Hi John,

Many thanks for your feedback.

You are absolutely right in questioning the quality of the content, both that posted by the business and of the reviewer.

Amateurs reviewers, should be mindful of the fact that a wider audience sees the reviews, and must therefore be as responsible as any “professional” reviewer in a newspaper. Of course, this will not always be the case.

In light of this, we will integrate an or ‘influence’ score system for each reviewer. Factors that may affect this score could include:

* The location of a user
* How many reviews that user has made
* How many times a user has had a positive response (by other reviewers)
* How frequently a user posts

The combination of the above factors(and others) would give a user a certain weighting, or authority in their post. Therefore, hypothetically, if a business owner was able to set up multiple accounts and post positive false reviews to the website, the following would be apparent

a) The overall score of the business would not suddenly spike due to the minimal influence of lower weighting of the individual reviewers
b) Anyone visiting their listing would be able to see that the reviews of that business were conducted by people with a low weighting.

Conversely, if a competitor was to set up an account and post a false negative review then both a) and b) would also apply.

Regarding negative reviews, then we are obliged to show them. However, we intend to provide a feedback system between the business owner and reviewer that allows for direct communication following a negative review.

We have found to date that the biggest shortcoming in the reviewing sites that we have seen is the way that negative reviews are handled.

A few things to note about negative reviews:

1) Users are more likely to comment on their negative experiences than their postivie ones (human nature)
2. Negative reviews can make or break a small business, especially if those reviews are made on an influential website. Everyone gains more if we provide an environment that allows users to review constructively, whether positively or negatively.

I’ve only posted a few of the precautions that we have taken (and will be taking) to ensure that the website is as fair as possible to both reviewers and business owners, however stick around and you will see some changes over time

Please see the link below – I believe that it encapsulates your queries and may provide you with an indication of some of the considerations we have taken into account in creating the site.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/03/BUG45KT0RH1.DTL

Cheers,

Mark
http://www.raveaboutit.com.au