Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Are There Fake Reviews on HoL?
We try our best to police who joins HoL and keep an eye on all posts including those reviewing services members have received. We're pretty confident that the vast majority of our reviews are honest ones by local people. But, as with any reviews that come from an unknown source, it is always possible that fake reviews will get through and appear on HoL.
We police this in two ways. Firstly, we stop what look like spam accounts from joining up. Secondly, we pick up on any suspicious activity that we see and either delete suspicious comments and the accounts associated with them, or where there is no doubt, we flag up the suspicious activity by way of a reply-comment in the forum. We took this 'flagging' action just this morning.
On occasion, members alert us to their suspicions by way of a comments in the forum or a message to us. Whilst we welcome this, we are also very careful about public comments since on both moral and legal grounds we do not want to allow unfounded accusations of fake reviews to appear on the website. However, we will always take action to investigate any suspicions.
Today we have just completed our investigation of complaints on the reviews of one tradesperson. Whilst there is no conclusive evidence to show that any reviews on this person were fake, we have used our review criteria to carry out a moderation. This has resulted in about 25% of the posts on that person being deleted and a number of accounts being suspended. We are in no doubt that the majority of reviews of this person are genuine and it may well be that all were. However, there was sufficient uncertainty to lead us to take the action we did.
The essential point here is that we've got your backs to the extent that we can, and we think that the vast majority of reviews on HoL are honest and have been posted with the best of intentions. BUT, as with any reviews, it's also a case of caveat emptor.
(Please note, we want this to be a thread about the generalities of the issues. Should anyone wish to comment, please bear in mind that that any comments on this thread that name any specific reviews or tradespeople will be deleted).
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Finsbury Park Ranger on
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One way to tell genuine posts apart from shill posts is how many times the poster has posted before. Perhaps the forum could make it a little bit more obvious somehow if a poster is a complete newbie or not ?
Obviously not the holy grail but that tends to be the key to what is spam or not and an easy way for users to self police.
moneysaving expert has a star rating depending on how many posts you made, could be an idea ?
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin on
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Where an account is deleted, the complete posts go with it. In every case where accounts are deleted, we take note of the overall effect of those posts that remain on the site and aim to leave a balanced reflection of views on the site. For example in the case we acted on today, there is ample balance and no overall dilution of the body of more negative reviews.
This comment was originally written in response to a comment expressing concern about negative reviews being deleted along with possibly faked positive ones. However that comment has since been removed by the person who posted it.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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The Guardian have picked up on this already, here. Honestly Hugh I don't know how you put up with all these odious rags ripping you off without due credit.
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Or perhaps "Hugh" is really "Marina O'Loughlin", getting double value out of a topic. With the HoL post being an hour before the Guardian one, the priorities are right though.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I'm sure there are fake reviews. The vocabulary, syntax and the phrasing in many posts on the same topic, under different names, are so similar.
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Yes, John. So are we. It would probably be surprising if there were not just a few. But we're also confident that the vast majority are not. If there are existing reviews you think are fake, please email or message us.
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I'm sure most people appreciate that great trades people don't need any marketing other than word by mouth privately and overtly repetitive good tradesman 'reviews' online are as often snake oil as they are genuine anyway and should be treated with a pinch of salt.
Who post online details of brilliant trades people anyway ? It's like advertising best secret foraging spots.
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That's true in settled communities with long established tradespeople. It's somewhat true in any event with high value tradespeople purchases like loft conversions. Sadly, the shifting population and an ever-changing pool of tradespeople means that it's a lot less true for run of the mill requirements and is the reason why people are so desperate to find genuine recommendations of truly reputable tradesmen.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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That's a fair comment. As the incredibly wise HoL Admin said it's caveat emptor. I'm the same very particularly with restaurant reviews. Whether it's something I read in print or read online or it's a recommendation from someone I know, I'm always cautious. It's also the reason I sometimes allow a cooling-off before writing a review myself.
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Permalink Reply by Rob H on
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Yes, too many superlatives is always a giveaway.
A liar often gives too many details also.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Quite honestly, I see these pretty regularly. Not just here but on any and all forums. These are usually fairly easy to spot, though - some don't bother to post on any other topics, others create multiple accounts to promote the same companies, almost all have no testimonials from other site users to back up their claims.
It's interesting to know where you'd draw the line, though. For example, I know of some tradespeople who do occasionally contribute on other topics, but who also regularly hawk their own services whenever the topic is raised. One could argue that they are making a relevant contribution to a discussion, but others may simply see it as a nuisance and a free advert.
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So, perhaps you could drop us a note and flag up a few of these 'pretty regular' fake reviews.
As to sharing the criteria we use to spot them, that wouldn't be very sensible would it.
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