That other reviews scoring site

[brec 1]

Tommy,

I was struck by the differences in adjusted reviews summary ratings (stars) for a couple of competitive products I'm currently evaluating between ReviewMeta and FakeSpot. If this is a subject you might want to discuss here, let me know and I'll provide more detail. If not, I'll understand completely.

brec

[ReviewMeta 35]

Hey Brec-

Welcome to the forum!  Yes, this is something I'm definitely interested in discussing.  Would love to see your examples.

One thing I noticed about the adjusted rating between RM and FS is that RM is ONLY using the existing reviews to recalculate an adjusted rating.  So, for example, if a product has ONLY 100 5-star reviews and that's it, it will either get an adjusted rating of 5 stars OR an "insufficient reviews".  We're not going to make up lower-star reviews.  I've seen products on FS get an adjusted rating of 2 stars when there isn't a single review below 3 stars on that product.  They are definitely using a different methodology, and it's not clear what it is.

[brec 1]

OK! Here are the two products, one in the lower-price range and one in the higher-price range:

(1) SKG Automatic Bread Machine 2LB
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071GKYPQ3
Amazon: 363 reviews, 4.4 stars, rank 74%
ReviewMeta: Fail, 157 reviews, 4.3 stars, rank 63%
FakeSpot: Grade D, Adjusted rating 2.0 stars, 49% low quality reviews.

ReviewMeta and FakeSpot seem more or less aligned on these reviews except for the adjusted rating. I actually ordered this on Tuesday, couple of days ago, before I discovered ReviewMeta (and remembered FakeSpot) and am awaiting delivery. I have to decide whether to keep it or to order my alternative, #2 below. On one hand, Review Meta gives the reviews a Fail; on the other hand, the adjusted rating, 4.3, is still very good. There aren't many if any original ratings in any price range with triple-digit number of reviews that average higher than about 4.5.

Oh, and compare this one:
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B06XBYYYBL
--Exact same model available only from 3rd party sellers at more than twice the price (Amazon is such a bizarre bazaar). 130 reviewers, A grade from FakeSpot.

(2) Zojirushi BB-PAC20BA BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso Breadmaker with Gluten Free Menu setting (Two selectable variations on the same product page)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0067MQM48
Amazon: 1,776 reviews, 4.5 stars, rank 77%
ReviewMeta: Pass, 1,520 reviews, 4.5 stars, rank 82%
FakeSpot: Grade D, Adjusted rating approx. 2.4 [approx. because by eye from filled-in stars], 44% low quality reviews.

Independent evidence gives me confidence in this manufacturer and this particular item's quality.

The FakeSpot report seems anomalous because almost all of Zojirushi's other bread machines' reviews get A or B grades from them. Why would just one model in a manufacturer's line garner unreliable reviews?

Your fellow Nevadan,

brec

Edited November 22, 2018 by brec (see edit history)

[ReviewMeta 35]

Interesting comparison here.  Let's take a deeper look...

Before we begin, it's important to keep in mind that both sites are estimates, and since I didn't create FakeSpot, anything I say about their analysis is just my guess - I don't know more about the inner workings of their site than any other visitor.

(1) SKG Automatic Bread Machine 2LB
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071GKYPQ3
Amazon: 363 reviews, 4.4 stars, rank 74%
ReviewMeta: Fail, 157 reviews, 4.3 stars, rank 63%
FakeSpot: Grade D, Adjusted rating 2.0 stars, 49% low quality reviews.

For the ReviewMeta report, I'm pretty confident in it after taking a manual look.  Looks like there was some suspicious activity which was detected and some of the reviews were de-valued.  A product rating reduction of 4.4 => 4.3 isn't nothing, but it seems that the product has been able to generate a decent amount of trustworthy honest reviews over time (which seems to be quite common).

Looking at the FS report, if I click on the "Trustwerty adjusted rating" it takes me to Trustwerty.com and shows that it's 2.3 stars.  (It also prompts me to pay $10 to see the full report, which I'm not doing).  FS also says "44.0% Low Quality Reviews Detected".  If there's 363 reviews, that means they're estimating 160 Low Quality Reviews.  Assuming every single one of these is a 5-star review, let's look how the review picture changes when we throw them out.

5-star: 293 => 133

4-star: 27

3-star: 11

2-star: 12

1-star: 20

Even if we throw out 160 5-star reviews, the average rating would only drop to 4.2/5.

So something isn't quite adding up here.  Even if you threw out every single one of the 293 5-star reviews, the average rating would only drop to a 2.6.  And that's over 80% of the reviews!  I strongly believe that you can't do anything beyond simply devaluing some reviews.  The technology looks at reviews and has absolutely no way of knowing anything about the products themselves, so trying to further "punish" a product is a bit of an overstep in my opinion.

The bottomline is this: It's unclear how FS is calculating their "trustwerty rating", but it's clear that they aren't using the same methodology that we are here at ReviewMeta.

(2) Zojirushi BB-PAC20BA BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso Breadmaker with Gluten Free Menu setting (Two selectable variations on the same product page)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0067MQM48
Amazon: 1,776 reviews, 4.5 stars, rank 77%
ReviewMeta: Pass, 1,520 reviews, 4.5 stars, rank 82%
FakeSpot: Grade D, Adjusted rating approx. 2.4 [approx. because by eye from filled-in stars], 44% low quality reviews.

This is an example where FS doesn't like the reviews and RM does.  What's tough about this is that RM shows all the work while FS doesn't, so it's hard to see exactly FS has decided to give it the rating that it does.  Looking at the RM report, I don't see any major red flags, and since I didn't create FS, I can't say why they found issue with the reviews.

[brec 1]

Thanks for the research. Transparency is good for trust!

[TPS 0]

@Tommy Re: your succession announcement, have you considered contacting your "competition" (@ least the more sincere 1s) to take over for you?