I've come to distrust many reviews. First, it's all Goodhart's Law. I heard the average rating on Airbnb is now 4.8. If everyone in the system (guest, host, platform) is incentivized to get ratings up, ratings will go up.<p>Besides, reviews aren't fungible. Why would I trust a stranger's review if I have no idea of their taste.<p>It's the same on Google Maps. A friend of mine runs one of the best coffee shops and bakeries in the city I live in. She has a few bad reviews because she doesn't allow laptops and has no wifi.<p>It's precisely why I love it—people are there to be around each other, not to stare at glowing glass.<p>Similarly, a beloved local restaurant gets bad reviews because there's no English menu and the wait staff doesn't speak English. Again, the absence of tourists is why people love it.<p>Meanwhile, the tourist traps have great reviews from gullible tourits.<p>I've gone back to the local news/Reddit for recommendations. Online star ratings are meaningless.
I like reviews. I leave reviews. I read reviews (and not just look at the "score"). Often they are insightful. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Only two weeks ago did I use a script found as a Gist to delete all my Google reviews and attached photos, after a bad but genuine and factual review of mine, accompanied by photos as proof, was removed after the place complained. It’s bullshit all the way down.
I hate this phrasing. Everything we interact/read/think about/consume changes our brains. It's in constant changing. That's neutral on its own.