Niq touches on a subject I’ve been thinking about over the last few days, online reviews. His focus is on the fake ones that people write in return for a discount, reviews that don’t offer a true reflection of the work/service/product received. Quite rightly, he points out that:

Online ratings are built upon trust. Of course, every person has their own rating system, but still, if anything on the internet has a rating close to 5 stars, you can usually expect it to be a genuinely positive experience.

Fake online ratings, however, destroy this system of trust. Dear people of the internet: Don’t take the bait out of personal greed to get a lousy 10% discount when you have to sell your soul in exchange.

Whilst I agree with this, I am starting to land in a different place. The general population should not be allowed to post reviews. It’s a little extreme perhaps, but bear with me.

I think reviews should be entirely objective and there should be no space for a disgruntled customer to post a quick, one-line, one-star review on Google. It benefits no one other than to placate a temporary feeling by the poster. It is an ineffective byproduct of our society which places strong emphasis on instant gratification before moving on to the next thing. It encourages a world lacking in forgiveness and compassion.

Before the internet, we turned to experts to understand what was good or bad about something we are less informed of. The world of food has the Michelin guide, hotels have AA ratings, businesses relied on good service, but now a Google rating of 4.5 or above is a marketing gimmick.

One of my favourite local cafes consistently serves top-quality coffee from friendly and knowledgeable baristas. Its Google rating just dropped to 4.4 because of one disgruntled customer posting a 2-star review that by all accounts is inaccurate. It certainly does not reflect my experience or the experience of the many regulars I see in there every morning. If it did, they wouldn’t keep coming back.

The question ultimately, is: why do we give people the power to post a negative review (or positive) when they could be having a bad day and one thing out of character happens in a cafe that tips them over the edge?

I would much rather pay attention to an objective review of a place written by someone who knows their stuff and who likely has visited multiple times before forming their opinion.