Market Ideas (Comment Spam Relief)

[ElusiveByte]

I just realized that when the Market offers apps that cost money, all the asshole kiddies and their "First" comments and their useless ratings won't affect those apps. They'd have to buy them first before they can comment or rate them and we all know they won't do that!

So at least the paid apps will have accurate ratings and useful comments!

(Well, maybe $1 apps will still have problems.)

I still think the Market could use comment moderation like Slashdot has. And if a user goes below a certain threshold, they are banned from making comments or suspended for a while, and all their comments are deleted. Commenting should be a privilege.

The Market would also benefit from screen shots of the apps. I hope they add that.

 

[mmaitlen]

Good ideas, I like the one about being able to include screen shots. I'm a developer and have one app in the Market. I've supplied screen shots on my personal blog, but some may not have this setup, so having screen shots in the market would be helpful.

So far I haven't been to put off by the comments, but then again, my little game is either a love it or leave it kinda thing. I do wish the comments would be more specific/constructive about what they don't like, and not just use some derogatory comment to specify how much my app stinks. I guess if you're going to put stuff out there, you gotta grow some tougher skin. But I certainly agree that the language should be moderated, the 5% bring down the whole experience and it's not really fair.

 

[ChilledMatt]

The swearing I can just about tolerate along with the pure stupidity. It's the racism and hate that really winds me up. I am stunned that Google have not got it under control. I think the most outrageous comments are being pulled now, but there is still some way to go.

 

[snctln]

I'm a developer with 4 games on the market that have a combined total of over 100,000 downloads. I think there is some sort of moderation in place, when I put my first app up almost all of the comments had profanity in them. Now maybe one out of every 10 comments has profanity and I think they get away with it because they misspell the swear words

Screenshots would be nice, imho what would be best is a way to include a link of the develoeprs choose for each app so that you can link to a webspage that includes any and all information about the application.

I also think they should allow developers ot respond to comments like sellers can do on ebay. Some one star comments are made because the person doesn't understand the game, liek the otehr day on my Break The Bricks game I got a comment to the effect of "Quarter screen ad makes this game ***" with a 1 star rating. If I could respond I would have said "The area at the bottom of the screen is blank space so that you can use your thuumb to play the game on the touchscreen without having to put your thumb over the game graphics." But since I can't respond that comment will stay the way it is and there is nothign that I can do about it.

If google made those 2 improvements I would be a much happier developer, but for now I have just learned to grow tougher skin and take comments in stride.

I've been told that the android market website is supposed to be getting a "refresh" in early February, (as early as Feb 4-6). I don't know if that just means that they will showcase new apps or if they will actually redesign the market website and maybe even tweak the market on the device itself... we will see.

 

[Ageless Stranger]

From a psychological perspective, people who go out of their way to write a comment on the market are giving the developer attention, whether the remarks are justified or not. Most people, if they do not like a product they download will delete it and move on. On the other hand, there are those who revel in adopting an angry persona and writing random drivel. They are not only wasting other peoples time from reading their inane childish rantings, but their own by flipping up their keyboard and vomiting their random gibberish all over the keys.

Anyone can slate a piece of software, but it takes a level of determination and skill to actually write software, and a life time to get good at it. I give full credit to anyone who has the balls to stand up, write something and show the world, no matter how good or bad their idea is.

Oh and first btw

 

[rifter]

I'm a developer with 4 games on the market that have a combined total of over 100,000 downloads. I think there is some sort of moderation in place, when I put my first app up almost all of the comments had profanity in them. Now maybe one out of every 10 comments has profanity and I think they get away with it because they misspell the swear words

You know, I see all of the abuse that developers get on the marketplace, and I am genuinely surprised that there are still people out there, willing to write apps. The gross stupidity out there, really bothers me. I really appreciate the hard work developers do.

 

[sw20matt]

Why hasent a moderator been put in place? I mean yes paid apps will cut down on it, but things people say are just sometimes foul. spam will not go away either.