One of the growth areas on the web are “user review sites.”  These are sites that list local businesses, often selling them advertising, and allowing the general public to register and post a review of a business or service. An excellent idea at first consideration but the actual practice reveals quite the opposite.  

First, a user review is a biased opinion.   Any professional writer knows when you start expressing opinions you are walking on dangerous ground.  Anything that is biased is going to favor some and offend others, in this situation the business, but it could very well offend others such as patrons of that business by insulting them for having an opposite appraisal of that business or, even worse, make them feel like they have been ‘duped.’  Such a user review is undoubtedly a rare instance or the business wouldn’t be around.  

Businesses simply must provide adequate service or satisfactory products.  Those that don’t fail quickly.  The general public is the best user review.  If the business is still open they are undoubtedly doing something right for their patronage.  There are a few exceptions to this, however, such as construction companies and like services where the customer only has one lifetime contact with the business and never sees them again.  These types of businesses can go on for years before being exposed.  But even these are exposed eventually!  

The second inherent flaw in this kind of user review systems is such reviews are almost always anonymous.  They try to blame this on the internet and ID theft however, journalists the world over publish their name alongside their work every day.   The flaw in allowing an anonymous writer post a personal opinion on a public forum is quite obvious.  Our forefathers knew the importance of confronting an accusing party when they drew up the constitution and guaranteed a right to confront an accuser. From the guise of anonymity many wrongful things can happen.  Lies can easily be levied free from being discovered.  Great lies and powerful accusations can be published where millions can read,   wide-eyed, in shock as a business stands accused of horrible deeds while the accuser hides their identity behind anonymity.  The business can offer no defense against this kind of “user review.”  An unscrupulous competitor can trounce his competition by posting anonymous user reviews.  And if you think that is farfetched, think again.  

Some businesses operate in an environment that is so competitive and cut throat that one would think they were amidst the gang wars of the 1920′s.

User reviews are almost always going to be negative.  Go to the many online sources and read them.  The ones that aren’t are often inspired somehow by the owner by offering something of value for writing it, possibly even written by the owner himself/herself – after all the review is anonymous.  Rarely is a customer so moved by great service or great products that they are going to go through the effort of going online, registering for the service and finally composing something good to be said about a business.  How many people actually like to write?  (Other than writers, that is)  On the other hand, a customer having a negative experience will often be so motivated to go online and seek some form of revenge.  These reviews are plentiful and are often tainted with emotion and opinion. 

Lastly, user reviews can prove a lucrative ground for fertile extortion activities. Nothing is to stop a person from telling a business owner that if certain money wasn’t paid or certain services weren’t performed or whatever you can imagine, the user will “destroy” that business online by posting horrible user reviews everywhere they can (this has just happened to me and is the inspiration for writing this article).  Fuel the extortion with an actual business related event, such as using the service or buying the product to remove any ‘illegality’ of the extortion and you have an apparent legitimate customer complaint on the surface but underneath a money-seeking extorter.  No matter how good the job, no matter how perfect the product – and no service or product can be purely perfect – it is “grounds” for a complaint backed by a demand for money …… or else!  The raison d’être: User reviews.  Without which such attempts would not be made.

Do away with user reviews? Not necessarily.  They do serve an important function – when they are done fairly, but that is as rare as the true extortion attempt.  The answer is to certify users, much like Wikipedia does.  Layout a series of tests and evaluations that a person must accomplish satisfactorily, showing an unbiased attitude and further have the user reviews reviewed along with details on the underlying experience.  All this before a review gets posted on the web.  A newspaper wouldn’t publish anything without first assuring themselves with the writer and then checking the facts written about.  Online user review sites don’t have this worry because they are not responsible for the postings published by them.  Make the site responsible, in some respect, for the user reviews posted and we will find a more honest, more accurate set of reviews and not a bunch of angry rants or fulfilled threats.