I can't help noticing that some people get MANY "helpful" votes on their reviews, where others get none. Does that mean they wrote a poor review? Of course not.

But it would not be impossible for someone to vote for herself, simply by going to the site without loggin on. Then, as a visitor, she can just click on the "yes, this was helpful" link. Or have friends do it. Eventually, her reviews earn her a "trusted reviewer" badge.

So my question is, why even HAVE this feature? Is it so TotalBeauty can delete posts people find "not helpful"? Wouldn't that depend on the person that is reading it? I would think most people who read reviews of any kind, on any site, is there just to read, not rate! No wonder a friend told me not to take this site seriously. He said, "The Internet is a strange medium when it comes to people voting, viewing, posting..."

Written on: 08/03/2008 (08:42am)

• Report as inappropriate

• 
• Quote and reply

I think it's a feature many of us ignore anyway, so I personally don't think it has a huge impact on anything. It is a little annoying to see a few clearly undeserving reviews have an extra badge, and I think the system could be improved, but it's something you'll find on many sites and it's hardly ever perfect.

It seems a little unnecessarily harsh to say you don't take the site seriously because of a few small glitches, though... From my experience as a member here, the staff is continuously working hard to improve things and the way the site runs. :(

Written on: 08/05/2008 (10:50am)

• Report as inappropriate

• 
• Quote and reply

Okay.....but my coming across a post from you is what motivated me to write about "bogus helpful votes", which is along the lines of "bogus reviews" to enter the contest: LOL

"Has anyone noticed the major increase in bogus and garbage reviews lately?

I appreciate what TotalBeauty is doing for this big contest, and it's really wonderful and fun, but because people are clearly only writing reviews just to get entries, it has really degraded the quality of reviews in the past few weeks, IMO.

I've seen so many reviews submitted along the lines of, "I like it," or, "It's good," or stating something totally obvious. Such as, "This shampoo cleans hair." Is this really being helpful to anyone? Some "reviews" just have one word, or nothing relevant at all!

I just wish there were a way to weed these kinds of reviews out. It's a little frustrating for those of us who sit down and take the time to write good, detailed reviews every time. And it ups the rankings of those just trying to get entries when the content of their reviews is so terrible. Should we just continue trying to report them as they come along?

I'm not trying to be difficult, and I'm sorry if I'm being harsh. It's just that I usually really look forward to the quality reviews on the site, and as of late, more and more bogus ones have been coming in. :( "

So, if people ignore the badges, why have them at all? They could put in something else, such as sorting by icons we choose in our profiles (which I already suggested)./ This way, you can find other women with your skin type, etc. easily, and read their advice and what products they use.

Yes, a lot of sites have these kind of glitches, which is why I'm not going to take it seriously anymore (helpful votes, bogus reviews...) I'm just going to write reviews because I enjoy it, and not care about earning a badge. I do find this site fun, and decided to look at it that way from now on. As you said, it's not perfect (what site is???), bogus reviews and all! :-) :-) :-)

Written on: 08/06/2008 (11:56am)

• Report as inappropriate

• 
• Quote and reply

I was referring strictly to the helpful votes feature/bages. I think there's a large difference between the bogus reviews and the bogus helpful votes. First, I don't believe it's only people who are contributing to these votes; I began to notice them showing up on every item I was reviewing around the same time where there weren't votes before (on the few most recent reviews, about 3-4 votes each), and spam/bogus reviews usually accompanied the new votes on real reviews... meaning I believe the spam bots have placed quite a few votes of their own. This is a good reason not to take them seriously, and is a technical glitch.

The bogus reviews are either spam bots or real people submitting tons and tons of phony reviews. There's a big difference there. I don't take the "trusted reviewer" badge seriously because bots do some of the voting; I don't take high review count badges seriously on bogus reviewers, either. But I do take them seriously on people whose reviews are legit and trustworthy. While it's easy to distinguish with the high review counts, it is NOT easy to tell whether the trust badges are from real people voting or not. In many cases I don't believe they are. I know mine showed up mysteriously after a flood of spam reviews began on the site, after several months of not receiving ANY votes on any of my reviews.

So yes... these are two different situations. Perhaps the team isn't currently able to address phony vote sources as they have been able to handle phony reviewers and reviews, which they have been working on since the issue was brought to their attention.

I agree that we should have a feature that allows us to sort by icons, types, etc., but that's something entirely different. I think the badge and reviewing system is being worked on and should be improved, like I said, because rewarding those who submit many good reviews is a nice idea. The vote system does call for some reviewing, though... because as it stands, we don't know who or what is making the votes, which is why it's difficult to take them seriously.

Written on: 08/08/2008 (07:06pm)

• Report as inappropriate

• 
• Quote and reply

So was I! Which is why I'm just here to enjoy this site, and I will ignore "helpful" votes or "bogus reviews". It is a fun site, with other topics other than beauty on the "I'm off topic & I don't care" forum.

Yes, I know there's a difference between bogus reviews and helpful votes. (Technically) Point is, they are both bogus, so that's what I meant when I said I'm not taking it seriously. (someone with a "trusted reviewer" badge for example..) I take the beauty products stuff more seriously, like the product info from the company. Oh well, I know whether a review is a good one or not, whether I find it helpful to me. That's what I look for.

Written on: 08/09/2008 (02:36pm)

• Report as inappropriate

• 
• Quote and reply

Hello from the Total Beauty team!

Please help us catch people who are abusing the system by reporting these reviews or self-voters when you find them. You can use the "report this" link next to any review to report a review you are suspicious of.

We make every effort to respond quickly and take care of the issue. We have moderators reviewing our product reviews twice-daily to keep them as clean and on-topic as possible.

Thank you for your help!

Written on: 08/14/2008 (01:59pm)

• Report as inappropriate

• 
• Quote and reply