As Adrian mentions, seeding is a bit unethical, as the reviews aren't
authentic. (keeping reviews authentic is an ongoing problem all the
time, however)
Another idea is to reward first reviewing behavior.
So, give people a special badge on their profile when they review an
item first.
Yelp does this for business reviews. You can see an example here:
http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=AgzHzIzC6ZHTKgker0egAg
Notice that this person has 50 "firsts". (in the left-hand column)
This method has several positive effects.
1) It gets the item in the database (hugely important for user-
generated content sites like Yelp)
2) It gets a review active for that item (thus getting over the hurdle
in question)
3) It rewards users in a unique way (people recognize this distinction
as different than a simple review).
This method is a win-win for both the site and users.
Josh
On Jul 15, 2009, at 9:48 AM, adrian chan wrote:
Another option is to have somebody go through and review each item
once. I know it seems disingenuous, but frankly it's the solution
most often used. Hiding the ratings until you have one results in UI
inconsistency. The problem you're having has to do with user
participation -- sometimes you just need to seed the site and
userbase.
adrian
One possible solution could be to only show the stars or reviews when
you have 1 or more. As in, don't even show the header "Reviews"
unless you actually have some. That way you can provide value when
you have it, and avoid giving the impression that nobody is home when
you don't have ratings/reviews.
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