status-resolved Prevent businesses from paying for positive comments on NP

I agree. Any incentivized review does really skew the outcome.

At the very least they need to disclose the fact that they were paid for or incentivized for their review. It is actually a requirement in some places.

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/bus...tcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking

In addition, the Guides say, if there’s a connection between an endorser and the marketer that consumers would not expect and it would affect how consumers evaluate the endorsement, that connection should be disclosed. For example, if an ad features an endorser who’s a relative or employee of the marketer, the ad is misleading unless the connection is made clear. The same is usually true if the endorser has been paid or given something of value to tout the product. The reason is obvious: Knowing about the connection is important information for anyone evaluating the endorsement.

Brad

Can we get a NamePros statement on this?

Is it OK to pay for or incentivize members to post positive comments or reviews, especially without disclosing that information?

I think it is clear there should be a rule, if one does not already exist.

Brad

bmugford said:

Can we get a NamePros statement on this?

Is it OK to pay for or incentivize members to post positive comments or reviews, especially without disclosing that information?

I think it is clear there should be a rule, if one does not already exist.

Brad

Click to expand...

Do we know who is doing it and proof money changed hands?

To be fair, when you are a "new member"

You are treated like Nuclear waste.

Ruined by "new members" often zero feedback offer too good be true for steals of prices, hoping to scam and run.

Dont buy reviews (Should be illegal)
Just buy name think undervalued as low as $1 (there's many) better way to earn credibility, legally, ethically, while spend minimal. When someone offers positive feedback as the product for $$ should be zero-tolerance.

A gray area would be buying worthless names for positive review,
Seller might not know you think it's worthless,
You're just buying it for "the review"

To be clear Namepros should make a statement on this;

But find way combat the distrust new members have initially.

There has to be a way... I too was treated that way "new member"
So it makes sense, there's a black market business model around this

equity78 said:

Do we know who is doing it and proof money changed hands?

Click to expand...

I have no clue, but it seems like a good policy to have in general. As I pointed out above, it is actually a requirement in many jurisdictions to at least disclose any ties.

Brad

Samer said:

To be clear Namepros should make a statement on this;

But find way combat the distrust new members have initially.

There has to be a way... I too was treated that way "new member"
So it makes sense, there's a black market business model around this

Click to expand...

I think this is about a company not a member.

bmugford said:

I have no clue, but it seems like a good policy to have in general. As I pointed out above, it is actually a requirement in many jurisdictions to at least disclose any ties.

Brad

Click to expand...

Yes it is Brad, I was not disagreeing with you I was being 100% upfront that I did not hear about a company paying. I wondered if there was any proof?

equity78 said:

Do we know who is doing it and proof money changed hands?

Click to expand...

The company in question stopped as soon as they were called out on NP.

The moderators know the details. No need to mention them in public.

a while ago a new user kept on mentioning a certain website every post (promoting it as if he was a user of the site) it looked forced but there is no way to prove if that person got paid or not
am i allowed to post an example of this ? with the username ? @Mod Team Alfa @Mod Team Echo @Mod Team Bravo

I am amazed the mods have still not responded to this. It doesn't exactly take a profile in courage to say that this behavior is unacceptable.

Brad

Hello,

Currently:

1. We don't have an explicit rule against it.
2. We understand that third-parties encouraging positive reviews, implicitly or explicitly, can mislead perception and skew ratings.
3. We don't have a way to accurately detect manipulated reviews versus genuine reviews.
4. Without a way to accurately determine abusive behavior, we wouldn't be able to enforce a rule on it.

Any ideas?

Mod Team Bravo said:

Hello,

Currently:

1. We don't have an explicit rule against it.
2. We understand that third-parties encouraging positive reviews, implicitly or explicitly, can mislead perception and skew ratings.
3. We don't have a way to accurately detect manipulated reviews versus genuine reviews.
4. Without a way to accurately determine abusive behavior, we wouldn't be able to enforce a rule on it.

Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Don't have a suggestion but my personal experience was a brand new user with about 10 posts all mentioning the website name and his conversation in the chat all referred to the website

edit: Pm sent with the user information if @Peak.Domains was around he would confirm

Sites like Google, Amazon, Yelp have been battling paid / incentivized reviews for years and have strict policies against them.

A couple ideas for NP:

a) NP should have a clear policy against them

b) if it is demonstrated that a business paid for / incentivized reviews on NP, all reviews of that business should be branded with a bold red disclaimer, notifying NP users that the business violated NP rules and that the review could be incentivized or paid for.

DomainBanana said:

Sites like Google, Amazon, Yelp have been battling paid / incentivized reviews for years and have strict policies against them.

A couple ideas for NP:

a) NP should have a clear policy against them

b) if it is demonstrated that a business paid for / incentivized reviews on NP, all reviews of that business should be branded with a bold red disclaimer, notifying NP users that the business violated NP rules and that the review could be incentivized or paid for.

Click to expand...

realistically speaking there is no way to prove it even if a policy was in place how would you prove that someone was paid to give a good review you simply can't
https://www.reviewtrackers.com/blog/fake-yelp-reviews/ interesting article but not helpful

in regard of the user i mentioned in my post above i sent his information to the mods and they seem to know of him mentioning the user already got a warning but he got it for "spam"

just a quick though maybe every review you post you need to provide screenshots of w.e service you got to make sure you actually used the service ?

i would love for a system to be in place to stop this but thinking about it i really don't see a way without taking actions based on assumptions

noneisnone said:

realistically speaking there is no way to prove it

Click to expand...

Sometimes you can prove that a business pays for or incentivizes reviews.

If this is proven, then all reviews for that business in NP should be marked as possibly paid for or incentivized.

NP has still not created a policy to ensure the integrity of reviews on the forum.

Why not?

Is NP profiting from large domain companies by allowing them to leave fake reviews or allowing them to pay others for positive reviews?

DomainBanana said:

NP has still not created a policy to ensure the integrity of reviews on the forum.

Click to expand...

As we explained:
None of that has changed.

DomainBanana said:

Is NP profiting from large domain companies by allowing them to leave fake reviews or allowing them to pay others for positive reviews?

Click to expand...

Of course not, but if you want to propose conspiracy theories, then don't be surprised if we dedicate our time to helping constructive members and discontinue replying to you.

Conspiracy theories are not constructive.

Thank you for clarifying, @Mod Team Bravo

I'm trying to figure out why there has been no progress on this.

Re: #4 -- As mentioned before, sometimes it is possible to prove that companies are paying for or incentivizing positive comments.

Even just having an official policy can deter abuse.

By not having a policy, NP is basically saying it's open season to create fake reviews or pay for / incentivize positive comments.

DomainBanana said:

I'm trying to figure out why there has been no progress on this.

Click to expand...

It's difficult to have a rule that you're unable to enforce. With it as a rule, many will expect us to take some sort of action to enforce it, and we don't have a way to do that. As moderators, we're expected to enforce the rules. If a rule is no longer being enforced, then it gets scheduled for removal.

If a rule isn't enforceable, then it may be better described as a guideline. Perhaps the community could create some sort of etiquette guidelines, but we're not confident that any of our efforts on this will result in a meaningful change.

The absence of the rule is simply due to practicality and not because we agree with the practice.

The best solution may be for members to discuss it in relevant review threads.

I suppose if you created a guideline and a company was subsequently exposed then at least they could not say they where not aware it was not best practice...... which they can do at the moment

Fair points.

We will try to think of a way to indicate, explicitly, that we do not support providing incentive for positive reviews.

Edit: We wouldn't want to support providing incentive for negative reviews, either. Therefore, this is better: "We do not support providing incentive for reviews."

Never heard anyone doing this, nor witness it... However why would anyone spend money for reviews on this site, that you can easily get with Cheap $1 start auctions after the transaction....



Whoops... lol This makes lots of sense now...

Steven McEvoy said:

why would anyone spend money for reviews on this site, that you can easily get with Cheap $1 start auctions after the transaction

Click to expand...

Not those kind of reviews; we do have explicit rules regarding Trade Reviews because we can usually determine if those have been misused.

These are the kind being discussed:

• https://www.namepros.com/forums/reviews.305/