[nicklas79]

I think I'm definitely flagged for review removal. I have a policy now that I only review apps that I would rate 3 stars and above. I don't think I've ever given a full 5 star review, but plenty of 4 and 4 1/2 star ones, with descriptions of what i liked, and possible improvements or hopes for future updates, along with the version I'm commenting on. About 90% of my reviews are removed. Checking back on the app reviews, especially within the first couple of weeks of its release, often, the only reviews that remain are 5 star ones.

On a side note, i hate when an app prompts me to give it a 5 star review.

If you had bought PlayCloud you will be able to see your review: )

Nicolas

[edmeister]

Yes developers can ask RIM to remove comments. I believe it is justified for developers to remove these comments, especially since some are not warranted.

For example, I had a negative review from a user who didn't even wait to contact me so I could fix the bug (which wasn't even my fault, it was due to an OS update by RIM). So he left the bad review, then he contacted me, I fixed it within 24 hours and updated the app, all good. So I removed the bad review because it was not justified.

Other bad reviews that are removed include those that are just "garbage" text which don't give any productive comments at all. Things like "sucks" or "%#@$@!" or whatever, these are useless reviews for everyone. They are like SPAM reviews. Also, if an app normally gets 4-5 stars and then all of a sudden somebody puts 1-star and writes garbage, you know something is not justified.

I think maybe there should be a system in place where a developer can RESPOND to a review. So don't delete the negative review, just have an indented "follow-up" reply by the developer under the bad review that answers it, like we have here in the forums. I would rather respond to the reviews than have to delete them, because that shows the developers are listening and following up on their app.

[Sriman]

Yes developers can ask RIM to remove comments. I believe it is justified for developers to remove these comments, especially since some are not warranted.

For example, I had a negative review from a user who didn't even wait to contact me so I could fix the bug (which wasn't even my fault, it was due to an OS update by RIM). So he left the bad review, then he contacted me, I fixed it within 24 hours and updated the app, all good. So I removed the bad review because it was not justified.

Other bad reviews that are removed include those that are just "garbage" text which don't give any productive comments at all. Things like "sucks" or "%#@$@!" or whatever, these are useless reviews for everyone. They are like SPAM reviews. Also, if an app normally gets 4-5 stars and then all of a sudden somebody puts 1-star and writes garbage, you know something is not justified.

I think maybe there should be a system in place where a developer can RESPOND to a review. So don't delete the negative review, just have an indented "follow-up" reply by the developer under the bad review that answers it, like we have here in the forums. I would rather respond to the reviews than have to delete them, because that shows the developers are listening and following up on their app.

Completely with you on the follow-up reply....

[Ishaq786]

Some developers don't even respond when you give suggestions. Just not interested.

[BerryClever]

I think AppWorld should allow for the reviewer to change the rating and comments. I am iffy on leaving reviews because if it is 3 stars now but updated with great features than it deserves to be 4 or 5 stars. If the update breaks it, then knock off a star or so. I think that would be fair.

[berriac]

I think AppWorld should allow for the reviewer to change the rating and comments. I am iffy on leaving reviews because if it is 3 stars now but updated with great features than it deserves to be 4 or 5 stars. If the update breaks it, then knock off a star or so. I think that would be fair.

That is a nice and practical approach...

[Sriman]

I think AppWorld should allow for the reviewer to change the rating and comments. I am iffy on leaving reviews because if it is 3 stars now but updated with great features than it deserves to be 4 or 5 stars. If the update breaks it, then knock off a star or so. I think that would be fair.

You are right. AppWorld should allow that. Google Play allows reviews to be updated as many times as you want..

[Chrysalis1156]

I think reviews like "this sucks" with no reasons for the comment should be able to be removed. I know at least one of my reviews was removed even tho it was 4 stars - I pointed out that despite what the developer said a certain theme was not wallpaper friendly so others would be informed of what they were actually getting. It would be great if devs were able to respond rather than just removing comments. Definitely skews things in the devs favor should they choose to misrepresent things.

[olblueyez]

If its a great app then I will rate it and give my recommendation but if it stinks it gets no review/rating. I do agree that "the user" should be able to change/remove a rating should the developer and the user resolve an issue. That way the developers have insentive to service the customers on the back end.

You know, like Amazon? Where the review/rating system actually works properly.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[TBone4eva]

I have always been in favor of a rebuttal system for the developers. When buying from eBay, I used to look at both sides of a negative feedback to determine whether the fault laid with the buyer or seller. However, I do not believe that a review should ever be removed unless it has profanity or some extreme circumstance. Yes, a review that just says "sucks" is not helpful, but that's the review they chose to leave, it should not be up to the developer to decide whether that is helpful or not, it's for us, the customers to decide if that review is helpful in our decision to buy an app. Let me ask the developers, have any of your requests to remove a review ever been denied? We've had this debate before in the forum and it seems that whoever is at RIM seems to be just rubberstamping the requests to remove the reviews. This is unfair to the customer and any review system, if it has to have a bias, should be bias towards the customer. If RIM is not going to really moderate the reveiws, then the rebuttal would make it better for the developers so at least the customer can see both sides and make their own determination as to who is right.

EDIT: Just want to add that, if a customer's review is removed, they should be notified of that and shown the developer's reason why they requested to have it removed.

[StampyBeaverbrook]

If "This sucks" isn't a legitimate review then neither is "Love it" or "Fantastic".
If the purpose of the reviews is to inform potential buyers of what they are getting, then it has been subverted to the point that it is useless.
If it is a marketing tool it only works until people realize it's a con. I have bought 10 photo editing apps most of which had 5 stars. All of them had bugs or things I would like changed or improved and 4 were so bad that even if they were free they wouldn't be worth the time it took to download and try them out.

[olblueyez]

If "This sucks" isn't a legitimate review then neither is "Love it" or "Fantastic".
If the purpose of the reviews is to inform potential buyers of what they are getting, then it has been subverted to the point that it is useless.

Yep, you would have to be quite gullible to believe otherwise.

They also mention people not reaching out for help before leaving a negative review. When someone pays good money, they deserve a "good app" and not something that is incomplete or needs "special instructions". The customers are not required to contact the seller before submitting a review, so their reviews should not be censored.

Telling people otherwise is misleading and dishonest. AppWorld is jam packed with super lousy apps and as a customer I don't feel its my job to weed out the bad apps based on "Edited Reviews". And no one else should either.

I do admit though, BB needs a more interactive rating system similar to Amazon. No I don't believe it needs to be as complex as Amazon's.

9900 & Tapatalk

[BuzzStarField]

Yep, you would have to be quite gullible to believe otherwise.

They also mention people not reaching out for help before leaving a negative review. When someone pays good money, they deserve a "good app" and not something that is incomplete or needs "special instructions". The customers are not required to contact the seller before submitting a review, so their reviews should not be censored.

Telling people otherwise is misleading and dishonest. AppWorld is jam packed with super lousy apps and as a customer I don't feel its my job to weed out the bad apps based on "Edited Reviews". And no one else should either.

I do admit though, BB needs a more interactive rating system similar to Amazon. No I don't believe it needs to be as complex as Amazon's.

9900 & Tapatalk

Some thoughts... Some apps are more complex then others. Sometimes my app has not installed correctly due to circumstances completely beyond my control and I am forced to provide support for App World usage. Some developers (including myself) make errors. On the other hand, users often do not read the available in-app help and they often make errors of their own, especially if the app is more complex than average. A good programmer wants to receive feedback so that user errors can be mitigated. If a new customers encounters a problem and is interested in actually using an app, they owe it to themselves to contact customer support in order to get help..

Having a chance to have a two-way conversation with an unsatisfied customer has universality led to a satisfactory resolution. Reviews are are not a good source of information for a developer - they tend to be superficial and many of the "requests for features" are ill-conceived and/or impossible to implement. Many of these requests have already been implemented (and, for whatever reason, remain undiscovered by the user) or are completely outside the scope and mission of my app. I do want to know the details that led to user errors and dissatisfaction. The best information comes from a two-way conversation via email.

My point is this: writing a review that simply says that my app is crap or doesn't work is unhelpful. Demanding a refund in a review is not particularly useful because there is no way that I can comply. I don't have any way to find out who you are so I can give you the email address to get a refund.

[olblueyez]

Some thoughts... Some apps are more complex then others. Sometimes my app has not installed correctly due to circumstances completely beyond my control and I am forced to provide support for App World usage. Some developers (including myself) make errors. On the other hand, users often do not read the available in-app help and they often make errors of their own, especially if the app is more complex than average. A good programmer wants to receive feedback so that user errors can be mitigated. If a new customers encounters a problem and is interested in actually using an app, they owe it to themselves to contact customer support in order to get help..

Having a chance to have a two-way conversation with an unsatisfied customer has universality led to a satisfactory resolution. Reviews are are not a good source of information for a developer - they tend to be superficial and many of the "requests for features" are ill-conceived and/or impossible to implement. Many of these requests have already been implemented (and, for whatever reason, remain undiscovered by the user) or are completely outside the scope and mission of my app. I do want to know the details that led to user errors and dissatisfaction. The best information comes from a two-way conversation via email.

My point is this: writing a review that simply says that my app is crap or doesn't work is unhelpful. Demanding a refund in a review is not particularly useful because there is no way that I can comply. I don't have any way to find out who you are so I can give you the email address to get a refund.

That's why I made comparisons to Amazon. But you do admit having negative reviews removed. And if you can't decipher who these people are than how do you know if they contacted you?

Your comments are disturbing on a lot of different levels.

9900 & Tapatalk

[BuzzStarField]

That's why I made comparisons to Amazon. But you do admit having negative reviews removed. And if you can't decipher who these people are than how do you know if they contacted you?

Your comments are disturbing on a lot of different levels.

9900 & Tapatalk

We don't know who post reviews and who does not. This can be very frustrating for developers who are trying to provide excellent service..If I get several emails that tell me installs have not gone well and I receive a zero-star review that tells me that my app doesn't work, I think that is safe to say that the reviewer has made an error. As my app matures, the vast majority of problems are caused by App World errors that occur in clusters and which are beyond my control. Having said that, I enjoy letting my customers know about some generic routines for recovering from OS glitches and notification errors.

In addition, my app depends on PlayBook's sensors which can be finicky and frustrating, especially for a new PB user. I have taken great pains to make my app easy to use and I have included extensive on-board help. Even so, In an average month, I get 5 or six requests for assistance and invariably, the customers are satisfied with my response. I know because the customers tell me so. On the other hand, I also get a rare review that tells me that I have done a poor job of implementing GPS and the magnetometer and that my app is crap.

Here, once again is the point that I am trying to make: I can help the users who contact me via email but I can't help those who don't and automatically assume that my app is crap. I want my users to enjoy my app and recommend that they contact me if they encounter a problem. How is this advice disturbing in any way?

[dano_style]

i left my thoughts on a game called ACTION DRIVING and its still there,so not sure if there removable.most developers would want remarks like this gone quickly?.

[Ishaq786]

We don't know who post reviews and who does not. This can be very frustrating for developers who are trying to provide excellent service..If I get several emails that tell me installs have not gone well and I receive a zero-star review that tells me that my app doesn't work, I think that is safe to say that the reviewer has made an error. As my app matures, the vast majority of problems are caused by App World errors that occur in clusters and which are beyond my control. Having said that, I enjoy letting my customers know about some generic routines for recovering from OS glitches and notification errors.

In addition, my app depends on PlayBook's sensors which can be finicky and frustrating, especially for a new PB user. I have taken great pains to make my app easy to use and I have included extensive on-board help. Even so, In an average month, I get 5 or six requests for assistance and invariably, the customers are satisfied with my response. I know because the customers tell me so. On the other hand, I also get a rare review that tells me that I have done a poor job of implementing GPS and the magnetometer and that my app is crap.

Here, once again is the point that I am trying to make: I can help the users who contact me via email but I can't help those who don't and automatically assume that my app is crap. I want my users to enjoy my app and recommend that they contact me if they encounter a problem. How is this advice disturbing in any way?

What is your app?

[SifJar]

i left my thoughts on a game called ACTION DRIVING and its still there,so not sure if there removable.most developers would want remarks like this gone quickly?.

Have you read the thread? I, along with numerous other people who actually have apps on the store, have already confirmed that they are removable. Just because some lazy developer hasn't bothered to remove your comment, or doesn't know they can, or feels it's not right for them to remove it (as many others have said in this thread, decent upright human beings will not remove justified bad reviews; if your review was justified, it could be the case that the developer finds it morally opposable to remove it), doesn't mean it can't be done. It can.

[BuzzStarField]

What is your app?

Check my signature.

[Ishaq786]

Ah yes, I have purchased your app. Only problem is that the magnetometer takes so long to stabilize and find an accurate reading. I know this is a PlayBook flaw and not your own.

[Xopher]

For a review to be removed, the developer has to log into the vendor portal, read the review, then flag it. It doesn't get removed until RIM reviews the remove request and decides to remove it or not.

The sad thing is that there isn't any real rhyme or reason to the system. The developer can't leave a note to RIM about why they are flagging it, and RIM doesn't relay to either the reviewer or the vendor about the results.

I think the other flaw is that you can't edit your review. If something was wrong with an app and somebody wrote a review about it, they can't edit the review later if that was fixed in an update.

[Sriman]

The review process/mechanism on App World definitely needs good amount of fine tuning. But I do like the ability for developers to have old/irrelevant reviews removed... This is something I have not seen on Google Play...

[olblueyez]

One of the filters is "3+ Stars". Sure would be tempting to ditch a couple of reviews to keep an app at 3 Stars.

[StampyBeaverbrook]

Made me a bit mad when Alec Saunders went on about 4star+ apps making more money as an inducement to make better apps. All they have to do is write their own reviews and remove everyone elses.
If someone at RIM questioned devs about why a review should be removed, or tried out the app to verify the accuracy, that might be a start.
The devs that have responded to this thread are not the people we are complaining about. They should be even more angry than us consumers as the amount of rubbish in App World is making it harder for people to find their quality apps. I can afford to lose $2 on a bad app but how many customers are you losing to these guys.

[Michel Souris]

I don't trust App World at all. Thank goodness for Android app availability. I see horrible apps with nothing but 4 or 5 star reviews, such as Free Chess, which is just awful. But there is no way for me to leave a review of the app, so how did others do it? I have looked and looked and there's no opportunity to rate the app myself. Something is very, very fishy on App World.