[wp-forums] Suspected Sock Puppet Reviews and Other Concerns

[Otto]

Like it or not, none of those are fake reviews. We do have the ability to
tell.

Just because you and some others are very unhappy with a particular plugin
doesn't mean that everybody is. People have their own opinions, and they
don't have to all be the same.

Additionally, asking your users to leave you a good review is not against
the rules. If you have some evidence that they are offering inducements
such as payments or discounts or something, that's one thing, but simply
saying "hey, please leave us a good review" usually does the trick too.

-Otto




On Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 12:50 AM, <frederickb at internode.on.net> wrote:

> Please audit these reviews:
>
>  https://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/wp-all-import?filter=1
>
> As stated by other unhappy customers, the glowing info-mercial reviews
> and the quantity of them appears to suggest inducements of some sort.
>  Either paying a firm to generate them or giving some sort of bonus
> to customers (I suspect before March it was the former, and since
> March, the latter).
> I realise WP is all about supporting commercial plugins, but to me,
> this is a clear case where WP should exercise a little more discretion
> for the following reasons:
> 1.  Induced reviews (IMHO - unconfirmed)
> 2.  No genuine commitment toward the free version of the plugin.
>  It's crippleware designed to make people upgrade.
>
> 3.  Attitude towards customers is horrendous:
> https://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/wp-all-import?filter=1
>
> 4.  Public attitude by lead dev on WP.org is horrendous:
>
> https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-test-the-plugin-adequately
>
> Calls user of free version 'a jerk' for leaving a negative review.
>  Very hostile dev, which makes the other 1 star reviews very
> believable.
> 5.  The WP rating system is clearly being used to advertise the pro
> version in many reviews.  Isn't the WP rating system intended to
> represent the experience of using the free version of the plugin?  I
> know it's a tough one to police, but I feel this is an extreme case
> where a very high proportion of reviews relate to the pro version.
> What is motivating so many people to pay $100+ at wpallimport.com and
> then come back to wordpress.org to tell everyone how wonderful it was
> to get what they paid for?  Why don't we see similar behavior for
> other plugins with a similar download rate, such as DB Migrate?  Why
> do the ratios between positive and negative reviews look so abnormal?
> I really think the plugin rating is being manipulated to increase
> sales.  We're talking about big money here and, more importantly, WP
> implicit in a very poor user/customer experience.  It isn't good for
> Open Source, WP, or anyone other than the pro plugin author.  Users
> of the free plugin have their time wasted.  Then when they pay for
> support, they also get told to get lost if they ask a question that's
> too hard, more time wasted.
>
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