One of the most odd things of being born in the 70’s is becoming accustomed to reviews. Back in my day, when I went uphill both ways to school in the snow filled sidewalks of McClintock Drive, reviews basically didn’t exist. At least, not in the way they do now. Now, everyone across the globe is reviewing everything under the sun, from TV shows, to hot dogs, everyone has an opinion.
However, we do need to be wary about what we believe when reading reviews. There’s never a guarantee it is an actual customer doing the review, i.e. it could be the business owner writing his own reviews of how amazing his business is. Even if it is coming from the right source, there’s no way to know what prompted their review. Are they eviscerating a product in a form of digital vendetta justice? Are they praising a product based on a company’s incentivization via some form of quid pro quo? Let’s also not forget individuals subconscious bias. Some people give everything 5’s. While others, the product must blow away their mind grapes to attain a 5.
In the mid 2000’s I noticed a lot of companies making bold sweeping changes based on reviews online. Primarily in the form of unjust cancellation of amazing shows, Enterprise, Stargate SG1/Atlantis, Firefly, Pushing Daisies, and the list goes on too long for me to reiterate. It struck me that these companies were ran by illogical and irrational people that don’t understand statistics. Luckily, in the past few years it seems that not only businesses, but people in general have come to a form of equilibrium when interpreting reviews.
Now in the past I haven’t bothered posting my own reviews because I felt it would appear self serving, and perhaps be improper. However, since I started teaching, I have seen many other instructors do this same thing. Additionally, given my desire for full transparency, I thought it prudent to post mine as well.