Bought/Fake reviews?

Just noticing there's a lot of... really mediocre novels on the site rankings these days, and they have a lot of 5 star, and a lot of 1 star reviews, with basically squat in the middle. I'm not sure if there's any real way to check the validity of the reviewers, though, but it just... seems unlikely. Shadow Hack was the one that most recently made me feel like there's some serious willful manipulation going on. War Sovereign Soaring The Heavens would be another one. Again, not really sure what could be done about it though. Maybe an option to only weigh "trusted" reviews from people with a certain amount of site usage, or something. I mean, I get that there's a lot of polarized opinions, but that sheer split between 1's and 5's is... extreme.

 

didn't read the post, but the answer to the title is: yes, there are


edit: after reading the post though, I don't think that the problem itself are the 5* and 1* ratings being the most common ratings for a lot of novels, rather they just have a lot more ratings than they should (because reasons).

(And there are quite literally all kinds of different reasons: Bots, readers who rate higher/lower because they don't feel the novel "deserve" it's current rating, those who rate novels without reading them—because they hate or like a tag, or author, or cn/kr/jp language, etc etc—, some novels where they give more chapters if they get enough votes an reviews etc, more fishy shit and other reasons are pretty much countless...)

 

Theres a lot of bias. If theres a tag people dont like they auto 1 star, those peasants.

The 5 stars are people who enjoy it but dont really know how to critique, or just fake.

 

Not really, people either really like something or really hate it. Some people also have extreme views on entire genres such as BL, VR, etc.

 

Bought as in paying people to leave good reviews for a novel? They’re pretty stupid if they’re doing that. Just save yourself the money by doing the reviews yourself...jk haha~

 

On Qidian reviews be like 'bestest novel ever written, very much good!'

 

The review system on NU is not the best.
Personally:
First, synopsis(redundant) and tags. Then, look for the 4star to 1star ratio. If all looks good, read the first 20 chapters or so, and go to the LCD.
Trust me, with the number of works being pumped out, you really should be selective about what you read.
Edit: you can also search for reviewed by people you know or trust... Staff members or such people as well...

 

Reviews are all manually checked by Tony, they are approved if they follow the guidelines.

If they aren't, please do report them, some can pass without him noticing, he will look at it again.



Ratings though? Probably more of a thing of split userbase than anything.

 

Well, not necessarily. While there really seem to be many bad novels in the top 100 or even top 50 right now, it's not like it never happened before. PMG for example also once ranked quite highly if I remember right, and that one's just as bad. It's mostly due to their fast pace of translation. With a more average pace, they wouldn't be (as) popular.

 

there are some novels with 4+rating reviews in there that is so shitty especially with translation @_@

 

that's why i don't depend on the star and review..

 

If @Fluffums rates it 5 stars you know it's fapworthy.

 

People still take reviews seriously?

 

Thank you for the teaching, senior. You have given me enlightenment that shall significantly decrease the time I spend to reach the pinnacle of the Dao.

 

Eeeeeh?! I just rate how well the novel is written... it's not my fault that well-written smut novels are fapworthy. Blame the authors.

 

That post, and that avatar, I just.. Wow I'm gonna need a few minutes to pick up the shattered remnants of my mind now...

 

A lot of fake reviews right here. Probably 99%.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/invisible-dragon/

 

I agree with Shadow Hack, there is without a doubt something iffy about the score and review. Looked on Qidian and something seems wrong about it aswell.

 

... It might not be available on dmm right now, but the browser game she's from is definitely fapworthy. Mendelssohn (avatar) as a sadistic onee-san who punishes (female) villains (in a sexy way) after you stop them? Beethoven as a busty loli with a piano-scythe? Rossini as a slightly chubby but massively well-endowed girl wielding a giant golden spork?

It's even better if you know about the composers, instruments, and songs turned into cute girls because the conversations and details are surprisingly accurate. But you don't really need to know their origins or even like h-scenes to enjoy the gorgeous detail on their weapons and clothes.

Spoiler: That's what you're looking at, right?

What was the topic again? Oh yeah, I don't think reviews get faked or anything like that. There's no benefit to anyone for this, because if a novel gets outright false reviews people tend to get mad and post hate comments on the novel's website. And most translators don't really enjoy being hated, so while they might encourage people to say nice things, they wouldn't encourage outright fake reviews.

Ratings, on the other hand...

 

Blasphemy.