<story><title>A few negative online reviews early on can hurt a restaurant</title><url>https://news.osu.edu/how-a-few-negative-online-reviews-early-on-can-hurt-a-restaurant/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cutenewt</author><text>There are so many fake or manipulated reviews across all sites -- Yelp, Amazon, Uber, eBay -- that I just don&amp;#x27;t trust them anymore.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, we are addicted to having someone filter products and services for us, even if they are manipulated.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m dying for an alternative to the 5-star review, but seems like there&amp;#x27;s no end in sight.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Wowfunhappy</author><text>&amp;gt; Unfortunately, we are addicted to having someone filter products and services for us, even if they are manipulated.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;m addicted, I just don&amp;#x27;t know what else to do. How would you recommend I evaluate a product or service before buying it, if I don&amp;#x27;t personally know someone who can give a recommendation?&lt;p&gt;I do try to look at trusted professional review sites where possible (The Wirecutter, Consumer Reports, etc), but that only works for certain types of popular products.</text></comment>
<story><title>A few negative online reviews early on can hurt a restaurant</title><url>https://news.osu.edu/how-a-few-negative-online-reviews-early-on-can-hurt-a-restaurant/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cutenewt</author><text>There are so many fake or manipulated reviews across all sites -- Yelp, Amazon, Uber, eBay -- that I just don&amp;#x27;t trust them anymore.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, we are addicted to having someone filter products and services for us, even if they are manipulated.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m dying for an alternative to the 5-star review, but seems like there&amp;#x27;s no end in sight.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>superhuzza</author><text>&amp;gt;I&amp;#x27;m dying for an alternative to the 5-star review&lt;p&gt;Trusted source, e.g. particular friends&amp;#x2F;family&amp;#x2F;reviewers. I&amp;#x27;ve had far better experiences trusting one knowledgeable person than 100s of anonymous reviewers.</text></comment>