others. The type of person who fulfils both criteria is unlikely to be swayed by the 'free stuff' mentality.

Of course, Amazon have all the stats available to them, so they can analyse the vine reviews and responses to them. If they want people to rely on their review system (and in particular vine reviews) then they will remove people from the program if their reviews are generally over-hyped and not flagged as useful.

Finally, all vine reviews are flagged, so if people are concerned about impartiality, they can simply ignore vine reviews altogether.

By: Loren Woirhaye

Loren Woirhaye — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:03:58 +0000

Amazon doesn't remove “non-helpful” reviews. If it did books by authors like Rush Limbaugh would have fans rating every 5-start review helpful and every negative review non-helpful in an effort to get the 1-stars removed. Anti-gay activists would try to hurt gay-movement books. You get the idea. It would equate to censorship.

In general Amazon publishes submitted reviews. I've reviewed over 100 items and never had a review edited by Amazon or removed. I have had a couple of reviews not appear – this could be a glitch in the system.

By: Jane White

Jane White — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:29:40 +0000

I love Amazon but Amazon Vine is a scam. I've had friends mark an Amazon vine review as “unhelpful” but they aren't removed, despite the fact that their remarks include such unhelpful comments as “best used for lining bird cage” and “left-win garrbage.”

By: lovereading marsy

lovereading marsy — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:08:26 +0000

I'm in Amazon Vine and in no way do they influence our reviews and, in fact, I often write negative reviews; I'm truthful, the same way I would be if I bought the product. They show negative reviews and do nothing to influence us. Honest!

By: walshjp

walshjp — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:30:53 +0000

I am an Amazon vine member. Amazon has done nothing to persuade me to rate any product highly. What they do is require that I provide some kind of rating or I may be prohibited from placing another order.
Becuase of this, I sometimes offer a quick assessment ro offer a reply quickly. This may not be appropriate for a product that where I may change my opinion over time after continued use. But Amazon does allow me to update my review at any time, and I have done this.

By: Louie's Mom

Louie's Mom — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:01:22 +0000

AverageReviewer - I'm one of those people who was lower than you in ranking and who received an invite to Vine.

You can look up my profile as "Louie's Mom" and you will see plenty of low reviews. In particular, my negative review of Pat Conroy's latest book led to some serious attacks AND some serious agreement.

I don't see anything corrupt about it. The program pays me for my time, in essence, by giving me free books. My reviews are all over the board in terms of the ratings I give.

If any of you have serious concerns you need to look at A LOT of Vine reviews before concluding that Vine reviewers tend to give products high marks. If negative reviews led to exclusion from the Vine program, I'd be gone by now.

By: AverageReviewer

AverageReviewer — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:01:42 +0000

I'm just a run of the mill average Amazon reviewer and you are right. Anytime I post a review on Amazon and dare to give a book three stars or less, I get attacked. People post nasty comments suggesting I read chick lit or YA books.. they bomb me with negative votes. People forget that reviews are not about whether you agree with the person or not but is it helpful? Reviews are for people contemplating the purchase of the book.

I think vine is corrupt. I rank in the 3000s and there are people lower than me and they are Vine.. I have never been asked and I think it is due to the fact that I am not stingy with the one and two star books reviews.

Thumbs up for bringing this to the light.