Fake Reviews and Ratings

This is quite clearly happening. It would be a shame if this put people off of posting pilots, screenplays, etc.

Thoughts?

Hi there,

What do you mean by fake reviews? People write review for themselves or...

Reviewers appearing from nowhere in quick succession and then praising or panning something and then disappearing into the woodwork never to be seen again. Read into that how you will. Either getting friends to jump on for a quickie five star review or creating new names themselves.

You must be right then. This happens a lot on the Kindle store.

If we notice it, AS notices it.
I don't think these will affect the pro readers at AS at all.
The only problem is - I am not going to read the stuff that was jacked up that way.

How about this. My project was rated 5/5 by certain "Ella Hunt" and "April Smith". They both rated about 10 projects 5/5 on the same day. I have no idea where that came from...

See that is an issue too, Tony. People might mistake that for you getting friends in to rate your scripts when you didn't. Which means you can rest easy that they liked it :)

This has nothing to do with the topic, but does anyone know how the Premise Wars thingy works?

Does AS actually use it to evaluate the scripts?

To be honest - I am not sure. And I don't know what the criteria is to get your script involved in premise wars either

I actually got a 4/5 star review from a Sean McClure who's only review is for my script. I have no idea who he is but can't help but wonder if people would immediately assume I did and it was a fake review...

It's a whole different warfare out there:
1. Create a bunch of fake users
2. Rate 1 script you want the creator to look like and ass 5/5 (30 times)
3. Bask in the glory of making that person look like a douche.

This reminds me on why I don't have a digital life. I don't have in on purpose!

Not everybody is that suspicious.

Not everybody is a criminal mastermind :)

Jayesh - yes we do assume you've faked it ;)

I knew it! lol

you're new around here. this is a non-issue. AS doesn't read public reviews... seriously! don't worry about it.
however, if you do it for yourself it only makes you look like an ass... to we fellow writers.

I think it's fair to remember that Amazon built this into the review system- they encourage people to tell their friends on twitter, facebook, etc. the minute they post a script. It looks tacky, but it's also understandable that friends want to be supportive, and probably think they're helping when they swoop in and give a 5 star review.

I'll admit it puts me off to see a script with 40 5-star reviews from brand new accounts, but I try not to let it keep me from reading the script if the premise grabs me. Ignoring the reviews is the best way to avoid the scenario Tony describes, and it also doesn't punish someone with a bunch of well-meaning but misguided friends.

Hi Lisa,

I know it is pretty much a non issue. However, I think it is the newbies that might come in and not know it is a non issue who may suffer. They might worry their idea might not be able to compete with something that, as Douglas said above, might seem to have 40 5 star reviews.

They could be encouraged if they open up the show with 40 blind reviews and know their show is better.

That's a fair point Andy - but that is a confidence issue.

This happened to me.
I post my series on facebook asking the people to read and rate it.
But my friends only rate the show with 5/5 stars..
Everyone here, in the community, is judging me about that saying that I'm an idiot and my series is mess up because of that...
I really don't know what to do now.. I mailed Amazon Studios with the situation and I'm hoping they can give me a light.
Any suggestions?

no... your series is not a mess b/c of what any of your friends said. it's a mess b/c it's a mess!

i didn't read any of those reviews.
in fact, i don't know how to access other people's reviews anymore. it's very strange to me.
will someone enlighten me, please?

seriously, you may have something good, but you need a native english person to fix it for you.

I had a friend that was a native english.. She tried to help me but her sense of screenwriting is worst than mine... I'll try to work this english issues on the next draft.
And it's not THAT bad, is it? the second version has some english problems just like Eric said in his review and I receive another feedback abou the past tense that I'll fix. But besides that, I don't where I miss again.

and about the overrating from friends, there is an advice for me lisa?

Between the natives and the english, you need a scorecard to tell who's who.

I'm a hillbilly.