Angie's List, Rotten Tomatoes, Yelp

[jackfaire]

I think these things are bad and people give them too much weight. I put this here because these are for services beyond just Pop Culture. I think that the problem with all of the sites that build "recommendations" is that they are based on the word of complete strangers.

It's almost like tricking people. Most people I know won't take the word of a complete stranger to decide where to shop, eat, plumber to use, contractor etc.

Yet they will take the same strangers word on those things if the stranger is now on Yelp. Being a "recognizable" source suddenly lends weight to a recommendation that wasn't there before.

I never trust movie critics who tell me if a movie is good or bad unless I have been following said critic long enough to get an idea of how their taste in movies matches up to mine. The only reason I even look at most reviews is to see what the movie is about.

Yet when I bring up how it's not reasonable to trust these sites people shout me down and tell me I shouldn't disagree.

So what do you think? Do you trust people's opinions without context or like me do you need to have an idea of where the person is coming from before you can gauge the validity of their review?

[s_stabeler]

It's complicated- and if you take online reviews at face value without further scrutiny, you're an idiot- but such services DO have their uses if you think to go beyond the basic rating into actually reading the reviews to see what people actually say- particularly since it helps winnow out fake reviews. (I've bought items with surprisingly low reviews on Amazon since the negative ones all seemed fake. Considering said item worked fine for me, I suspect I was right in my analysis.)

[TheHuckster]

It's complicated- and if you take online reviews at face value without further scrutiny, you're an idiot- but such services DO have their uses if you think to go beyond the basic rating into actually reading the reviews to see what people actually say- particularly since it helps winnow out fake reviews. (I've bought items with surprisingly low reviews on Amazon since the negative ones all seemed fake. Considering said item worked fine for me, I suspect I was right in my analysis.)

This.

I look at it this way: You need a service, and you have two choices:

Take your chances by going blind and choosing the nearest plumber or electrician and hope that the hundreds of dollars you will soon be parted with will come to good use. This is assuming you don't have any friends who can recommend anyone.

Do some research and read what people have said about these folks. And, yes, you do need to read. I've read one-star reviews on restaurants where someone said something along the lines of "My party of 8 couldn't be seated at 6:30pm on a Saturday. I don't care if I didn't make a reservation, that's terrible!" or "I tried clams for the first time and HATED them! Don't believe the other reviews that they have the best clams! They were gross!"

But then you have multiple reviews that indicate serious concerns, and that's what I watch out for. Between a place that has 700 reviews of 4-5 stars and a place that has 700 reviews that are more of a mixed bag, with some people having valid complaints, I sure am going to take the former one. Because I need to feel comfortable about who I'm paying hundreds of dollars for to do the job right.

As for movies, I agree you can't rely on reviews. I've enjoyed 50% movies, and thought 98% movies were overhyped. However, I may use Rotten Tomatoes to weigh if I should watch it in the theater or wait until I can stream it for a lower price. Again, that just makes sense to me. Why risk wasting money on a movie that sucks?

[Tanasi]

Many years ago I was in need of a HVAC tech to repair our AC. Something my FIL had once told me is to ask the folks that sold the parts who they would recommend. They know who is honest and competent. My wife is in the construction business and she looks through such sites as Angie's list, she cracks up about the good rating the biggest thieves in town receive.
Restaurant reviews I take them with a huge grain of salt, for bad reviews I check their other reviews, so folks have never written a good review and others just rave how everything is great. If someone complains about a burger at an Asian joint, you gotta wonder about them.
For me I rarely write reviews but when I do it's mostly to compliment good service/goods, for bad reviews it's because I didn't like the way I was treated but I'm fair, at least I think so.

[telecom_goddess]

I don't really need to pay attention to service reviews because I rent an apartment, but as far as movies go I pay ZERO attention to reviews. I like what I like and go by that. I tend to be good at picking movies for myself that I like to watch. If I'm really sure I will watch it in the theater, and if not I'll wait until I can rent it or stream it. Then I take more risks because it doesn't cost me anything extra.