Do you ever take the time to read reviews before you buy a product, go to a movie, or go into a business? I always find it so interesting how you can tell, so obviously, if the reviews are stacked for or against a product or a business.  Maybe you look at a book on Amazon, or somewhere, and there is pile of all five-star reviews for a book that has not sold very many copies. Stacked!
 
Here’s a fact, on average, a publisher must sell one thousand copies of a book to generate a single review. Yes, they do have a formula for this. So, how does a low-selling book generate a ton of positive reviews?
 
This is the same with negative reviews. If you see a low-selling book, with a lot of hate being directed at it or the book’s author, you know that those reviews are most probably bogus.
 
The one good thing that Amazon has developed, in recent years, is that they have this notification next to the review, “Verified Purchase.” That’s really the important factor to look for whenever reading any review on their site. For if it is not there, that review is most likely fake.
 
This is the same with businesses. Do you ever read the reviews about the restaurants or the whatever you are planning to go to on Yelp before you go in? If you see a whole lot of reviews written by people that have only written one or two reviews, have posted few photos, or have no community friends, that is clear sign the review, be it positive or negative, is fake.
 
The main thing about reviews is, you really must look for the subtilities before you ever take them to heart.
 
If we take this to a more personal level, think about the things you have liked as you have passed through your life. Maybe you really like a band when you were growing up. (Or, even now). You listen(ed) to their music over-and-over again. If you were to write a review, it would be full of praise, as it should be. You love the music produced by that band.
 
Now, think to a time when you really got screwed over by a business or a business owner. You really don’t like them, and you have a valid reason not to.
 
For me, the whole reason I became involved with writing reviews on Yelp was due to the fact that I had taken one of my Rolex watches to be cleaned at this business that claimed they had a Rolex trained watchsmith on the premises. Six weeks later, I get the watch back, paid a lot for the service, and it still did not function properly. I take it back. I go to check on it a few weeks later. I go into the shop and the owner’s son was wearing it. Are you fucking kidding me!  
 
Meaning, if you write a review from an experiential perspective, positive or negativity, there is truth in your presentation. That is fair and good and all that kind of stuff. But, if you are writing a review to help out a friend, make your own whatever look or sound better, or to just to go after someone or something that you have something against for whatever reason that was born only in your own mind, isn’t that fairly disingenuous?  
 
In this world, and this day and age, there is term that I heard, I guess late in the game, that I find amusing, “Keyboard warrior.” A Keyboard warrior is someone who expounds negative, offensive, and hurtful comments about someone or something out onto the internet. They do this, most commonly, by hiding behind a screenname so there can be no personal repercussions. They do this for no reason but some self-developed ideology, based in a need to find some sort of self-validation, by damaging the life of a person or the operations of that something else. We all know stuff like that is not good.  But, look around, it goes on all the time.
 
This is just an important thing to think about as you read reviews or as you create reviews. What is the reviewed based upon: truth or falsehoods? Mainly, never immediately believe or take a review to heart, simply because someone took the time to create it.