[LuayS]

WTF is your problem? I read all these negative reviews about this app being boring/lame/doesn't do this and then rating it poorly. How about offering some constructive criticism to the developer, any issues you try to contact their support and see if they can fix it. If they ignore you then you can flame their review section. I'm tired of all these biased reviews that hurt some good applications. One in particular is Fruits and Ninja it does what it says and people compare it to the iPad version and how it doesn't do this or do that. Have you taken a second to think maybe they have never played that version? Why don't you email them asking them to input this or that and see what they said?

In my experience every App Dev I have emailed has responded almost instantly and offered great feedback on my requests/criticism and it makes me appreciate their app and their effort that much more.

So again, quit being D-Bags when reviewing unless it's honest. /rant

[KRol]

I think its a constructive rant though... but I totally agree with you
That would be a good way to encourage and help the developer community

[UnknownError507]

Yes im in the same boat as you and not all dev respond instant but most of them do. And the apps i have on my PB and BB i sent them lots of feedback and to be honest they respond back, some right away after a couple of min and others after couple of hours, but the may thing it is they respond.

But u know what makes me jump to the wall is this type of review "Male 6' 2" Blond, athletic i like this app add me PIN:123123A" 3*** OMG im going crazy scrolling down trough that crap, man they are so many Dating site u can use thous and are free.

I hope RIM or the dev comes out with a better solution about rating and reviewing an app on APP world!

a good example is Yelp.com they filter each and every review comes trough the publisher.

[Innovatology]

Well said LuayS!

... In my experience every App Dev I have emailed has responded almost instantly ...

Keep in mind that devs are all over the world, and may be in a different time zone to you. Also, many app devs are 1-man operations and may have other jobs or if they are lucky even a vacation.

[pigdude]

It really bothers me when people rag on free apps, or apps that are 99cents. Come on people-if I buy something for a buck and don't like it, no big loss. Whoever took the time to create it - hey at least they are trying!

[kritikal]

I pretty much agree with you except for your example of Fruits and Ninja, hard to believe that they never played it because it's a blatant copy of the iOS game, same menu, same backgrounds, same everything really but laggy and not as visually appealing.

[cielodome]

Yes im in the same boat as you and not all dev respond instant but most of them do. And the apps i have on my PB and BB i sent them lots of feedback and to be honest they respond back, some right away after a couple of min and others after couple of hours, but the may thing it is they respond.

But u know what makes me jump to the wall is this type of review "Male 6' 2" Blond, athletic i like this app add me PIN:123123A" 3*** OMG im going crazy scrolling down trough that crap, man they are so many Dating site u can use thous and are free.

I hope RIM or the dev comes out with a better solution about rating and reviewing an app on APP world!

a good example is Yelp.com they filter each and every review comes trough the publisher.

i do read reviews as well as leave my comments as well. i tend to ignore those obvious singular negative reviews that may reflect a unique problem with that reviewer, especiall if other reviews are markedly different. what gets me are those dating comments that are just inappropriate and even leave me wondering abuot the effectiveness of the current review process.

[LuayS]

Just thought I'd revisit this, I've noticed an improvement in reviews as of late. Either that or the applications being released are just better.

[III 4U2NV III]

Most consumers don't know how to leave "real" feedback in general and it sucks. I came across several app reviews in AppWorld where the app did exactly what the developer said it does and read reviews like "Works as described but would like it if it did this" 3 stars. IDIOTS!

[NickA]

This needs to be posted for all platforms. I'm so tired of see 1 or 2 word reviews: "sucks", "bad", "needs work". I'm to the point to where I don't read reviews anymore. I know Google changed the Android Market, so you don't always see the newest reviews first, and they did some other stuff too.

I wish App World had the refund policy thing. I think it's only 15 minutes now for the Android Market, but that's enough time to get a quick feel for the app. Or enough time to allow the malware in it to gather personal info from your phone! Just kidding (but true in some cases).

[kbz1960]

I think you have to remember some of the reviews are left by children and probably even competitors.

I always throw out the rave reviews and worst reviews in any I read. The middle ground is usually closer to the truth.

[skyscraper04]

Consumers have the right to rate whether high or low especially on appworld you can't get refund.but on free apps its a different story.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[jetstreamblue]

Just one thing for reviewers to keep in mind: You only get to review an app once!

I recently had a review for an app that said something to the tune of "Just got it, give it a 3 now and will come back with a real review after I use it"... Unfortunately, that's it, he really can't come back and do another review.

[ubizmo]

I think you have to remember some of the reviews are left by children and probably even competitors.

That's right. Many reviews are clearly written by kids who get some kind of kick out of being able to say harsh things publicly, under cover of anonymity. I've seen good apps blasted because some feature that the developer clearly indicates is in the pipeline for a future release is said to be "missing".

This is all the more reason for thoughtful people to take the time to write thoughtful reviews. There's nothing we can do about the junk reviews, except try to counteract them. It's up to us.

[wfubball]

As a developer, nothing makes me more mad then to get a review saying X feature doesnt work... but to never receive a support email or question about it. If thousands of people are downloading this and never emailing saying they have issues, is that one persons review really true? or is it trolling?

[NickA]

As a developer, nothing makes me more mad then to get a review saying X feature doesnt work... but to never receive a support email or question about it. If thousands of people are downloading this and never emailing saying they have issues, is that one persons review really true? or is it trolling?

It's trolling. I've seen reviews where it said X feature doesn't work and it does. A lot of people don't even give the app a chance.

I also think developers need to have some type of initial documentation. I've used apps that would "walk" me through what to to the first time I was using a particular feature, or just getting started.

[blackjack93117]

Although I agree and always take time to use/understand the app, give the developer a chance by contacting them, before leaving a review, it also should be noted that a well designed app should be intuitive and clear enough to not require contact with tech support.

So a little pressure on the developers to test/think their apps out (how will this be received, assuming I have never used it and I am a dummy. Is it useful enough to not get bad reviews? Is it documented well?) before releasing them to avoid instant flaming is not a bad thing. Developers have to remember who their audience is and not take for granted any level of technical competence.

[vespajet]

What always makes me laugh is seeing the reviews for the various versions of an app (iOS, Android, BlackBerry) and despite the app being practically the same all across all platforms, the ratings vary. For example, the Fly Delta app has a two star rating for the BlackBerry version, a 2.5 star rating for the iOS version, and 3.7 stars for the Android version. It's the same app across the board, but it seems the BlackBerry and iOS crowd have higher expectations than the Android crowd. I know looking at the reviews for the BlackBerry version, there's a lot of complaints about the app not working.

I wonder if the majority of the occasions when an app is not working (and the user gives it a bad review), it's because the user has never updated the OS or has not updated the OS in some time and the app requires the newest version of the OS in order to work. It's easier to pin the blame on the app (and the developer) than to admit that the problem is due to them not maintaining their device (keeping a device up to date is pretty important).

I've really begun to not really pay much attention to user reviews online for nearly everything (apps, hotels, airlines, restaurants, etc.) because there are so many planted reviews or reviews that just seem out of whack with the rest of them. I remember reading a review of a hotel I stayed at a few months after I stayed there and there were several bad reviews because they had to wait in line 15 minutes to check in at 1 in the morning. The fact that hotels do not maintain the same staffing levels at 1 AM as they do at 1 PM just didn't seem to register with some of them. Common sense seems to be something that folks seem to be having less and less of. People that gripe about a free app (or a 99 cent app) are just griping for the sake of griping and are more than likely the types that end up having their food spit into by cooks......

[blackjack93117]

Same thing - I once stayed at a La Quinta Inn in Stockton - from some of the reviews you would have thought it was in downtown harlem with gunfire outside the windows. Other reviews praised it. Turned out it was a nice place to stay, not a bad area at all. I find that if you toss out the extreme reviews in either direction, you get a pretty accurate picture. The extreme bad ones are left by either stupid people or those with an axe to grind. If something gets consistently bad or good reviews across the board though - it's probably consistently bad or good. Like any physics experiment you just toss out the extreme data points.

[BSFA2008]

Do you understand the point of reviews and ratings? Not everyone can be a winner. There's a reason 0 stars and 1 star are options. Do you suggest that people should only write positive reviews? Are you suggesting self-censorship? Should we pretend that every app in app world is glorious and wonderful?

Saying the app is boring, is an honest opinion. A food critic might call a meal bland. Do you think the food critic should go back into the kitchen and talk to the chef about this and that, then write a dishonest review saying the meal was scrum-didly-umptious? Do you think the critic should wait for two months to see if the chef can make the meal better, before he writes a negative review?

Saying the app doesn't do this or doesn't do that IS constructive criticism. It means THE APP WOULD BE BETTER IF IT DID THIS OR THAT. It's a suggestion for an added feature or capability. THAT is constructive criticism. What more do you want? Do you want the reviewer to tell the developer how to code the program?

Face the facts. Sometimes an app sucks. And the purpose of reviews and ratings is to review and rate the app as is right now. As the app is updated and improved, the ratings will improve. Consider the negative reviews incentive for the developer to improve the app.

Welcome to the real world. It's not made of candy and teddy-bears.

(Plus, I believe developers CAN deny/block/delete reviews.)

[BSFA2008]

As a developer, nothing makes me more mad then to get a review saying X feature doesnt work... but to never receive a support email or question about it. If thousands of people are downloading this and never emailing saying they have issues, is that one persons review really true? or is it trolling?

Can't you test run your apps to see for yourself??? (Honest question. I don't know the answer.) Somebody says something's not working .... can't YOU independently verify without needing a bunch of support emails?

Who are the crybabies here, the customers or the developers?

[jetstreamblue]

Can't you test run your apps to see for yourself??? (Honest question. I don't know the answer.) Somebody says something's not working .... can't YOU independently verify without needing a bunch of support emails?

Who are the crybabies here, the customers or the developers?

I think what he was saying is that a comment "X doesn't work" is not helpful to the dev, especially if that's the only instance of someone finding a problem. Many devs are individuals and cannot possibly predict and test every single usage scenario that their app sees. It's like proofreading your own writing, you miss your own mistakes sometimes. When a bug is found, it's extremely useful for devs to get more info on exactly how the bug occurs so that they can fix it, instead of hoping to somehow find it based on a simple "doesn't work" comment.

There are also cases of simple user misuse or misunderstanding, which could be quickly fixed if a support e-mail is received. For example, one user of my app thought it wasn't possible to switch between modes because he didn't know you swipe down to get the app menu. Another user reported a bug, and I couldn't figure it out until he sent me a video clip showing what he was clicking, and I realized it wasn't a bug but simply misunderstanding of what is supposed to happen. It's simply about asking users to help us, help them, and help them, help us.

[CrackedBarry]

Thing is... The whole point of app reviews is NOT to make the dev feel good through undeserved reviews. Its NOT to artificially inflate the quantity and quality of PB apps through misleading reviews.

The point of them is to reward quality developers, and to let consumers know which apps are worth their time and money.

And I can think of plenty of free apps, that didn't deserve more than one star, despite being free or costing one dollar.

[BuzzStarField]

Consumers have the right to rate whether high or low especially on appworld you can't get refund.but on free apps its a different story.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I don't think that this is a fair statement because people who really like an app are not as likely to exercise their "right" as lazy ones with a bloated sense of entitlement. Also, it is, in fact, possible to get a refund.

Relatively few customers bother to leave a good review for a paid app, probably because they think that there are only so many ways to say "great app!" and don't feel a need to be repetitive. However, malicious reviewers or those who don't use the support email for it intended purpose, are much more likely to exercise their "right" to write a bad review.

This sense of entitlement means that over time, undeserved bad reviews tend to skew the average star rating and worse, it lowers the app's ranking within its category.

PS: This problem is fresh in my mind because, just yesterday, some yahoo gave me a one-star review and demanded his money back. I would ask that this person contact support so that we can resolve the problem. If we can't fix the problem,then I will provide the email address where he can get a refund. But I really don't think that the individual really wants my help.

[olblueyez]

Asking "People" to be "rational and constructive"? Unfortunately we are living during the "Me Generation". I do applaud your effort though as I completely agree that more info is always better, be the review good or bad.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com