No one mentioned this, but companies like plugin alliance, UAD and waves no longer have any reviews, only ratings. One more step to dehumanize internet.

 

PA always used to only publish the good reviews with 4 or 5 stars anyway. They never published any of the bad ones...

Having said that, reviews are such a clusterfriend of gamification, bots, fake reviews and spam that it's a nightmare to admin and often just looks really bad on your product pages, so it's no surprise more and more companies are removing the feature... Reviews haven't been "human" on the internet for years now (depending on where you go, of course).

 

nobody believes them anyway. It turns out that "I've never used this before, but I can't wait!", and "I heard I need this compressor!" comments don't actually sell anything. Who knew?

 

UAD and Waves have buyer reviews on every product page, but you might need to adjust your cookies permissions to see them. I don't remember them on PA but then I'd ignore all this as marketing bs and like dkny said they moderate the most negative responses.

For any purchase in life it's probably best to seek reviews from third party sources. That's easy to do with plugins, as you can demo most yourself, watch a youtube vid, read a review from somewhere like SOS, or ask on a forum like this one.

I understand the sentiment, but maybe loosen the foil on that hat, it might be restricting blood flow.

 

I wouldn't even attempt to hazard a guess on the success of reviews.
The success of ratings I would not either.
Does anyone know with 100% success that products that have 5 stars haven't been doctored too?

Many people I know trust the opinions of co-workers in their industry. Even then, it is like the the phrase of the proof is in the pudding (testing yourself) that many rely on. There is so much hype on so many things, nobody can blame any person for not believing a lot of what they see, hear or read anymore.

 

I buy stuff typically on the manufacturers site, or Plugin Boutique. With the latter, I'd say they've been doing ratings without actual reviews for quite a while and their ratings are almost always 4.5-5 stars for things. So yah, it's practically useless and I don't rating matters too much when it comes to gauging if a plugin is good or not... I wish it was though.

It's funny cause I'm a gamer, and the one rating/review system I've trusted for forever is Steam. It isn't unaffected by review bombs, but generally I've found that system to be good (mainly because you have to buy the game on Steam to review it, and there's perhaps a little bit of a feeling of perceived reputation or something for reviewers). I wish there was such a reliable system for plugins where pretty much every plugin was well reviewed. I'm not even sure who to trust as far as YouTubers either, as so often nowadays reviews are paid for.

 

damnit don't give AP Mastering anymore ideas!

 

Most have some sort of trial, trust your own experience.

 

In fairness, these are reputable companies, one of which having outlived their biggest competitor.

Also, their plugins and products are well regarded. A bad faith review can cause a lot of damage - ask any Uber/Lyft/Grab/GoJek driver.

Conversely, on Yelp, Taco Bell gets as close to a 5 star rating consistently, whereas Michelin starred restaurants get a measly 2.5 or 3 stars at best (still on Yelp). So who do you trust? Anonymous Michelin Guide reviewers who travel all over the country or world, and have extensive experience, taste and judgment? Or the gym bro who gave Taco Bell a 5 star? So yeah, the same goes for audio.

Newsflash: the internet has long been dehumanized - David Bowie himself foresaw it, and forewarned us, 27 years ago.

 

[QUOTE="Balisani,
Newsflash: the internet has long been dehumanized - David Bowie himself foresaw it, and forewarned us, 27 years ago.[/QUOTE]
David's spot on there

 

On top of that, companies like UAD and Plugin Alliance display their prices without taxes, which are added at checkout, which is illegal in Europe.

 

Who has not tried a over-hyped plugin multiple times before deciding the reputation of some plugin is overblown? Delete the "Demo" and then come back to it, thinking you are just missing what other people mention over and over before trusting your own ears and deleting it for good?
Or gone through old releases and found something great that nobody ever mentions?

Hopefully everyone.