Shankar Gupta writes for Media Post today about his experience with a moving company. It sure had a lot of positive consumer reviews on the websites he checked. But were they real? Or were they posted by shills?
While I don't feel there's anything wrong with a business asking a satisfied customer to post a positive review, as that moving company routinely did -- heck, that's what the entire feedback system on
eBay is all about -- Gupta's piece raises a good point about one of the pitfalls of "citizen journalism," open blogging, and those kinds of unmoderated (or even moderated) forums.
There's very little to prevent people from posting good reviews of a movie (restaurant, auto repair shop, moving company, whatever) whether or not they've had a good experience -- or from gathering a group of people to gang up on a merchant (movie, whatever) unfairly. And that could have a devastating impact on a business. I'm very much in favor of allowing people to have their say, but there are drawbacks and risks that have to be considered along with the benefits and opportunities.
What about showing, at least on the first page where...
