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Old 01-13-10, 12:07 AM  
KathAL79
 
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I'm going to email this suggestion to Wendy, passing it on from my dh, about letting consumer alert sites know that people, most likely with financial interest in selling videos, are selectively cutting and pasting forum posts onto sites as official reviews. This is a small drop in a big pond of reviewer fraud (if we think this is a big deal, the video game industry has seen far, far worse, apparently), but since it's New Year's Resolution time people looking for honest opinions on videos deserve to know that reviews at places like Amazon and Collage may be doctored. (Yes, yes, I know common sense, grain of salt, and all of that, but not everyone's up with those things!)
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Old 01-13-10, 07:09 AM  
WWWendy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lissalaurel76 View Post
I see VF reviews listed in the editorial details info on Amazon ALL the time. ALL the time, seriously. I just assumed people knew their reviews were being used this way, or that you knew, Wendy. I wish, now, that I had made a note as to all the titles on which I've seen VFers quoted. I mean, really, I've seen it ALOT.
That is distressing, and no, I didn't know about it until this thread. I have an email in to Amazon and got a response a few hours later saying it had been forwarded to the relevant department for a response, but it helps for me to know that this is a widespread issue. If anyone runs across one or more Amazon titles with a VF review listed under "Editorial Reviews" please drop me a quick email at wendy@videofitness.com with the URL of the page (or the ASIN number of the workout). Please put "VF review on Amazon" in the subject line to help me keep them organized. Again, I'm only concerned about the ones that appear in the Editorial Reviews section, not the ones that a VFer has contributed herself to Amazon that may be the same or similar to the one she submitted to VF.

I assume that the video publisher or distributor is adding these reviews, or does Amazon do that? I've asked that in my email to Amazon, but I'm really curious how that comes about.

I'm going to have to give some thought to header/footer language to go on VF reviews as well as every page of the forum that makes it clear that reviews and comments about video cannot be used without permission, can't be used for commercial purposes, and that all reviews represent one consumer's opinion do not represent the editorial opinion of videofitness.com. That may at least make a few people more wary of using our reviews that way.
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Old 01-13-10, 07:33 AM  
herya
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
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Wendy, a quick Google search ("videofitness.com" editorial site:.amazon.com) gives me these results - but there might be more:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...cm_rdp_product
http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Burning-Fu.../dp/B000ZZT7BS
http://www.amazon.com/Latin-Kick-Kic...ion/B0002D125W
http://www.amazon.com/Shiva-Collecti.../dp/B001Y44DN6
http://www.amazon.com/Weights-II-Int...ion/B000092WDN
http://www.amazon.com/Bollywood-Burn...ion/B000WH5AX8
http://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Nature-Ba...ion/B00005Y7A6

Hope this helps.
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Old 01-13-10, 08:13 AM  
roz
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbles76 View Post
Collage wants all the positive reviews, false or not, so that people will buy the DVD. They may not have started it, but they are not doing anything to help the situation. I wonder if they used lulubell's name on the review as well?
Honestly, I think that anger or comments should be directed at Lalo. Perhaps Collage doesn't have the best vetting system, but ultimately Lalo's people are responsible. Collage does not just post positive reviews. There are plenty of negative ones there.
I sent Lalo a comment.
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Old 01-13-10, 09:03 AM  
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Wendy, can we have this thread stickied? That way if later on, if people come across a concern, they can look at this thread.
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Old 01-13-10, 09:14 AM  
Vintage VFer
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I'd be stunned if anyone used one of MY reviews. Mine are usually gripes.
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Old 01-13-10, 09:22 AM  
Janga
 
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It is annoying but it is just the nature of the internet, people habitually copy and paste things without attribution and few people recognize that is stealing the intellectual property of others.
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Old 01-13-10, 09:58 AM  
antbuko
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbles76 View Post
Collage wants all the positive reviews, false or not, so that people will buy the DVD. They may not have started it, but they are not doing anything to help the situation. I wonder if they used lulubell's name on the review as well?
Have we verified that Collage isn't doing anything about it? This problem just came to light recently. I think Collage needs to be made aware of it first before we can say they aren't doing anything about it, and by being made aware, I mean it needs to be escalated to someone in charge and clearly pointed out that these two incidences have occurred in connection to the same video. Even though both VF reviewers may have requested the reviews be removed, it's entirely possible that a connection at Collage's end might not have been made yet.

Quote:
Originally Posted by roz View Post
Honestly, I think that anger or comments should be directed at Lalo. Perhaps Collage doesn't have the best vetting system, but ultimately Lalo's people are responsible. Collage does not just post positive reviews. There are plenty of negative ones there.
I sent Lalo a comment.
I do think that Collage needs to establish a vetting system for reviews. I still suspect Lalo's people are responsible. It's just so naive for vendors to pull stuff like this.
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Old 01-13-10, 10:10 AM  
WWWendy
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Marta, thanks for those links, and I've stickied the thread.

I just remembered that one of my friends from high school works for Amazon (a high level technical person) so maybe I can contact him for advice if I need it.

A number of those Amazon editorial "reviews" seem to be short quotes, which might be "fair use" under copyright but I'm still concerned that they are representing a single consumer's comment as the editorial opinion of this site, because there is no such thing as an editorial review at VF, and for potential Amazon customers, IMO our reviews shouldn't carry any more weight than your average Amazon customer review does.
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Old 01-13-10, 11:21 AM  
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I personally dont think Collage should be held responsible for this. They always seem to be getting a bad rap.
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