From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11
John wrote:
So, "insightful" means lying like a bastard for ten years about how
bloody good Amazon is and how wonderful Bozo is, right?
Amazon doesn't care if you like or hate it. They care it's "excellent".
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https://i.postimg.cc/y6b1yKYj/excellent-review.jpg>
Like everything at Amazon, nobody really knows the full technical algorithm
for how they choose 'insightful' reviews, but I often got contacted by the sellers over the years who often gave me free product to test "for them" so even the sellers thought my reviews were insightful.
When I posted on the bimmer web forums, sellers (e.g., Dorman & Axxis)
would contact the web site to ask if I'd review their products for free.
Sellers can tell when a review is complete and balanced and fair.
Most people consider an "insightful" review to be one that is accurate.
a. Usually, being accurate means balanced.
b. Usually balanced means pros and cons that are meaningful.
c. People who complain about the "packaging" are not being meaningful.
Just like with my Usenet posts.
Who knows what Amazon robots think are the best of the best though.
But we do know that Amazon robots thought I was one of their very best.
Do you like them a lot?
Were your reviews consistently positive?
Heh heh heh... I don't think anyone has gotten a five out of five in a long time, as it has to have no cons whatsoever to earn a five out of five.
I would bet my average is around 3, but I give plenty of 1s and 4s.
A few of my reviews got the product pulled from Amazon's shelves.
What I really judge harshly on are when the seller outright lies.
There's a lot of that where even previous reviewers didn't catch the lies.
Some people are just detail oriented. Some are not.
You can tell detail-oriented people by how they write.
a. Their grammar is perfect
b. Their spelling is perfect
Notice these are trivial things (like how to tell whom vs who).
But people who aren't intelligent can't figure out the details.
What do you think about me in terms of how I delve into detail?
I wasn't invited anywhere. Not even out for a cup of tea. :)
The review has to stand out as being especially accurately insightful.
There's a perennial discussion on Reddit over what's insightful.
Certainly Amazon cares not a whit about what "score" you give the product.
I've brazenly claimed the products are illegal in fact, & they pull 'em.
I am one of the best in the world in quite a few things, it turns out.
That has always been the case (e.g., I scored 800/800 on my 1960's SATs).
Is that a good thing? :)
Well, I often say on the Apple newsgroups that most (not all, but most) of those zealots can't possibly have scored well in tests because they believe everything Apple tells them to believe - which intelligent people don't do.
You have to be able to separate the "words" Apple marketing (brilliantly) employs from what they actually "said", e.g., Apple mentions "efficiency" 9 times in every 12-page datasheet and yet the iPhone scored B on efficiency.
Intelligence means that you understand the "sentence" that Apple marketing brilliantly uses (e.g., the "cpu was efficient" vs the "phone" wasn't).
My intelligence has never been in question anywhere in my life (well,
except on Apple newsgroups). I wonder why that is the case. :)
Once invited, Amazon Vine gives you up to about $300K per year in product >>that you choose, but as Chris noted, the freebies count as income to the >>Feds (although you pay no sales tax and no shipping so it can net out).
<https://i.postimg.cc/4xzyT87v/vine.jpg>
Oh, taxes. Sod that.
There are two problems with Amazon Vine imputed taxes, one of which is that
you pay federal and state taxes on the imputed value, but the other is that many products list with an arbitrarily high MSRP on Vine because they are
"new" products.
The whole point of Vine is to seed (accurate) reviews for (new) products.
And you order whatever it is that you want to order off of Amazon Vine.
Do they do Starships? I've always wanted a Starship.
The most expensive items they have offered to me have been around 800 bucks
or so but most items are the same humdrum items around a hundred bucks that
you get offered. All the items are offered both on Amazon and on Vine.
But remember the only products that *need* reviews are those which have
fewer than 30 reviews (which is the Amazon Vine limit per ASIN).
Last year, for example, I ordered a $650 (MSRP) bike hitch for my SUV. >>During the summer I ordered three 220VAC 1.75HP pool pumps for example
but Vine follows the same laws so they have to be variable speed.
That made no sense, but I suppose it's a good thing? Anyway, I'm
happy for you.
Actually it makes sense. California is likely the most restrictive state in
the nation where plenty of products are legal in all other states.
Just as with Amazon itself, they can offer a product but restrict its sale
to only states that allow it. An example is rodent poisons.
But most of the stuff is small things like garden tools and the like.
I got a good set of knives and my wife loves to order the jewelry.
The kids tend to order baby clothes and toys for the grandchildren.
Cool.
The nice thing about having great grandchildren is that there is always a
toy or clothes on Amazon that the parents will like. I used to have the
things shipped directly from Vine to the parents but they wrote such crappy reviews and took such crappy pictures that I have it shipped to me first.
Just as I often add illustrations to my Usenet posts, I often add
illustrations to my Amazon reviews because my goal is to edify.
An example is when a seller says something that's not quite true.
I make sure I point out that fib so that nobody else is blindsided.
Most of my reviews have many "helpful" ticks, so when a review of mine has
150 helpful ticks, I feel that I've helped 150 other people.
I feel good when I help people understand that which I easily understand.
Technically, you have to maintain "control" over the items for 6 months. >>After that time period, you can do anything you want with what you get.
So, not entirely "free"? T's&C's apply, not valid in these regions,
not valid outside of the contagious 48, only USAliens need apply,
loads of other restrictions and caveats.
Well, I think there is Vine in Europe also. But the T&C aren't too severe.
a. You do a review on at least 90% of what you get
b. Otherwise you're demoted (or fired)
That's the main T&C.
c. Another T&C is that you must order at least 160 products per year.
d. Another is that you can destroy it right away if you like,
but you have to keep the pieces for at least 6 months.
A new T&C that came up only since the Tariffs is they lay you off
permanently if you don't score consistently as 'excellent' reviews
(although they don't actually say what score you need to meet).
They started rating us since September on our reviews, where my wife
struggles to get excellent but she's got a PhD also so she'll get there.
And only offered to "valued" reviewers.
Not "valued". Insightful.
Insighful means the review hits home, good or bad or indifferent.
It has to hit a home run in order to be insightful.
That ticks off a lot of boxes, e.g., offhand, value, quality, safety,
utility, purpose, fitment, longevity, speed, strength, etc.
Saying "it works great" would not qualify just as most Usenet posts would
never qualify as being insightful, as the purpose of most Usenet posters
seems to be their own amusement and not helping other people like I do.
Yeah, well, I wasn't really hopeful. There's always a price for
anything "free".
I never would say the end result is free because just writing the review is
a cost, where I invest, oh, maybe an hour per review on average, just like
I do with many of my Usenet posts.
In both cases the reward to me is in being able to teach & edify others.
And to learn, which is why I get products on Vine I've never used before.
Every Usenet tutorial I write is many hours per post, which is why it is hurtful when you have the trolls deprecating it without even reading it.
Amazon Vine is trying to "lay off" the reviewers though, as the tariffs >>have apparently drastically cut down on the number of Chinese product.
Well, if you vote in a Trumpanzee with the I.Q. of a rancid pork pie,
the education of a bloated banana and absolutely no idea of how
tariffs work then you should possibly expect some minor
inconveniences.
I don't get political on Usenet because no party tells me how to think.
But I will say that the amount of stuff on Vine has plummeted recently.
Was it because of the Tariffs?
I have no way of knowing.
I can certainly say most of the stuff on Vine is from China although I've reviewed USA items and Japanese-made items also but they're a minority.
Watches are usually a mix of Japanese internals and Chinese externals
but I will state that the number of Vine items went down by about 90%.
It plummeted around mid summer of last year and has been dropping.
Have the tariffs lowered the amount of Chinese goods to the USA?
We did something similar but at least ours can string together a
coherent paragraph.
I try to avoid politics, but I must admit when Trump said what he said
about the Kurds not being there for us in D-Day, I was shocked anyone would
say something like that.
I assume Trump is much like Apple. They don't say what it is but they say whatever they think their constituency is dumb enough to actually believe.
But don't peg me a Republican either because the Democrats do the same.
You can tell from my Apple posts that I'm against brilliant propaganda.
a. I'm against lies.
b. All politicians lie.
c. So my vote is for the most truthful politician.
Which doesn't exist. :(
Oh, and that's me banned from USAlia forever. Oh, dear, whatever will
I do?
Free speech is still allowed (sort of) in the USA but both parties are
sleazy. For example, the pardons. They both are so sleazy it makes me puke.
Enough with politics. This is a Windows newsgroup.
What do you think of Bill Gates!
So starting on September 1st 2025, Vine implemented a scoring system where >>if you don't write "excellent" reviews, they fire you within six months.
Yeah, "T&C's apply".
There's always something. :)
As of September 1st 2025, they're rating us on insightfulness, where my
score is always over 95% just as my scores in some of the best schools in
the country were, so I'm not worried (as they even went as far back into
June to re-rate reviews that we previously posted prior to the deadline).
But to your excellent predictive point above...
They're also "scoring" us on use of media enhancements for the reviews, but they're not "rating" us on that. So we get a score. But it doesn't count.
Yet.
<https://i.postimg.cc/Hj1mZg2n/vine01.jpg>
Once you're laid off from Amazon Vine, you can never ever return.
And, as they know your home address, using a new userid probably
would not work?
I wondered about that.
Yes. They have my social security number. And my address.
I guess we could try a new account with the wife's SSN but the address
would be the same. So we assume if we're laid off, it's forever.
Luckily, I've never written a review that is less than Excellent but my >>wife struggles as they score us from poor to fair to good to excellent.
<https://i.postimg.cc/4xT4wzLF/vine02.jpg>
Once you are accepted into Vine, then this URL shows that GUI to you.
<https://amazon.com/vine>
All I got there was the old Amzon login, complete with my old userid.
Now, that's annoying. :)
You can see from my images that they populate that URL if you're on Vine.
But you have been very helpful, thank you. :)
The whole reason I'm on Usenet is to learn from others & to help them learn from me. The whole point is to add palpable value in every post.
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