[mttomas]

i had purchased this app:
Buy United Arab Emirates On-Device GPS Map (Offline Map) - Download United Arab Emirates On-Device GPS Map (Offline Map) - Buy Apps from BlackBerry App World
i rated it not too good as it is slow, the data specially for the UAE is not actual and the price is not worth it as it has no poi's. The own position is also shown not well on it.

now i was wondering why the app has again such a high rating and found my comment removed...
nice move...

tomas

[anindoc]

This is BS..... you should contact RIM customer care and tell them what happened, not that I expect them to do anything about it.....some developers are doing the same with their apps, it is a common thing now a days.

[Chaddface]

Do the developers have the ability to remove negative reviews? That would defeat the purpose.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[peter9477]

Developers have the ability to remove any reviews, it appears. There's a button we can click on to "Deny Review", under this text: "If you feel that any of these reviews are inappropriate, click the "Approve Review" or "Deny Review" button and a ticket will be created for the BlackBerry App World Manager requesting that the status of the review be changed."

While that implies that some sensible human will be looking at the situation and deciding whether the denial is justified, in actual practice it appears (so far) that no request to deny has EVER been rejected.

As you say, it sort of defeats the purpose.

Reviews are left for all sorts of inappropriate reasons, so having a mechanism to do this is essential to protect developers. Unfortunately, as implemented the feature is so poor that as you say it pretty much defeats the purpose.

Nobody has figured out what to do about it yet, but I guarantee that the more people complain to RIM about it, the greater the chance they will, some day, come up with a fix, or maybe start actually looking at whether the reviews are justified and start rejecting the denials for some of these apps.

[FF22]

Developers have full ability to remove any reviews that they do not like. As others have said, SOME developers do manipulate the ratings removing low ones and possibly inflating reviews using friends/associates. That "map" one has been mentioned in the past and at one time, one guy seemed to have used maps from different areas of the world in less than a day and rated them terrific!!!! He obviously was using the Star Trek transporter to get around that fast.

[stubbornswiss]

The AppWorld ratings system has been a problem for a long time, and has been discussed numerous times.

I'm surprised RIM have not yet found it prudent to address the situation.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[aha]

it pretty much defeats the purpose.

Management failure right there.

[peter9477]

The AppWorld ratings system has been a problem for a long time, and has been discussed numerous times.

I'm surprised RIM have not yet found it prudent to address the situation.

It could be because most people merely complain in forums like this, rather than attempting to direct their concerns to RIM in some fashion.

RIM does monitor the forums for concerns, but may miss or ignore or simply not pass on certain concerns. It might be someone with a mandate to focus on bugs with the OS, for example, who happens to see your post but basically skims past it.

If more people would pick some direct channel to express their concerns, I think more notice would be taken and these sorts of issues would be prioritized higher than they seem to be right now. It might also help to find a way to describe the issue in a way which makes it clear there's a real negative *to RIM* involved. For example, if you are cutting back on app purchases because you no longer trust any ratings in App World, that would translate to some reduced revenue for them.

Of course, I'm a bit of an idealist. Maybe people have been trying this for years and failing and I'm just asking you to waste your time. I don't know...

[saudiben]

how about a rating system for apps on Crackberry

[mttomas]

might be better if you cannot trust the other one...

[stubbornswiss]

It could be because most people merely complain in forums like this, rather than attempting to direct their concerns to RIM in some fashion.

RIM does monitor the forums for concerns, but may miss or ignore or simply not pass on certain concerns. It might be someone with a mandate to focus on bugs with the OS, for example, who happens to see your post but basically skims past it.

If more people would pick some direct channel to express their concerns, I think more notice would be taken and these sorts of issues would be prioritized higher than they seem to be right now. It might also help to find a way to describe the issue in a way which makes it clear there's a real negative *to RIM* involved. For example, if you are cutting back on app purchases because you no longer trust any ratings in App World, that would translate to some reduced revenue for them.

Of course, I'm a bit of an idealist. Maybe people have been trying this for years and failing and I'm just asking you to waste your time. I don't know...

I complained to RIM about this way back in April, and to date never heard anything back. Plus its obvious nothing has been done about it.

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...-point-608380/

[peter9477]

I complained to RIM about this way back in April, and to date never heard anything back. Plus its obvious nothing has been done about it.

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...-point-608380/

Thanks for doing that. I didn't mean just one person complaining would make a difference though... it will take a whole bunch of us before it will show up on their radar enough for anyone to act on it. They've got too many things on their todo list as it is, so we've got to fight for attention for the issues that matter to us most.

[fsxflightman]

I once bought a "map app" though it was more like a GPS naviagtor. A couple days later they were on App world with an update ....wanting to charge me full price for an upgrade. I left a review..polite but to the point, instead of credit to my account or a free upgrade (less than a week after I paid full price for a redundant App) these clowns deleted my comment. Its obvious to me they censor the comments and pad the ratings. Where is BlackBerry in all this??

[BBThemes]

I once bought a "map app" though it was more like a GPS naviagtor. A couple days later they were on App world with an update ....wanting to charge me full price for an upgrade. I left a review..polite but to the point, instead of credit to my account or a free upgrade (less than a week after I paid full price for a redundant App) these clowns deleted my comment. Its obvious to me they censor the comments and pad the ratings. Where is BlackBerry in all this??

while i get peoples points, reviews are for a review of the product, in this case if your asking the dev for something, we as devs have no means whatsoever of being able to contact the reviewer. also devs have no way to refund, and definitley no way to offer just one person an upgrade at a particular price. the only way round it would be a free update (something iv always found is best) which would then be free for everyone.

but reviews asking for something are really something that should be emailed to the dev as its feedback rather than a review, and not left as a comment as dialog cannot be opened thru reviews.

[dagerlach]

I've always wondered how trustworthy some of the comments are. Some appear more of propaganda/sales for the app than of a review. I would much rather be able to try the app out and if I didn't like it delete it and get my money back; of course, that isn't going to happen.