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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AeroDm" data-source="post: 5743726" data-attributes="member: 13650">The problem with reviews is, in my opinion, two fold. First is that there is no mechanism to motivate a reviewer to be critical or careful with their opinion. It isn't like professional reviewers where their reputation follows them around and has to be protected. Second, most people who review *want* their review to be read. Sometimes they review as a form of promotion for their blog or something, but often it is also just the way they've decided to participate in the community. As a result, the main time you see a review is when the publisher of a product promotes a good review. Since a publisher is not motivated to promote bad reviews, reviewers are motivated to give good reviews.One solution I've seen comes from beer review forums. They include not only the review, but a standard deviation of the review from the reviewer's average. This way, if someone with an average of 4.8 gives out another 5 star review, everyone sees it as "5 star (+0.2 average)" and the raving enthusiasm is moderated by the reality that this guy only gives out really high reviews.The downside to that, though, is that when the reviewer eventually wants to "save" their reputation and come across a product they sort of dislike, they are now motivated to start throwing 1 stars around to balance it out.</blockquote>