Affiliate scams have ruined reviews (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Affiliate scams have ruined reviews
Tags: Fake Reviews \| Language Program \| Spanish
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

18 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3 Next >>

hjordis
Senior Member
United States
snapshotsoftheworld.
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Studies: French, German, Spanish, Japanese

Message 9 of 18

22 January 2011 at 4:08pm | IP Logged

TerryW wrote:

kmart wrote:

...not just rave "It's great, it's wonderful, I became fluent in 3 months"...

It's amazing how many Amazon reviews pop up that only say something like:

(5 stars) "I'm going to give this to my brother for his birthday, and it arrived in 3 days in excellent shape!"

or

(1 star) "I want this real bad, cuz I seen it on TV, but I been waiting like 10 days already, and it still ain't hear."

Usually in these cases somebody will add a comment to their review reaming them out for not reviewing the product and for messing up the rating average.

I see this sometimes, but what I see far more often is someone who's actually received the product, but clearly chose to write a review after having for all of 10 minutes. They might have actually worked with it and be commenting on first impressions, but what's really funny is when they comment on how it looks great. Yeah, I can see the picture right there. I know it looks great. Let me know how it actually works.

What if I tried either of those with a language textbook? "I haven't actually started working with it yet, but it's definitely teaching [the language it's supposed to], the font is nice, and it has a lot of chapters, so I'm sure I'll learn a lot." Or maybe "I've only done the first chapter, but I already know 10 words and a grammar point. This textbook is the best!" On the other hand, you might be able to comment on the layout after one chapter. I'd probably wait at least five.
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slucido
Bilingual Diglot
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Message 10 of 18

22 January 2011 at 5:45pm | IP Logged

I do not see any difference between Internet and real life. I trust friens and I pay attention to negative and detailed reviews. Be careful,marketers ask for detailed reviews and sometimes they suggest how you should write your review.

As far as forums is concerned, you can find marketers here. Some companies have marketers working in forums like this one. They are disguised as normal members.

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Juаn
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Colombia
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Speaks: Spanish*

Message 11 of 18

22 January 2011 at 5:50pm | IP Logged

I don't pay attention to adjectives like great or awful but on the reasons given for why something is good or bad. In this sense, even if a review is fraudulent, unless they're overtly lying, you still can get an idea of what content a particular manual features and what its methodology is.
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hjordis
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Message 12 of 18

22 January 2011 at 6:38pm | IP Logged

slucido wrote:

The difference is the reviews you're looking at online aren't usually written by your friends. Of course you trust your friends, but you don't know if you can trust these strangers. If you're talking about asking all your online friends if they've tried something the same way you would ask your friends in real life, that's a different matter altogether.
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IHeartSpanish
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United States
Joined 5092 days ago
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Studies: English*

Message 13 of 18

22 January 2011 at 7:13pm | IP Logged

Yeah, my biggest concern is for those who has no idea about affiliate marketing.

If you did not know any better, and I am sure the majority doesnt,then you tend to believe these websites.I have seen some that looked very real, told of struggles and looked just like a regular website. And then you get to the bottom, and there is an affiliate link. All the information, at least for me,is now untrustworthy.

As they say, What can you do?
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hrhenry
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Message 14 of 18

22 January 2011 at 7:22pm | IP Logged

hjordis wrote:

The difference is the reviews you're looking at online aren't usually written by your friends. Of course you trust your friends, but you don't know if you can trust these strangers.

True, but sites like this one (HTLAL) sort of serve that purpose. While we're not friends in real life (well, most of us aren't), once we spend enough time here we get a feeling for those that have a vested interest in one course or another, and those that don't. And I have yet to read any reviews here from anyone that's just used one course. We all seem to use a combination of courses at different times in our learning.

Personally, I don't even trust Amazon for its reviews anymore.

R.
==
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hjordis
Senior Member
United States
snapshotsoftheworld.
Joined 5191 days ago
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Studies: French, German, Spanish, Japanese

Message 15 of 18

22 January 2011 at 11:29pm | IP Logged

Like I said, if you're asking your friends you only know online that's different. And though amazon has the comments, here you get more interaction and debate about products, so it's definitely a good resource.

I disagree with trusting amazon though. Assuming there's not a forum/blog that you can trust and nobody you know has tried the product, they consistently have the least suspicious reviews. I guess in the end that just means they're the least untrustworthy though.I guess since I shop online so often I just trust myself to take the reviews that are honest and helpful and leave the rest, and to be able to tell the different. Not everyone knows to watch out for suspicious reviews, and it helps even one person be more aware, then I'm glad this thread was started.
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psy88
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Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French

Message 16 of 18

23 January 2011 at 2:09am | IP Logged

kmart wrote:

I consider myself pretty good at telling fake reviews from real ones. In the first place, I'm only interested in well-written reviews that detailwhat is good/bad about the product, not just rave "It's great, it's wonderful, I became fluent in 3 months".
Secondly, there's a certain sameness about fake reviews, they often have a very similar "voice", and if it's a foreign language product aimed at native English speakers, a bunch of rave reviews written in faulty English is a bit of a give-away - eg why are all these people making "spanglish" mistakes in reviews for a Spanish language product?
And thirdly - if in doubt, check it out here - although you get a wide range of opinions on the same product, you do get intelligent, thoughtful responses that enable a reasonable assessment of the product.

Another telltale sign of the bogus reviews: the "reviewer" has tried several other well known programs (the competitors) but found them all to be worthless. It was only when he stumbled upon the product for which he is a shill did he finally master the language..and in only a few effortless weeks.

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