Apple Removes Old Non-Customer Reviews from App Store

[MacRumors]

When Apple first opened the App Store back in July 2008, their review system allowed anyone to enter a comment or review on any application. No purchase was required at that time. As a result, many critical "reviews" came from those who had never bought those applications. Developers, of course, were particularly unhappy with this system which brought down the average score for almost all paid applications.

In September, however, Apple instituted a new rule in which customers could only leave reviews on applications they had actually purchased and downloaded. Existing "reviews" from these non-customers, however, remained in place.

That is, until yesterday. It appears that Apple has removed these early non-customer reviews. Several long standing apps have seen dramatic decreases in their review counts. SEGA's Super Monkey Ball count dropped from 4197 reviews down to 3710 while Namco's Pac Man dropped from 395 to 122. MacRumors forum users have noted that it has been these specific non-customer reviews have been targeted and removed.

Article Link: Apple Removes Old Non-Customer Reviews from App Store

 

[DJAKO]

Along with the removing the reviews, has anyone seen the average rating gone up or down?

 

[Schtumple]

Seems pretty fair, how can you write a review on an app you haven't used, I remember seeing a 1 star review for an app, that started with, "I haven't actually used this app but...", why are you reviewing something you haven't used?!

 

[arn]

Along with the removing the reviews, has anyone seen the average rating gone up or down?

Not that I could tell. Average reviews seem the same comparing now to about a week ago, but that might mean that Apple was already disregarding those reviews in the average calculation for a longer period of time.

arn

 

[Trajectory]

I've also seen 1-star reviews that start with "This is the BEST app I ever got!!11!!11!!!"

I wish they'd do the same in the iTunes Store. You can't realistically review a song based a 30-second preview. Only those who buy the song or album should be able to rate them.

 

[lftrghtparadigm]

This is a huge positive step for developers. Non customer = no opinion. At least not one that should have any way to affect sales.

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

I wish they'd do the same in the iTunes Store. You can't realistically review a song based a 30-second preview. Only those who buy the song or album should be able to rate them.

because it is impossible have heard the song somewhere else?

 

[happajay]

Thank Goodness

This is great. So many applications I've downloaded had the one star review/did'nt download it because, '....this should be free....99cents is way over priced....blah blah'. A lot of fine apps had reviews like this by people who thing other people should program apps for them for free. Morans!

 

[Trajectory]

because it is impossible have heard the song somewhere else?

True! But you could say the same for apps. Several friends have iPhones, so, I often ask if they got any cool new apps to show me. I can sometimes play around with an app without buying it.

 

[uicandrew]

This is great. So many applications I've downloaded had the one star review/did'nt download it because, '....this should be free....99cents is way over priced....blah blah'. A lot of fine apps had reviews like this by people who thing other people should program apps for them for free. Morans!

I will miss some of the non-customer reviews because some named free alternatives in the App store. There's no need to pay for an app whose functionality is the same or worse than a free one.

 

[Poll Smoker]

True! But you could say the same for apps. Several friends have iPhones, so, I often ask if they got any cool new apps to show me. I can sometimes play around with an app without buying it.

Do you really think that's the same thing?

 

[Tallest Skil]

It appears that Apple has removed these early non-customer reviews.

*slow clap*

Thank you, Apple.

 

[Littleodie914]

It's a step in the right direction, I still have a question though, maybe you guys can answer it.

My application has 474 reviews, and an overall rating of 2 1/2 stars. When I read the reviews, sorted from worst to best, the third page (reviews 51-75) are already in the 3-star range. How can there be 10+ pages of 4/5 star reviews, 2 pages of 1/2 star reviews, with a resulting overall rating of only 2 1/2 stars?

Does Apple allow anonymous ratings, without the comments? Would it really cause such a huge drop?

Has anyone else encountered this with their app(s)?

 

[Tallest Skil]

Does Apple allow anonymous ratings, without the comments? Would it really cause such a huge drop?

When I delete an application from my iPhone or iPod touch, I am prompted on the device itself to rate the app from one to five or none. There is no place to add any text comments, so yes, they allow commentless ratings.

 

[Littleodie914]

When I delete an application from my iPhone or iPod touch, I am prompted on the device itself to rate the app from one to five or none. There is no place to add any text comments, so yes, they allow commentless ratings.

Interesting, thanks for the info.

 

[HLdan]

Excellent move by Apple. Now smaller developers can have a chance at getting fair reviews for new apps. What I don't understand is why would anyone rate this article negative? All the comments so far are positive. I guess the ones who are rating it negative have no life and live in misery.

 

[Mykbibby]

I've also seen 1-star reviews that start with "This is the BEST app I ever got!!11!!11!!!"

I wish they'd do the same in the iTunes Store. You can't realistically review a song based a 30-second preview. Only those who buy the song or album should be able to rate them.

Ya, I've wondered why so many people give great apps one star... they must think 1 is the best and 5 is the worst...

I totally agree with you about the songs as well.

 

[krye]

Good. It's about time Apple starting doing stuff in the App Store that made sense.

 

[gceo]

I've also seen 1-star reviews that start with "This is the BEST app I ever got!!11!!11!!!"

Yup. This is a much bigger problem than it seems. The default should be no stars, and not allowed to submit. In a hurry it's way too easy to select the default of 1 star, and really bring down the average, even if you love the app and wrote a favorable review.

 

[kastenbrust]

This is really good news, stops other developers constantly attacking your apps, which happens a lot

Now all Apple needs to do is sack the retard that accepts/deny's apps into the App store, then we'll be good to go. Come on, accepting an app of a shaking pair of a woman's anatomy, but rejecting an email backup app is just stupid.

 

[bob_hearn]

Cool. I lost my single 1-star review; now the lowest I have is 3 stars.

My reviews dropped from 93 to 86, and my average rating went up to 4.85... at least based on all the reviews you can see.

However, it still shows up as a 4-star app, because of the damn "rate on delete" feature.

If they would remove that next, that would be nice!

 

[nagromme]

Good step. Now lose the rate-on-delete system please

 

[longball11]

They should do the same thing to iTunes. I'm sick of seeing some reviews like a scammer promoting "If you want to hear another band like this...Listen to Braintree" they always make the overall rating go down by giving it a 4 stars.

 

[ravenvii]

Good thing. Keeps the system clean.

 

[happydude]

MacRumors app!!

where's the macrumors app? have an app with the latest rumors, ability to post comments from the app, browse forums, etc.

would be a great app!

would apple accept the app . . .