Questions about Amazon's reviewing system

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This post is divided into sections, with apologies for any confusion arising from the way some of the questions are classified, as follows :-

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Introduction
Terminology
Search, contact and notification
Votes
Fans
Reviewer rankings and blue badges
Reviews
Attitudes
Other features and add-ons
Ideas for software changes
Trivia
Omissions

Introduction

Disclaimer

I have no wish to mislead anybody, so I try to keep informed of developments. However, Amazon change their software when they choose to, without notice and usually without telling anybody, although they do announce major changes. I try to keep the information up to date, but I can't update things I don't know about. See Disclaimers and Add your comments please.

The intent

The idea is to provide short answers where possible and long answers where needed. The short answers follow the questions. The long answers direct you elsewhere, usually to one or more of my other blog posts. Some blog posts are mentioned in the answers to more than one question.

By the nature of Amazon’s software and the shroud of secrecy that envelops it, it is not always possible to answer questions conclusively. See Shroud of secrecy. When questions involve aspects of people’s behavior, there are normally multiple answers.

Although I wrote this blog post primarily for Amazon.com users, most of it applies to other Amazon websites too. Where there are known differences, these are noted. However, the differences between the various sites are fewer than they once were.

Terminology

Reviewers use some weird jargon.
Can you explain some of the terms?

Words and phrases

Blockbuster reviews	see jackpot reviews below
Campaign votes	may be helpful or unhelpful, and are cast by customers who like or dislike a particular reviewer or product.
Current ranking system	A numerical ranking system introduced by Amazon in October 2008 in America and in March 2010 in Europe. Until the second ranking system was abolished in December 2011, the current ranking system was referred to as the new system. You may still find that term in this blog, but I am phasing it out.
Fan	a customer designated by Amazon because of voting for or against that reviewer several times - also see questions further down about fan votes.
Fourth ranking system	A (presumably) numerical ranking system not yet introduced by Amazon. It will become the current system if and when it is installed in both America and Europe. though it may not be installed worldwide simultaneously. During the transition if there is one, I'll call it the new American system within this blog or on UK forums. The system it replaces will become the third ranking system on this blog within a few days of that happening.
Generic reviews	the identical review used for multiple products, not necessarily variations of the same basic product. See Cheating or reviewing unethically on Amazon.
Hall of Fame	Amazon's list of current and former top ten reviewers on either the second or current ranking systems. It's not actually a hall of fame, but a ranking chart history.
Jackpot reviews	reviews that acquire hundreds or even thousands of YES votes while acquiring relatively few NO votes. When I use the term, I’m thinking of a review with around 500+ YES votes and with any NO votes accounting for under 10% of the total votes cast on that review. Others may have different minimums of 100, 200 or whatever.
Loyalty votes	not the same as fan votes - see question further down.
Neggies	negs / negative votes / spite votes / unhelpful votes / NO votes.
Negginator	somebody who habitually casts neggies, usually against a specific reviewer - may be designated a fan (see above) eventually.
One-hit wonder	a reviewer with just one review.
Original ranking system	Amazon's very early non-numerical ranking system, abolished circa 2000.
Pozzies	positive votes / helpful votes / YES votes.
Placeholder reviews	are provisional reviews, possibly prepared in advance, based on expectations of the product about to be released, and subsequently substantially edited once the reviewer knows the product.
Pre-release reviews	are reviews posted on Amazon for a product not publicly available at the time.
Rank-hog	somebody obsessed with their own ranking.
Second ranking system	A numerical ranking system introduced by Amazon circa 2000. Currently, it is often referred to as the old or classic system. You may still find those terms in this blog, but I am phasing them out.
Shill	a reviewer who has an undisclosed close relationship with the author, giving the impression of an enthusiastic independent customer. On Amazon, the shill could be the author using a sockpuppet account.
Sockpuppet	an online identity used for deception. See question further down for reviewers’ usages.
Spotlight reviews	are the three reviews (maximum) for each product that are displayed in full on the main product page.
Template reviews	are reviews by the same reviewer for similar products that share part of their reviews to describe the common features, but which are tailored for each individual product, thus distinguishing them from generic reviews (see above).
Trigger words	are words that cause Amazon's software to send reviews for inspection prior to them being posted publicly. See Review quality controls.
Troll	may be a negginator (see above) or somebody who posts on forums where they are unwelcome.
With respect	when used as a form of address, it is a most disingenuous phrase that really means with contempt.

 

Acronyms

ARAT	Amazon Reviewer Analysis Tool
ARC	advance review copy
AVP	Amazon Verified Purchase
DB	usually means the customer reviews discussion board, the original (external) Amazon forum, but sometimes used to mean any or a different forum
DTB	dead tree book (i.e. made from paper, whether recycled or not)
GBF	gold box forum
HK	Harriet Klausner
HKAS	(sarcastically titled) Harriet Klausner appreciation society
HOF	Hall of Fame
OOP	out of print
OP	opening post/poster
PDH	Plesiochronous digital hierarchy - but you knew that already :-)
TBR	to be read (or reviewer Timothy B Riley, depending on the context)
TRF	top reviewers forum
VV	Vine™ Voice (member of the Amazon Vine™ program)

For more acronyms, see Acronyms.

What is a sockpuppet in the context of reviewing?

Somebody who sets up multiple accounts to do one or more of :-

• hide their reviews from negginators so that they can post on forums or comment on other people’s reviews with impunity and not worry about reprisals.


• vote for themselves.


• in the case of authors, review their own books.

Not all people who set up multiple accounts do so to cheat. See Multiple accounts for legitimate reasons, as well as dubious reasons, to set them up.

Search, contact and notification

I can’t find what I want on Amazon. What can I do?

Amazon’s search engines are poor, but made worse by products being classified incorrectly or by names and titles with wrong spellings. See Find the books and music you want on Amazon, which highlights problems that may help you with other searches too.

If you’re looking for a song but don’t remember the title, see Name that tune (You know some of the words).

How do I switch between different Amazon websites?

The standard way is to go to the bottom of most Amazon pages, where there should be a row of links to Amazon's other websites. These links go to the welcome page for each site. As Amazon progressively conquers the world, new links are added.

To bypass the welcome page and go straight to the corresponding page to wherever you are on the other website, you can try changing the URL. For example, to go from the USA to the UK, just change the website name in the URL where it says Amazon.com to say Amazon.co.uk, and most of the time you'll get the corresponding page. This trick is particularly useful for switching between profile pages, product pages, search pages and ranking table pages. If the corresponding page does not exist, you'll get an error message, for which see next question.

Why do I get an error message saying the web address is wrong?

You mean this one? (If not, read the possible answers anyway, as error messages can vary.)

Looking for something?

We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site.

This error occurs under the following conditions.

• You clicked on a link to a page that Amazon haven't yet made universally available. Some pages are for pre-release products that are only available to selected customers, such as members of Amazon Vine™. Most links to those pages would not be accessible to the general public, but if the product has been reviewed by one of the selected customers who has access, there will be a link from that customer's review pages within their profile.


• You clicked on a broken link within Amazon. This could mean that Amazon deleted the linked page and forgot to update the page, or it could be that Amazon can't find the page before it times out, because Amazon's database is so large that it cannot be held in one physical space, but is all over the place. Either way, you may wish to complain to Amazon. Note that a different We're sorry message sometimes occurs when looking through reviewer profile pages. It is explained further down, but is also caused by Amazon's database being all over the place.


• You clicked on an external link to an old page that Amazon either couldn't find in time (see above) or deleted after the link was set up.


• You tried switching to a different Amazon website by changing the URL, but the corresponding page does not exist on that website.


• You typed, copied or edited the URL in some other way and got it wrong.

How do I contact Amazon customer service?

Via the small Help link at the top right of every Amazon page, or via Help and advice supplied by Amazon, which lists some of the more useful help links. You may contact Amazon via e-mail from anywhere in the world. Depending on where you live and which website you want to contact, you may also be allowed to contact Amazon by telephone.

How do I find a reviewer's Amazon profile?

The only way now that can catch any Amazon reviewer is Google. You may be able to get away with just putting the name in the standard search box, but that may produce too many entries, especially if the name is common, so you may need to narrow the search to reduce the list.

1. Click on Advanced search (to the right of the main Google search box)


2. Enter the reviewer’s name and the words profile reviews in the top box marked all these words


3. Enter the website name (amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or whatever) in the box titled Search by domain name


4. Click the Advanced search button and hope that you find what you are looking for in the results of the search.

If that method fails, what else can I try?

• If you know of a product that the reviewer has reviewed, look up that product and find his or her review, then follow the link.


• If you know that the reviewer posts on an Amazon forum (except the Associates forum or the old customer reviews discussion board, which are both external forums), find one of the reviewer's posts and follow the link in the top left.


• If you know that the reviewer posts on any forum, including the Associates forum, the old customer reviews discussion board or any other external forum as well as standard Amazon forums, find the reviewer on that forum there, or ask other posters nicely.


• If you know that the reviewer is highly ranked (top 10,000) in the ranking system, you can find them via the ranking table. Find any reviewer, go to their profile then click on the Top reviewer link. That takes you to the top of the rankings. This could be quite tedious if you're not sure of their approximate rankings. You can fiddle the page number in the URL as an alternative to the page number links. This can be useful if you want to jump in at a mid-point within the table.

How do I find a reviewer's account number?

The account number appears in the URL of any page specific to a customer including the profile page. The account number is a mix of letters and number beginning with A. In the profile page, it follows the /profile/ part of the URL.

How do I find reviews with star ratings by product?

There are two ways of doing this. In the first method, you mouse over the star rating near the top the product page, whereupon you are presented with a small pop-up that gives you a breakdown of reviews by star rating, with links for each rating. Click on whichever link you want and you'll see reviews for that product with that star rating, presented in Most helpful order according to Amazon's algorithm.

In the second method, scroll down the product page below the customer reviews, where you’ll find a text box titled Search Customer Reviews in the right-hand margin. Put in the word rating followed by a colon, a space and the star rating you are looking for, in the range 1 to 5, for example rating: 2. That will produce the same results as the first method, but with this method you can narrow the search by entering key words, with a space before the first word and between words. If you do that, only reviews containing the key words in the body of the review will show up. The search does not look at review captions. Of course, you may search for key words alone without the star rating.

Omission of the colon causes Amazon to assume that you want to search for reviews containing the word rating and the number that follows it; the likelihood is that it won't find anything that matches.

How do I find reviews with star ratings by reviewer?

You have to do this search from a product page, because there is no option to search within a profile. It does not matter what product you choose, as long as it has reviews; they do not have to include one by the reviewer you are looking for. Locate the text box titled Search Customer Reviews as mentioned above. Below the box is a check box titled Only search this product's reviews. It is automatically displayed with a tick, it being assumed that that’s what most people using the function want. Remove the tick to search reviews on all products.

Put in the word customer followed by a colon, a space and the account number (sometimes called the profile ID) of the reviewer you are looking for. Harriet Klausner’s account number is AFVQZQ8PW0L so if you want to find her reviews, you’d enter customer: AFVQZQ8PW0L. Enter a space followed by the star rating (and key words if you wish) as described above. Again, do not omit the colon after customer or rating. If you wish, narrow the search further by including key words.

You may use this search to combine key words with a specific customer but without a star rating. For example, you get particularly interesting results if you do the search for customer: APRY1W9VFEFQ6 willows on Amazon's UK website - but remember to un-check the tick-box. You could specify willows customer: APRY1W9VFEFQ6 instead - either way produces the same results.

How do I find a specific review that is buried on a product's back pages?

Locate the text box titled Search Customer Reviews within the relevant product page, then enter the word customer followed by a colon, a space and the account number, all as mentioned above. but leave the tick box checked so that only this product is searched. If the reviewer hasn't reviewed the product (or has deleted it, or if you miss out the colon or otherwise mistype something), you'll probably get a page saying There are no results for this query!. If the customer has reviewed it, you'll get a page showing the start of the review. If you search for a customer who has duplicate reviews, all duplicates should be offered. Click on the Read more link to see the whole review. You’ll then be allowed to vote or comment as you choose.

How do I receive e-mails notifying me of comments on my reviews?

When posting a review, tick the box asking if you want to receive e-mails. You shouldn’t have to do this again.

How do I receive e-mails notifying me of replies to my comments on other reviews?

When posting a comment, tick the box asking if you want to receive e-mails. You’ll need to do this every time you comment on a review that you haven’t previously commented on.

How do I contact a reviewer?

Having located the reviewer, ensure that you are on their main profile page rather than one of the review pages within their profile, then proceed as follows.

1. If they show an e-mail address, use it to contact them.


2. If they don’t show an e-mail address but they show a website link, contact them via that link.


3. If they show neither an e-mail address nor a website link, check their profile description to see if that helps. I know of at least one reviewer who puts the e-mail address there, but replacing the at sign and dot with words. Just like the website link, this reduces the volume of spam. Some authors use automated software to select reviewers, which is a bad idea because it often selects reviewers who aren’t interested in the product.


4. If no contact link is shown, they don’t want to be contacted. In that event, you may choose to post a comment on one of their reviews, but they may not appreciate the comment being used for that purpose.

How best can I find someone to review my book?

1. Ignore reviewer rankings. Many people get high rankings without reviewing any books. The days when Amazon mostly sold books are but a distant memory. In any case, even those who review books may not be interested in the type of book you want reviewed.


2. Look up reviews of similar books to identify suitable reviewers.


3. Click on their name.


4. Follow steps in How do I contact a reviewer? above.


5. If you contact them, remember to say what review(s) impressed you. It might make the difference.

Votes

What do Amazon mean by “Was this review helpful to you?”?

Amazon ask a (deliberately?) vague question that people interpret however they wish.

See Was this review helpful to you?.

Why do my reviews get unhelpful votes?

Ask yourself if you did the best review you could. If so, don’t worry about it as you can’t please everybody. If not, improve it. See Spiteful votes for possible reasons. See Write Amazon reviews for ideas to improve.

Unhelpful votes are often spiteful. What is the point of them?

Nobody likes receiving those dirty NO votes, but their abolition would create different problems.

See Abolish negative votes on reviews? for my analysis of the cases for and against abolition.

See Spiteful votes for reasons that people vote NO. They aren't all spite votes.

Facebook don't have YES/NO votes, only a LIKE option.
Why can't Amazon follow Facebook's example?

There are like options on Facebook that can be cancelled (but not negated) by use of the unlike option. There is no dislike option. I suppose this is intended to keep everything warm and fuzzy, but Facebook is a social networking site, not a commercial business. Even on Facebook, things can become quite nasty. Indeed, mainstream news reports nastiness far more often regarding Facebook than Amazon.

Amazon's reviews are intended to be used by customers making buying decisions, and therefore a dislike option is needed so that customers can push bad reviews down the spotlighting order. Reliance on a lack of YES votes would not achieve this because plenty of good reviews don't get seen by customers due to their product's popularity. It would also put newly posted reviews near the bottom of the order.

See Abolish negative votes on reviews?.

How can I report campaign voting to Amazon?

See Cheating or reviewing unethically on Amazon for descriptions of the issues.

See Complain to Amazon about a reviewer for creating and sending the actual complaint.

Why can't I vote for my wife's reviews?

1. You cannot vote for your own reviews.


2. Even if you and your wife have separate Amazon accounts, you probably share a computer.


3. Even if you each have a computer, you may occasionally log on to Amazon using your wife's computer, or vice-versa.


4. Amazon's software is clever enough to know that your account and your wife's account are somehow connected.


5. Amazon therefore play safe and disallow your votes for each other.

Some years before the introduction of the current ranking system and its associated fan voter system, somebody posted on a forum the story about him, his girlfriend and their Amazon accounts. They lived separately, had separate computers and Amazon had no way of linking them. One day, one of them logged on to their Amazon account on the other's computer. Not long after that, all their votes for each other disappeared and they were never able to vote for each other again.

Why do Amazon occasionally say that a reviewer has 100% helpful votes when they don't?

This is due to rounding because Amazon do not show decimal places, only integer percentages. It is compounded by Amazon rounding up any remainder rather than applying standard mathematical rules and rounding to the nearest integer.

• Applying standard mathematical rules, 995 out of 1,000 would round up to 100%, but 994 out of 1,000 would round down to 99%.


• Under Amazon's rules, 991 out of 1,000 rounds up to 100%, as does 9,901 out of 10,000.

Why are votes on my reviews disappearing?

Anti-campaign software cancels most fan votes. By cancelling rather than deleting them, it ensures that the voters cannot ever again reinstate their votes. Of course, if the reviewer subsequently deletes and re-posts the review, it is a different review as far as the software is concerned, but it does not automatically follow that the original voter can vote on the re-posted review.

How can I tell which reviews are getting new votes?

You can't easily tell just by looking up pages on Amazon. However, there is a software tool for PC users to allow them to look at reviews in ways that Amazon won’t allow. This makes it easier to keep track of new votes, lost votes and deleted reviews. See Analyse your reviews and track votes with ARAT.

Can I tell who is voting for or against my reviews?

Not normally. Sometimes you can tell with near-certainty and at other times you may have suspicions, but most of the time there are no clues to go on. Only Amazon have the definitive information, and they don't allow external software access to it. See Show names of people who vote on reviews?

Fans

What are fans as defined by Amazon?

Fan totals are only shown on Amazon.com, but exist hidden away on other sites. As defined by Amazon, fans are people who have voted for or against your reviews several times, so a negginator may count as a fan. Once they become a fan, they can only vote for you occasionally if at all. Some fans are never allowed to vote for you again. The fan system is Amazon’s greatest mystery, ahead even of the current ranking system. See Fan voters.

What happens with votes after someone becomes a fan?

It seems that at the point of somebody being designated a fan of a particular reviewer, their previous votes for or against that reviewer are removed but this does not affect the reviewer's ranking, suggesting that Amazon give ranking points to reviewers for having fans. See Fan voters.

How many times can I vote for or against a particular reviewer before being designated a fan?

Nobody knows, but I think the answer is that it depends.

I have seen people say that you are allowed 5 YES votes and I've also seen other people say that you are allowed 3 or 4 NO votes, but I think these claims are based on votes that occur in quick succession, and all the same type of vote. Amazon's software could easily recognize such voting as the behavior of customers voting for or against the reviewer rather than the actual reviews.

Amazon prefer customers to vote for or against the actual reviews. Customers who do that are less likely to vote a lot for any particular reviewer, and they are more likely to mix YES and NO votes for the same reviewer. I suspect that Amazon's software recognizes different voting habits and treats them accordingly. This would also explain why some customers are allowed to vote for reviewers that they have been designated fans of, providing they do so in moderation, while other customers are not.

What were loyalty votes?

(For historians only)

The second ranking system only counted ten votes per customer when calculating a reviewer’s total ranking points. Loyalty votes were the excess votes beyond the first ten. Because of the way the fan system works, some customers won’t even be allowed to vote for or against ten of your reviews, but some will be able to vote for or against more than ten. Thus, there may be some votes that appear on your reviews and which count towards your current ranking and product page placement, but which did not count towards your second ranking. See Amazon's three reviewer ranking systems explained and Fan voters.

Reviewer rankings and blue badges

Why did Amazon have two ranking systems?

(For historians only)

Amazon had two ranking systems from October 23rd 2008 in America and from March 9th 2010 in Europe, when the current ranking system was introduced. Abolition of the second system happened in America and Europe simultaneously on December 8th, 2011. Amazon may initially have been afraid of losing more customers if they abolished the second ranking system too quickly, but they eventually did just that.

How did the second and current ranking systems differ?

(For historians only)

The second ranking system only allowed a few points to be awarded per review however many votes a review acquired. The effect was to favor reviewers who wrote lots of reviews and acquired a few votes each on plenty of them. The system therefore rewarded hard work over a long period of time, so most of the top reviewers on that system were old-timers. Newer reviewers found it hard to make headway.

The current system was designed as a sort of antidote to the second system. It rewards recent activity, but particularly rewards those who post jackpot reviews, providing those reviewers continue to post new reviews. People can sometimes gain a high ranking very quickly, the extreme case being Debbie Jones in the UK, who made it to #1 having only been reviewing for exactly three months to the day. Of course, the volatility built into the system means that even reviewers who regularly post reviews find it tough to defend their ranking if they don't have a review that keeps acquiring a steady stream of votes.

See Amazon's three reviewer ranking systems explained, which also briefly mentions the original reviewer ranking system that pre-dates both of the systems we are familiar with.

If you are interested in how the second ranking system was reverse-engineered, see Proof of the second ranking system's mathematics.

If you wonder why it’s so hard for Amazon to come up with a ranking system that is fair, see Votes and rankings in the real world.

Will there be a fourth ranking system?

It may be that Amazon are developing ranking system number four. If that happens, it will change a lot of things on Amazon generally and also in this blog. Nobody outside Amazon knows when it will happen, and it is still possible that it doesn't happen at all. Perhaps the December 2011 changes are all that we will get for a while.

Amazon's USA and UK sites never give any warnings except by accident (and such an accident caused the speculation about ranking system number four; some other things implicit in that e-mail came true), so don't be surprised if you log on one day to find the current rankings have been replaced by a different system.

See the section in Harriet Klausner's reviews titled Now the second ranking system has gone for my thoughts on the issue as it specifically applies to Harriet Klausner.

Amazon Germany have been known to give warnings on rare occasions, but even then they are likely to be only a few hours in advance of the event. With the abolition of the second ranking sysystem, I lost my top 100 status there and probably won't receive any more e-mails from them, but I really appreciated the one they sent to me in March 2010.

Why do Amazon rank book reviewers against gadget reviewers?

Put that way, there isn’t really any point, but Amazon established the first numerical ranking system when they sold mostly books, music and movies. At that point or not long afterwards, they considered the idea of category rankings. I’d love to see category rankings, but I can see why Amazon don’t want to provide them.

1. Departmental categories (books, music, DVD, electronics, toys, etc.) would be useful up to a point, but wouldn't of themselves satisfy everybody.


2. Lower level categories would cause no end of controversy because


• Many products are wrongly classified, especially but not only in music.


• There is no clear agreement on how a lot of products should be classified anyway.


3. No ranking algorithm that Amazon have yet implemented would be a good basis for category rankings.


4. Screen displays, however done, would provide further controversy.


5. Computer time could be an issue if too many categories are ranked.

See Rank reviewers by product category?.

Do votes on images and comments count towards reviewer rankings?

I very much doubt it. In the past, Amazon always said No and it was certainly true for the second ranking system. It is possible that the current system counts votes for them, but the admittedly limited evidence I’ve seen so far indicates No there too. The anti-campaign software only concerns itself with reviews, which also suggests that the answer is No.

A few people have asserted that at the very least, votes on lists and guides counted towards the current rankings before such votes were removed. While some reviewers are adamant that big changes in their rankings were due to list and guide votes, most of the evidence I saw contradicted them, and the anti-campaign software never cleared out bogus votes on lists and guides. Had I known earlier that some people believed such votes made a difference, I may have studied the issue, but I only found out after the votes had been removed.

Why do some reviewers have top reviewer badges that don't agree with their rankings?

Badges are not updated as quickly as the actual rankings, so somebody who has recently crossed a badge boundary in either direction (for example, entering or dropping out of the top 500) may still keep their old badge for a few days while the system catches up. In the interim, people can have different badges on their profile to those showing on product pages. Ranking system changes cause a lot of badge changes, but these also take a few days to take effect.

I don't want to be part of the stupid rankings game.
Can I opt out?

Yes. Just send an e-mail to the relevant Amazon site(s), but remember that if you opt out, it is almost certainly for life. Amazon don't take kindly to requests from people wanting to have their rankings restored, so while they have been known to let people back in, they don't usually do so.

Why don't Amazon restore people's rankings if they want to opt in again?

Probably because the option would be abused, as so many other things are abused on Amazon.

When are rankings updated?

Usually every day, but there can be delays, particularly during busy periods.

See Updates to Amazon's rankings.

What is the reward for a high reviewer ranking?

Normally, the only tangible rewards come in the form of offers of free stuff to review, almost always books. If you make it to the top ten, and especially if you make it to #1, you may occasionally attract attention from other sources, particularly the media who are sometimes cruel to reviewers. In 2010, Amazon.com sent Christmas cards to a few of the top reviewers on the current ranking system. Amazon.co.uk did not follow their example. Occasionally, reviewers receive other offers on the basis of their Amazon profiles (attending workshops, judging competitions, etc.) but these are extremely rare. See also the section in Harriet Klausner's reviews titled How influential is the #1 reviewer badge?.

The intangible rewards include a greater awareness of your reviews, but this cuts both ways as customers can get upset if they see a reviewer with a high ranking who they think does not deserve it.

How did Harriet Klausner become #1 reviewer?

She posted more reviews than anybody else, and those reviews were often the first review for the product, usually a few days ahead of anybody else. Even though most people regard them as being of poor quality, they have collected far more than 90,000 YES votes, scattered widely over many reviews. The second ranking system has now been abolished, but she now has a #1 Hall of Fame reviewer badge instead of her old #1 reviewer badge.

What is the Hall of Fame?

It's not actually a hall of fame, but a ranking chart history, listing people who have made the top ten in whatever reviewer rankings were used at the time. In the USA only, it also includes people who were in the top 100 of the second system at the time it was abandoned. See Hall of Fame or Amazon pop chart history?.

Where can I find the Hall of Fame?

Go to the ranking table page, where there is a Hall of Fame tab in the location previously occupied by the tab for the second ranking system. That takes you to the Hall of Fame Reviewers page, (My link is for the American site, but you can get to other sites from it just by replacing the dot com in the URL by whatever the suffix is for your required site.)

How can I improve my reviewer rankings?

Write the best reviews you can in the style you like to read. Like-minded people will find and appreciate them. See these posts.

Improve your reviewer rankings

Improve your Amazon reviewer ranking
Write Amazon reviews
Other people discuss writing Amazon reviews

What do those blue reviewer badges signify?

See Badges for Amazon's official explanation of the following badges.

• 2008 Holiday Team
• Amazon official
• Artist
• Author
• Community forum 04
• Manufacturer
• Real Name™
• The
• Vine™ Voice


• #1 reviewer
• Top 10 reviewer
• Top 50 reviewer
• Top 100 reviewer
• Top 500 reviewer
• Top 1000 reviewer
• #1 Hall of Fame reviewer
• Hall of Fame reviewer

The Amazon Verified Purchase badge is not defined there, because Amazon say it is a label, not a badge. However, I call it a badge because on product pages, it stands out more than the blue badges. To my mind, a badge should be more conspicuous than a label, not the other way round.

What is the official definition of a top reviewer?

Good question. Amazon have never officially defined top reviewers as far as I know, and the conclusions that can be drawn from their references are contradictory.

• Before the current ranking system came along, the ranking tables displayed all reviewers from top to bottom, and all pages proclaimed that these were Amazon's top reviewers. Therefore on that basis, everybody who had a reviewer ranking was regarded as a top reviewer.


• When the current ranking system came along, the ranking tables displayed only the top 10,000 reviewers in each system, until the second system was abolished, and only the top 10,000 in the current system thereafter. Therefore on that basis, everybody who was in either top 10,000 (while both systems operated) or the current top 10,000 (since the second ranking system was abolished) is a top reviewer. Since only 1,000 pages are displayed and the second ranking system allowed for ties, there may have been some people who were tied at (say) 9,980 but who were not shown in those tables.


• Top reviewer badges have only ever been awarded to top 1,000 reviewers, including ties on the second system when it operated. Therefore on that basis, only badged reviewers, approximating to the top 1,000 on each system, are top reviewers. Now that we are down to one system that doesn't allow ties, that is exactly 1,000 reviewers.


• Amazon's USA site sent out Christmas cards in 2010 to its top 10 (?) reviewers on the current system at the time, so maybe Amazon only regard those reviewers as top reviewers.

Like I said, I have never seen an official definition. Choose or make up your own definition and stick with that. Personally, I have never tried to define a top reviewer, but any definition of mine would require a minimum number of reviews to show commitment, plus a minimum helpfulness ratio to show customer approval. I don't know what those minimums would be, nor do I know if there would be other criteria. I would not automatically include all highly ranked reviewers, reflecting my feelings about rankings. If Amazon ever install a ranking system that I approve of (and not merely as better than what we have now), I may regard the top N in that system as top reviewers. Neither the second nor the current system come close, even allowing that no computerized system can be perfect.

What do those top reviewer badges truly mean?

Not as much as some people would have you believe. The badges of themselves are meaningless because Amazon's second and current ranking systems are both arbitrary. When there were two operational systems, they sometimes more or less agree with each other by giving people vaguely similar ranks, but at other times diametrically oppose each other, as evidenced by two top 100 reviewers on the second system in America being ranked among the worst on the current system. One thing is clear - the so called top reviewers are not necessarily the best on any given subject. For example, I achieved my top reviewer status primarily on the basis of my music reviews (and not normally the popular stuff) but I have also reviewed books and a few other things. A laptop review from me would be useless because I've never used one. That might change, but I probably wouldn't review it because I rarely review anything other than books and music. So my advice is don't worry about whether somebody is designated by Amazon as a top reviewer. Just judge each review on its own quality. Make a note of the reviewer's name if you wish, then if you keep coming across the same name on different products, you may decide that you can trust (or avoid) them. See also the section in Harriet Klausner's reviews titled How influential is the #1 reviewer badge?.

Reviews

Are there any official rules about writing reviews?

The official rules can be found in Amazon's review guidelines. Though called guidelines, some are enforced by Amazon while others aren't. The main points (not always quoted verbatim) are:

• Written reviews must be at least 20 words long. Amazon say that the ideal length is 75 to 500 words - or 75 to 300, depending on where you look. 300 is the old upper end of the range and it seems that Amazon forgot to change it everywhere when they extended the range.


• Your review should focus on specific features of the product and your experience with it.


• Feedback on the seller or your shipment experience should be provided at Feedback and not in a review.


• Amazon do not allow profane or obscene content. This applies to adult products too.


• Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively are considered spam.


• Do not include URLs external to Amazon or personally identifiable content in your review.


• Amazon welcome your honest opinion about products, positive or negative. They do not remove reviews just because they are critical. In reality, critical reviews are more likely to be rejected because they are generally less well written than enthusiastic reviews.

Although reference to prices in the official guidelines has been removed, it remains advisable to avoid them, not least because they can go up or down. It is better to allude to prices with adjectives such as bargain, expensive or whatever. Remember that customers may read your review months or years after you write it.

How long should reviews be?

I've already mentioned Amazon's official guidelines, but it's really not that simple, not least because it depends what you are reviewing. Books are usually suited to longer reviews than music, while gadgets with lots of things to discuss may be suited to even longer reviews.

Amazon supposedly allow an absolute maximum of 5,000 words, but there are a few reviews on Amazon.com that exceed 5,000 words. Personally, I think 75 is a good minimum, but my reviews have, on average, got longer as I've gained experience.

A lot of people say that most customers prefer short reviews. Voting patterns suggest otherwise, because if you look up the product pages of a range of products, you are likely to find that most of the spotlight reviews are longer than average. If it is true that most customers prefer short reviews, it seems that those people who like short reviews are less inclined to vote, while those who allow themselves time to read long reviews are more inclined to vote.

You should write the kind of reviews that you like to read and like-minded customers will appreciate them. See Write Amazon reviews.

How do Amazon select spotlight reviews?

By a mathematical formula that, as far as I know, nobody has tried to work out. I don't think it would be difficult if one were prepared to spend the time needed, but it might take a lot of time. It clearly weighs NO votes more heavily than YES votes. You can get some idea of how it works by looking at products with lots of reviews.

When there are two or more reviews with identical voting scores, they are presented in date order with the most recent first. Despite assertions that reviewer rankings are factored in, they aren't. There was a period a few years ago when they were a factor, but that was a long time ago.

At first glance, the system appears to be crazy, but the spotlighting algorithm is not just designed to pick out the most helpful reviews. It also allows newer reviews some sort of chance by rating voteless reviews and those reviews that only have YES votes more highly than most customers think they deserve. A comparable effect might be achieved (and maybe with better results) by including date written as a main factor, rather than only using dates as tie-breaks for reviews with equal voting scores.

Why do Amazon allow pre-release reviews?

Amazon don't allow them as often as they once did, but they still do sometimes. They hope that reviewers know enough about the product to generate some buzz, but they've learned that such reviews are generally of a poor quality. See Pre-release reviews for an exchange I had with Amazon over one particular case, including examples of pre-release reviews.

Are video reviews worth doing?

For the right product where a visual demonstration helps, yes, providing you have the skill to do it properly as illustrated by the video review of the Garmin Friction Mount. Do not bother if all you do is talk without demonstrating anything; it would be seen as ego tripping. One reviewer enquired about the possibility of doing a music review utilizing sound clips from the album, but the rules do not permit this, probably because of copyright issues.

Why hasn't my review posted yet?

It has been identified as a review that needs to be checked by a human. As far as I know, video reviews are always checked manually, because the automatic filtering software cannot process them.

Allow 48 hours before either attempting to post again or contacting Amazon. Note that it is best to write your reviews offline and save them, then paste them into Amazon’s space. This ensures you have a copy in case it doesn’t post, but also allows you to spell check the review first and to re-read the review once you’ve written it. See Review quality controls.

In America, Amazon now send out e-mails (unless you opt out of them) after you post a review. This only began at the end of August 2011. If your review there doesn't post immediately, you should get an acknowledgement that will give a generic explanation, which I have yet to see but will post when I see one. If Amazon reject your review, you get a generic e-mail saying so but not explaining why. For a sample, see Rejected review message.

Why won't Amazon tell me exactly why my review has been held up?

Because Amazon's policy is to filter a proportion of reviews. If they tell us exactly what the rules are, even if they only do it bit by bit, people will more easily learn how to avoid the filters and Amazon might then add extra filters. Some of us have a fair idea of how the system works as I explain in Review quality controls. In some cases, if you telephone Amazon and ask nicely, you may be told exactly why your review was rejected, but that costs money. Maybe Amazon feel that you deserve the information if you go that much effort. However, in most cases you should be able to work it out for yourself, perhaps with reference to Review quality controls.

Why did Amazon delete my review?

Maybe Amazon deleted it, maybe not. If not, customers deleted it via the Report this link, which counts how many customers do that for each review. It used to be that if some magic number (believed to be ten) was reached, the review was deleted automatically. The magic number has since been replaced by an algorithm because the system was too easily gamed, but it is likely that the review is deleted automatically if enough customers use the Report this link associated with a particular review, at least on Amazon.com; I have suspicions that Amazon UK may remove such reviews from public view, then send them through the filtering system normally used for some new reviews.

If Amazon deleted your review following an e-mail complaint, you probably deserved to have it deleted. See Review quality controls and Disappearing reviews, lists and guides.

How much time should I spend writing a review?

As long as you feel is necessary to do the best review you can. I once spent a week writing a review for a CD whose playing time was little more than half an hour, though that was exceptional for me.

Why do so many Amazon reviews carry five stars?

Basically because people aren’t paid anything. They do it for fun. They choose what to review, which for the most part are things they enjoy, especially if they’re reviewing books, music, movies and games. See Star ratings on Amazon reviews. See also the question a little further down contrasting professional and Amazon reviewers.

Surely five stars should be reserved for perfect products?

Amazon‘s rating system recommends that five stars should be used to indicate I love, which allows for some imperfections. See Star ratings on Amazon reviews.

How can you love or hate purely functional items like cables and towels?

You can't, but Amazon devised their rating scale when they just sold books, music, movies and (maybe) games. These are all emotional products that people can love or hate, though they don't necessarily do so. Amazon's product range has expanded substantially since then, but the range of emotions expressed in the scale is still valid. See Star ratings on Amazon reviews.

A lot of people give five stars for products that I know are bad.
Surely this proves that Amazon reviews cannot be trusted?

No. It just means that their opinion is different from yours, most likely because we all have different experiences and want different things. We even use some gadgets in different ways. See Star ratings on Amazon reviews.

Professional reviewers use the full range of star ratings.
why don't Amazon reviewers do likewise?

Amazon reviewers choose what to review and aren't obliged to review everything - or anything - that they have. Without deadlines, they can review as and when they feel like, and when it comes to new stuff, they cam read other reviews including professional reviews before they buy. Thus, they can avoid making bad choices and thereby avoid the need to write lots of critical reviews. Of course, some people take more risks with purchases and therefore leave themselves open to a higher risk of disappointment.

Professionals don't usually get to choose what to review, and insofar as some of them have a choice, it is limited to whatever their employer has a review copy awaiting review, They don't have other reviews to read other reviews and they have deaslines to meet.

Should I review a product I bought and used that has technical aspects if I do not understand how the technical aspects work?

Yes, as long as you have something to say and you feel comfortable reviewing it. Look at other reviews of similar products (not necessarily the same product) and see what other reviewers have said. You’ll probably find a mix of highly technical reviews, non-technical reviews and some that have some basic technical stuff but not too much. Draw inspiration from, but do not plagiarize, any reviews that you feel good about.

Should I include my deeply felt personal beliefs in a review?

If you want to do this, it is best to do so in a way that as far as possible avoids annoying anybody who disagrees with you. You can’t avoid it completely, but you don’t need to say (or even imply) that anybody who disagrees with you is a moron. Generally, restraint is a good thing in reviews, which are meant to aid buying decisions. See Write Amazon reviews.

Why do I get an error message when I look through somebody's reviews and what can I do about it?

Amazon's database is so large that it cannot be held in one physical space, but is all over the place. If Amazon cannot find a page within a certain time, it times out with an error message as follows.

We're sorry, but this customer's list of reviews is currently not available. Please check back soon.

You can keep refreshing the page and if you do so enough times, Amazon should eventually find it, but this process can be tedious. An alternative method (if you have a Windows computer) is to use ARAT. See Analyse your reviews and track votes with ARAT.

In September 2011, it seems that Amazon addressed this problem, as some reviewers noticed that they don't get the error on their reviews anymore. However, I still get the error occasionally so the problem is still there.

Why do I get a message saying I've already posted a review of that product?

I assume you mean the oops message that reads as follows.

Oops! Only one review per customer per product set is allowed.

You have already reviewed this product. We only allow each customer to write one review of each product set. An example of a product set is the collection of all editions of a book: hardcover, paperback and audio book. If you'd like, you can edit your existing review.

As that message indicates, it may be that you have tried to review a product that Amazon have linked to a different (supposedly related) product that you have already reviewed, but it may also be that you submitted a review of the same product already. Either way, you should be able to see your review on the product page if Amazon have posted it. If it is an old review, it may be buried on the product's back pages. See earlier question in Search, contact and notification section. If you only posted the review quite recently, it may be held up while Amazon check the review to see if it is acceptable. See Review quality controls. Most such reviews show up within 48 hours. If Amazon reject a review, the reviewer should be allowed to re-submit, but such re-submission will automatically be filtered for checking.

Is it OK for an author to review his or her own book?

No. Ask Amazon about facilities for authors. There are ways of promoting your book, but not within customer reviews. Customers sometimes like to know what an author has to say, but it is a bad idea for an author to pose as a customer. Authors are allowed to review books by other authors, but if there is mutual back-scratching, customers will notice that too.

Can I review something that I didn't buy from Amazon?

Yes. Amazon’s Japanese site made a rule that only stuff bought from there could be reviewed, but they eventually revoked that rule. Amazon's USA site indicates reviews of purchases from that site (but not from other Amazon sites) by marking them Amazon Verified Purchase, but of itself that badge does not mean that the review is good.

Do I have to read the whole book?

If it's a novel or a book that tells a story such that it reads like a novel, yes unless you have a good reason for being unable to finish it and clearly explain why. If it is any other type of book, then you don't have to read the whole book but you must read enough of it to be able to write a valid review, and in the case of practical books (cookery, etc.), you should sample enough of the advice given therein to judge it. See Write Amazon reviews.

Why do some reviewers have multiple accounts?

Most customers tend to be suspicious of such reviewers, on the basis that anybody with multiple accounts must be cheating, or at least unethical, and I've already mentioned sockpuppets. It is therefore understandable that suspicions are aroused, but there are legitimate reasons too, including security issues. See Multiple accounts for details.

Who owns the copyright on Amazon reviews?

The writers of those reviews. All Amazon reviewers continue to hold the copyright on their reviews, but grant Amazon a nonexclusive right to more or less do what they like with them. However, the reviews do not become Amazon's property even though the terms and conditions mean that in practice, the difference appears technical. Because the right granted to Amazon is nonexclusive, it means that reviewers can also do what they like with their own reviews.

Other websites that accept reviews are not always so generous. Some of them have terms and conditions that grant ownership and copyright of any reviews to the website owner. I think that this means that the writers are no longer able to do what they like with their own reviews. If you decide to post your reviews elsewhere, I recommend reading the small print first.

Why are there so many reviews about shipping and delivery?

About a month after an order is dispatched, the customer gets an e-mail suggesting that they write reviews of the products (unless he or she has already started reviewing stuff from the order), something like this.

Dear [Customer],

Thank you for your recent purchase from Amazon.com.

We invite you to submit a review for the product you purchased or share an image that would benefit other customers. Your input will help customers choose the best products on Amazon.com.

It's easy to submit a review--just click the Review this product button next to the product.

I saw a suggestion that the e-mail is poorly worded and some people may not realize that Amazon are looking for reviews, but it seems clear enough to me. A lot of customers apparently don’t understand what is required and just comment on shipping and delivery or post an equally meaningless review. In America, such reviews are marked Amazon Verified Purchase if the order was placed there. Perhaps Amazon could clarify the e-mail by saying what is not allowed, such as seller feedback.

What useful purpose do joke reviews serve?

While it may be rare for customers to buy products based on joke reviews (though that does happen), joke reviews amuse a lot of customers and help to sustain their interest in Amazon, so joke reviews help Amazon's business indirectly. See Joke reviews.

Can I post my reviews on other Amazon websites?

Yes, but I recommend that you check to see if your reviews need modifying for customers in the country where you intend posting. See Copy your reviews to another Amazon website.

Is it ethical to delete and re-post reviews?

If you want to get rid of spiteful comments, I would say yes. Otherwise it’s a tricky question. See Deleting and re-posting reviews.

Can I prevent people seeing my reviews via my profile?

No. It used to be possible to post reviews that appeared on product pages and in a private section of your profile that only you could see. Apart from reviews attributed to A kid’s review, the option was blocked long ago because authors abused the option by posting many thousands of shill reviews. See Private reviews.

What are permalinks on reviews?

Permalinks exist all over the net, particularly on forums and blogs, but Amazon use them on reviews too. They ensure a unique and permanent link for each review that they apply to. Review permalinks are particularly useful for linking to reviews from blogs and websites, but can also be used in e-mails, forum posts and other messages. On each review, the link to the permalink page is underneath the review alongside the comment link. The comment takes you to the same page, but skips past the actual review.

Why do my Amazon reviews appear on loads of websites?
I never knew most of these websites existed.

When you post a review on Amazon, you give Amazon a nonexclusive right to distribute the review wherever they like, but you still own the review and can therefore distribute the review wherever you like. See Make a little money from Amazon (if you don't live in the wrong place).

Please note that your review could end up at a porn site, a gambling site or any other kind of website that's out there. If this upsets you, then you have to decide whether you wish to review on Amazon at all, and if so whether to change your reviewing policy in any way. Some people have deleted all their reviews from Amazon as a consequence of discovering that Amazon sub-license them.

Why do Amazon's UK and Canada sites sometimes offer American reviews?

As of December 2010, this was a beta test feature. You will sometimes see a review marked as follows.

Published on Amazon U.S.

The product in question has a maximum of two reviews on the relevant site, so Amazon provide an extra review (the one deemed most helpful according to Amazon's strange algorithm) from the American site. Unfortunately, they don't check to see whether the selected review duplicates one that they already have. Because I generally post my reviews to both UK amd USA sites, and because I review a lot of products that few other people review, plenty of my reviews show up twice, one being the version I posted in the UK and the other being the USA version.

Attitudes

How does Harriet Klausner get through so many books?

Harriet Klausner doesn’t read books the way you or I would read books. Maybe she only reads the publisher's publicity blurbs. Nevertheless, she has purchased well over 200 books from Amazon. I wonder if she read those books properly. See Harriet Klausner's reviews.

NOTE - Harriet Klausner normally only posts reviews in America, though some of her reviews also appear in Britain, Canada and Germany; links are in the table below. Most of the reviews in Canada and Germany were copied to those sites by Amazon, when Amazon were setting up those sites.

Harriet Klausner's profiles

America	Britain	Canada	Germany

Does Harriet Klausner write all those reviews herself?

In all likelihood, yes. I've seen the theory that she could have a team of people working for her, but no evidence to support that idea. Given that she doesn't appear to spend much time with each book, she could easily knock out two or maybe three reviews in an hour. The uniform style of her reviews points to her doing it all herself. Sure, there is variation between different genres, but that’s to be expected. See Harriet Klausner's reviews.

Is Harriet Klausner paid anything beyond getting the books free?

I very much doubt it. Anybody paying for reviews would expect better quality. I think the reason for her prolific output is much more likely to be addiction. See Harriet Klausner's reviews. Amazon's removal of all 186,000+ reviews by Midwest Book Review in December 2011 shows that nobody is above their rules.

Were there more cheaters among the top reviewers on the second ranking system than there are among the top reviewers on the current rankings?

We have no way of knowing, although there were several highly ranked reviewers on the second system who got there by cheating, while others including Harriet Klausner review unethically. It was easier to spot cheating on the second system, but it might actually be easier to cheat on the current system. See Cheating or reviewing unethically on Amazon.

Why would anybody post reviews in a foreign country?

Amazon only have websites in ten countries, of which nine allow customer reviews, these being America, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain, so anybody living in (for example) Ireland, South Africa, Austria or Australia has to post reviews in a foreign country if they want to post them on Amazon. Amazon have a website in Austria that does not allow customers to post reviews there, but uses reviews posted in Germany. Amazon have their European headquarters in Ireland but do not operate a customer website there.

I’ve been a customer of various Amazon websites since 1999. A lot of the music I enjoy is American and not all of it is available in Britain. More of it is available as imports but even Amazon UK don’t list everything and some of what is listed may not be available. I have over 450 Amazon Verified Purchase badges in America (not including my European Amazon purchases, because only American purchases qualify), illustrating my commitment to that site despite limited resources these days; I bought a lot in the period when I had a paid job. In any case, Amazon UK provided appalling service to reviewers in its early years and if I had been limited to posting my reviews there, I might have given up during that period. I get most of my reviewing fun out of the USA site, with any excitement provided in the UK being a bonus. Links to my Amazon profiles can be found in What is Amazon?.

Other reviewers who post in multiple countries may be expatriates who have a vested interest in both countries, or they may simply want to allow more people to see their reviews. Who knows? I’m sure there are a lot of different reasons.

Why do some reviewers think they are special to Amazon?

The reason why some reviewers think they are special to Amazon is that apart from whatever reviewers spend themselves, they also influence a lot of other spending. I think a lot of that other money would have been spent on Amazon anyway, although maybe on different products. Obviously not all of it, otherwise Amazon wouldn't continue to support such an expensive system.

Not all reviewers think that reviewers are special customers; I certainly don't. That said, the introduction of the Hall of Fame reviewer badges in December 2011 suggests that Amazon may regard reviewers more highly than they have traditionally shown, although Amazon admitted in their announcement that the Hall of Fame and associated badges were introduced to replace the second ranking system.

Nevertheless, I think that some reviewers over-rate the importance of their reviews, and think that Amazon under-rate them. They can't understand why Amazon are often quick to deal with problems of ordering and delivery, but don't react the same way with reviewing problems. It's simple. Amazon could delete every review and still be quite a successful business, albeit less successful than it is now, but they need orders to keep the business going. See Attitudes to Amazon reviews and reviewers and Stereotypes for other perspectives on reviewers.

Should I trust reviews that are not marked Amazon Verified Purchase?

NOTE - this question does not apply to Amazon’s European websites, which have not installed these Amazon Verified Purchase badges. I have not checked Canada, China or Japan.

Judge each review on its own merits, ignoring any labels or badges. If you are in doubt, then ask yourself Is the reviewer familiar with the product?.

Reviews that are marked Amazon Verified Purchase may have been bought as gifts, so the purchaser may not know much about the product, but may still review it and that review will be marked Amazon Verified Purchase.

Recipients of such gifts will not have their gifts so marked, nor will people who have bought products from other sources (including Amazon’s websites in Europe, Asia and Canada), nor will people who have borrowed books from friends, family or libraries.

Despite the enthusiasm that some customers have for Amazon Verified Purchase badges, some reviewers prefer not to disclose their purchase history and suppress the badges, either by being careful when they post reviews or by setting up separate buying accounts to ensure those Amazon Verified Purchase badges do not appear.

See Verified purchase badges.

Should I use my actual name for reviewing on Amazon?

Ultimately, each individual must judge what is right for them. I know of people that have had bad experiences in real life as a result of using their real name on Amazon, but I have not encountered any problems so far. Using your real name may give you extra credibility with some customers but that is trivial compared to security issues, so you must decide for yourself. See Choose a name to review as.

Why doesn't anyone else think I am funny if I think I am funny?

Unless you have a natural talent for it, writing reviews that are truly funny is very difficult. Sadly, most reviews that try to be funny don’t impress me although there are exceptions and I treasure those. Then again, my sense of humor is not always shared by others. I used to find reviews by one particular reviewer hilarious but others complained and Amazon eventually deleted them all as I feared would happen, not because they were funny but because he broke the rules about how to write reviews. Some years later, he started again with a different name. Of course, if you’re going to be truly funny, it can be quite hard to stick to the rules. I occasionally include a touch of humor in my reviews when a suitable opportunity arises but I don’t set out to be funny when writing reviews, although I occasionally do when writing blog posts – for example in Assemble furniture from kits (badly).

Other features and extras

How do I get on the Amazon Vine™ program?

Vine™ is by invitation only. Just keep writing good reviews and hope. Nobody outside Amazon knows the criteria, but it seems that having a recent review with a lot of YES votes improves your chances considerably. It doesn’t have to be a jackpot review, but the more YES votes the better. See Amazon Vine™.

Does a reviewer with a Vine™ Voice badge get free copies of everything?

No. Only those reviews with the green banner proclaiming that they are Vine™ reviews are freebies from the Vine™ program. See Amazon Vine™.

Why do Amazon need Vine™ when they have Amazon Verified Purchase?

• Vine™ pre-dates Amazon Verified Purchase.


• Unlike Vine™, Amazon Verified Purchase badges are limited to America. It has been suggested that displaying such badges in Europe would violate data protection laws. I don't know if that's correct, but I'd be very happy if it is.


• The two features in any case serve completely different functions.


• Vine™ is a marketing tool for product suppliers. Those suppliers don't always get the complimentary reviews they hope for, but it does not deter them as they keep coming back with more stuff.


• Amazon.com created Amazon Verified Purchase as a response to a Federal Trade Commission edict. Looking at that edict, it is clear that it is about bloggers rather than Amazon reviewers, but laws and edicts are always open to interpretation.


• An Amazon Verified Purchase badge merely signifies that the product was bought from Amazon.com.

Because the two features are so different, you will never see any review that is both a Vine™ review and also an Amazon Verified Purchase unless somebody has both received a copy through Vine™ and bought a copy, whereupon their bought copy would theoretically be designated as an Amazon Verified Purchase. Such a phenomenon would be rare but not impossible. Apparently, somebody bought a copy of something they had originally received from Vine™, then edited the review to try to add the Amazon Verified Purchase badge, but it didn't show up. This may be a glitch, but I suppose Amazon didn't think of the scenario described here.

See Verified purchase badges and Amazon Vine™.

How do I make money from Amazon?

You need to have at least one website or blog into which you can insert special links and widgets. See Make a little money from Amazon (if you don't live in the wrong place).

What is ARAT?

ARAT is a software tool for PC users to allow them to look at reviews in ways that Amazon won’t allow, making it easier to keep track of new votes, lost votes and deleted reviews. See Analyse your reviews and track votes with ARAT.

Do you like the “comments on reviews” feature?

On balance, yes. I get nasty comments, particularly in the UK where I am an obvious target because of my ranking, but I can deal with those either by ignoring them or responding to them. Some of the other comments make reviewing worthwhile .See Comments on reviews.

What is the point of tags?

There are different uses for tags, but I used them as a poor substitute for the long-vanished featured review categories until the ability to add them to new reviews was withdrawn. Note that the ability to add tags to lists and guides has been disabled, but the old tags are still there. See Classify your reviews by featured category, also see So you'd like to ...Categorize Your Reviews & Navigate the Tags Labyrinth by mirasreviews on Amazon.

For a look at Amazon's original method of classifying reviews, see Featured review categories.

Amazon come up with weird recommendations.
Can I do anything to get good recommendations?

Yes, you can get good recommendations with some preparatory work. See Recommended by Amazon.

Where can I see the slide show about reviewing on Amazon?

Here is Reviewing - the slide show. For my comments providing background information and supporting notes, see Slide show notes.

Ideas for software changes

I have some ideas for improving Amazon’s software.
What do Amazon think?

Send your suggestions to Amazon via the Help system and see what response you get. You’ll be very fortunate if you get a meaningful response. Most of the ideas have been around for years and Amazon know about them. A lot of them are recorded in this blog. Feel free to send them to Amazon if you wish.

I have some ideas for improving Amazon’s software.
What do you think?

See these posts.

Ideas for software changes

General list with lots of ideas
Ideas for upgrading Amazon's software
Specific ideas in detail
Abolish negative votes on reviews?
Customer profile review pages
Disappearing reviews, lists and guides
Eliminate reviewer rankings altogether?
Featured review categories
Ignore selected reviewers
Lists and guides
Rank reviewers by product category?
Show names of people who vote on reviews?
Thank you for your review

If your idea isn’t there, please let me know. As those blog posts with titles that end in a question mark show, I’ll include ideas that I don’t like or have serious reservations about, but I’ll explain why.

Trivia

Which is the most popular review on Amazon?

Steve Gibson’s review of the original Kindle. Before then, John E Fracisco's review of The Story About Ping was the most popular, but such was the impression it made that some people still assume that it is the most popular Amazon review. It's not even close, but I can only dream of having such a popular review. I'll settle for eventually breaking 500 YES votes.

Who has posted the most reviews on Amazon?

In the USA, Harriet Klausner has now posted more than 25,000 reviews and acquired over 90,000 YES votes, which is far more than any other individual reviewer. The consortium Midwest Book Review posted more reviews and acquired more YES votes, but consortiums don't count in the USA, although Amazon UK allow them to be ranked. Amazon deleted all 186,000+ reviews by Midwest Book Review in December 2011.

In the UK, Professor Donald Mitchell has posted the most reviews and acquired the most YES votes.

Which is the oldest review on Amazon?

It isn't easy to pin it down definitely because the earliest reviews were anonymous, although some people put their names on them anyway. Furthermore, Amazon lost some of those early reviews because of software bugs. The oldest review I can find anywhere is for Readings in social theory: the classic tradition to post-modernism. In the UK, the oldest review I can find is for A woman of means (Southern Writers Series).

How many reviews are there on Amazon?

I suspect the total exceeds 100 million on the USA site alone, but I don't have figures.

How many reviewers are there on Amazon?

First, remember that reviewers may have multiple accounts for a variety of reasons, some of them entirely legitimate as I explain in Multiple accounts. However, the total number of reviewing accounts is relatively easy to establish with a fair degree of accuracy despite Amazon declining to tell us. It exceeds 9 million in America.

See Targets for rank strivers, which looks mostly at the top 10,000 but also discusses the ranking basements.

There is no way to determine the total number of reviewers from the total number of reviewing accounts. One cynic suggested that the number of different people with reviews in America could be well under a million. I don't think so. I'd guess 70% to 80%, which is a long way from the 10% or less suggested by the cynic. Both of us could be wrong, but I'm not sure if Amazon have any idea. One thing I am fairly sure about is that the majority of reviewers on Amazon's older sites have been inactive for a year or more. A lot of reviewers have come and gone since Amazon started up.

Who is the lowest ranked reviewer on Amazon?

We cannot be absolutely certain about this because Amazon no longer display a table beyond the top 10,000, but I periodically update Targets for rank strivers wuth the latest information I have. For the American rankings, there is a list of contenders for the bottom slot with links to their Amazon profiles.

Which is the longest review on Amazon?

Back in 2007, Laura Knight-Jadczyk posted a review of The haunted universe, which then became the longest Amazon review. It has a 12-word caption and contains 5,137 words in the body of the review, making a total of 5,149 words. It is very likely still the longest two-star review on Amazon, but the overall length has since been surpassed by others. I'll update this page when I find one of them again.

My own longest review is of The story of your Life: A history of the Sporting Life newspaper (1859-1998), with 1,370 words in the body plus an 11 word caption for a total of 1,381 words. I haven't seen any UK discussions on the subject, but the UK copy of that review might be the longest UK review by anybody.

Which product has the most reviews on Amazon?

As far as I know, it is the Kindle Wireless Reader (3G) Wifi Graphite. Opinions are divided on its merits. When I checked on December 2, there were 34,382 customer reviews with a star ratings distribution as follows.

Kindle (3G) reviews

Star ratings
*****	24,808
****	5,825
***	1,587
**	849
*	1,303

I'll periodically update the data, but you can click on the Kindle Wireless Reader (3G) Wifi Graphite to see the latest stats.

Which reviewer has the most fans?

In the USA, Harriet Klausner has the most fans by a substantial margin, though the interesting but unanswerable question is how many of them are really trolls, and whether the trolls form a majority of her fans. as appears likely.

Without any fan counts being displayed at Amazon's other websites, we cannot be sure of the answer, but I'd be very surprised if anybody has more fans than I do in Amazon UK, especially given all the voting nonsense that I describe in Abolish negative votes on reviews?. Like Harriet Klausner in the USA, my UK fan total must include a fair number of trolls, but I am confident that trolls form a minority of my overall fan count.

Which reviewer has the lowest ratio of reviews to fans?

It isn't possible to even guess at the answer outside the USA, where it seems that NLee the Engineer, a top ten reviewer in the current rankings, has a ratio of around three reviews to every two fans despite having fewer than 300 reviews when I checked on September 26, 2011.

Can you name all the people who have ever been #1 Amazon reviewer?

I only keep a close watch on the UK and USA sites, so here is the data for those, with full names where known although anything in parentheses does not currently show on Amazon profile pages. The so-called hall of fame has enabled me to identify the former #1 reviewers in France and Germany. In some cases, I can tell which ranking system they topped, but not in others. I have therefore just listed them in the order that they might have ascended to #1 but withot any other indication. Canada's hall of fame only begins in 2011. I know that there have been at least four Canadian #1 reviewers, but there may have been others. I include these four in the list. Italy and Spain have not started a hall of fame.

Amazon #1 reviewers

USA second ranking system
Harriet Klausner
Lawrance M Bernabo
USA current ranking system
Beth Cholette
Mark (Espinosa)
(Alana) Chandler
UK second ranking system
Jason Parkes
Lawrance M Bernabo
Peter Durward Harris
UK current ranking system
Peter Durward Harris
S Thomas
D (Debbie) Jones
France
Elvis
fifi59
Latour07
Mélomaniac
Germany
MD
robotgeorgie
Helga König
Fuchs Werner Dr
Detlef Rüsch
Dr R Manthey
Canada
S McEvoy
Lawrance M Bernabo
E A Solinas
Professor Donald Mitchell

Note that although Lawrance Bernabo has been #1 reviewer in both the UK (April 2005) and USA (November 2006), both of those stays were very brief, and he has not been credited with a #1 Hall of Fame reviewer in either country, only a standard Hall of Fame reviewer badge. He managed a much longer stay at #1 in Canada, but he has not been credited with a #1 Hall of Fame reviewer there either, because the Canadian hall of fame ony begins in 2011. He has nevertheless been #1 reviewer in three different Amazon websites, and that is likely to remain unchallenged at least until Amazon open up in a lot more countries. For details of his period at #1 in the USA, see Bogus top 50 of November 2006. For details of his period at #1 in the UK, see Abolish negative votes on reviews?.

In the UK, I was really looking forward to somebody overtaking me on the current rankings. When that happened in April 2011, the new #1 reviewer's reviews came under scrutiny and some people made their feelings clear on the UK Vine forum. It seems that S Thomas, who posted prolifically prior to becoming #1 reviewer, wasn't so keen on defending the position so I ended up back at #1, although S Thomas still returned to the #1 spot sometimes over the next few months. In November 2011, Debbie Jones overtook both of us. Within a day or two, I had dropped to #3, but it now seems that Debbie will be at #1 for a while yet, leaving S Thomas and myself to share #2 and #3 between us.

Omissions

The question I want answered isn’t here. Why?

One of the following reasons :-

• I don’t think that it is relevant.


• It is answered in Questions about forums.


• It is answered in Questions about me.


• It is answered in Questions about this blog.


• It is in one of my other blog posts as part of a long answer to another question here. For example, there are a lot of questions about Harriet Klausner, but I’ve only mentioned four here.


• I haven’t thought to include it.


• I would include it if I were able to provide an answer.

The last two points indicate that I am still open to the idea of adding questions to this page. If your question isn't here, I may be able to answer it via e-mail. I will then add the question and answer to this page.