"Requested Reviews" - what are your thoughts?

[Chicken]

I wanted to get your thoughts on whether this was acceptable (as is) or whether any for of it is acceptable (change the terms such as no free month offered, etc.) - please read below and the comments under and tell me what you think.

In the past, providers have asked for reviews. This is just the latest one, but I'm not trying to pick on anyone in particular, it's just being used as an example, because it's current...
Hello <anyhost> customers,

This offer is only open to customers who have been with <anyhost> for 4 months or more.

If you post an <anyhost> review at <thisforum> or www.hosthideout.com or <thatforum> in either the main forum or reseller hosting forum(for <anyhost> resellers) and it is a no-joke honest review, you will get a free month of hosting.

This offer remains open until further notice.

Now, the request and offer was not for positive reviews (rather to quote, "no-joke honest review") however what you might not know when you read the reviews is that reviewers were offered something in return for posting a review.

No where does it say that someone who posts a negative review would be denied a month free of hosting. Then again, a month free of something that isn't working doesn't make much sense.

In some ways, getting your clients to post reviews on forums might be a benefit to members as often there is a lack of objective, positive reviews on forums. Plenty of "my host wronged me" but few positive ones (which means it's helpful in knowing who not to pick but sometimes hard to figure out who one should pick).

It could be construed that this is planted psuedo-advertising (and I admit I haven't come to a conclusion about that myself), and if every provider did this, the forums would be filled with "requested reviews" in which, by posting the review, the reviewer got something in return from the provider. There's something a bit disturbing about that, but again, the request made by the provider was a "no-joke honest review" (a request for a positive review would certainly be disturbing).

So what do you think of this? Would it be OK as is? Would it be OK if there was no added offer (a month free of hosting, or other offer)? Sometimes these requests are sent via emails directly to clients and one person "blows the whistle" so to speak on the request, mostly to exaplin *why* there are so many reviews for a particular provider during a short period. The above request wasn't sneaky, it was posted on their support forums, plain view, anyone could read it. They weren't trying to hide and I've seen this done a few other times as well.

Thoughts?

[3rdcoast]

i see the good and the bad. If couldnt see myself personally offering it. people now days dont need forums to post feedback, they have bridges, overpasses and water towers to show their likes or dislikes. is that off topic?

I see it as underhanded and a sneaky way to get your name all over the internet.

[blue27]

I don't think it's acceptable at all.
It's not a site review it a services review. Soliciting reviews is in my opinion a desperate move and doesn't belong on the forum.

[Jan]

I would agree with blue. Any host host worth their salt wouldn't have to solicit reviews on forums. As proved on <anyhost>, <anyhost> and <anyhost> forums, it was desperation measures and half (or more) of those asking have gone down the gurgler since anyway.

[kaz]

even though i new here i dont agree with it. any good host wouldnt need to as word of mouth and ratings would do.

[Rincewind]

If the reviewer is getting paid by the host to produce the review, then it will be biast. There would be no difference from this to getting affialiates to post reviews with their affiliate links in them. It is essencial to the reputation of the forum, that the reviews in the forum can be trusted and taken as authentic and accurate representations of customer experience. If paid reviews are allowed, then a conflict of interests is created. Unless the reader is made aware of the existance of a conflict of interest in the review (e.g. the reviewer statest that they were paid to write the review and states how much they were paid) then the forum members will be misslead.

[Duane]

A request for a review of services is fine by me - - -
IF the request was short & IF the answer were posted as a PM.
That way the requestor could get his feedback but not have us wade through all the answers (psuedo-advertising ). The requestor could put the best answers on his/her web pages for the world to see. ;) and burn the rest. :p:

Just my 2 cents.

[Adam]

Short reply here; While I think it's unacceptable to make such offers - only a true idiot would post a good review on a service which is complete rubbish. Get my drift?

[harry]

Well it is highly un acceptable to reward for review, even good or bad.

If host just request their customers to write review about them in forum, then it could be ok. But again, we may not get true feeling. In fact, to me a long review is not that importand, but a sensible comment on host is important.

Adam: There are people who are willing to write excellent review, even if the service is rubbish. One can make out very clearly from such post. In fact when I bumped across the post in question, I was able to make out something fishy.

[intellec]

Having someone to post reviews of their host at the request of their host is not a good idea. It's almost as bad as those testimonials on their websites. Reviews without an inquiry from another party looking for hosting are not acceptable. Their are other sites for people to post reviews.

[nickn]

Originally posted by intellec:

Having someone to post reviews of their host at the request of their host is not a good idea. It's almost as bad as those testimonials on their websites. Reviews without an inquiry from another party looking for hosting are not acceptable. Their are other sites for people to post reviews.

I completely agree with intellec on this one. Requested reviews just aren't a good thing.

[ldcdc]

Encouraging your customers in general terms to refer people to your business is OK imho, but offering an incentive for specific actions (such as posting a review on a forum) is not something that should be done. It is true that it's usually the disgruntled customer that posts reviews, but even such a customer often notes if certain signs of professionalism were present.

Also, the fact that customers usually take time to write negative reviews is an incentive for the host to work hard and make most of the customers happy.

What if big hosts with hundreds of thousands of customers would do this? The forums would be flooded by (requested) positive reviews and that would irreversibly skew the normal (natural) ratio of happy to unhappy customers representation.

[harry]

Also, the competing Host may start asking his/her clients to bash to other host.

Imagine what would be the situation.

[IdologicJeff]

Well it is clear that the host doing this would like to see greater exposure at HHO or where ever.

The question is really: Does the inclusion of potentially bad reviews in this invitation mean that this request is ethical?

I'd say probably not.

Cheers
Jeff

[keith123]

Thanks for pointing me out or somthing? I posted a x-gravity.net review and got nothing in return and I dont need any thing in return because x-gravity.net is a good company but I own my own servers so really I dont need free hosting.

[masfenix]

You get for what you pay. Prices maybe high (someof you think that, and obviusly dont have any experience. renting servers may get pricy sometimes.)

But again, you get what you pay for. I am not going to wirte a review, but once signed up, the security, and the customer support is terrific. Not to mention the knowledge that the owner of that company has. A support ticket rated "urgent" will get you your reply in 2 - 4 hours.

There some people in the world, who will make others look bad to make them selves look good. Jealousy is a bad thing.

[Chicken]

Originally posted by keith123:

Thanks for pointing me out or somthing?
Actually you weren't pointed out (in this thread) and your post has nothing to do with the question (neither does the one after yours). The thread you started has been tossed as it seems that the majority of people who commented in this thread felt that asking for reviews in exchange for things was not kosher.

As this thread is drifting off topic, and the other thread is tossed, and the question has been answered. Thread closed.