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Posted by doppio19 2 days ago

Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews(blog.truestar.pro)
199 points | 109 commentspage 2
alister 2 days ago|
There's a discoverability problem with this tool because I've never heard of Fakespot or Mozilla Review Checker until today.

> Mozilla integrated Fakespot's technology directly into Firefox as the "Mozilla Review Checker" feature, making it easier than ever for users to verify product reviews without installing separate extensions.

If it was integrated directly into Firefox, it's funny that I don't recall ever seeing it. I wonder if it gets disabled if you set your security and privacy settings too high, or if you use the Firefox ESR versions (Extended Support Release).

pnw 2 days ago||
"Mozilla couldn't find a sustainable model" seems to be a recurring theme.
xnx 2 days ago||
Did Fakespot work? I can't see how it would stand a chance against LLM generated reviews without even having the log (keystroke?) data that Amazon does.
burnt-resistor 2 days ago||
Better than nothing. Not sure how well it worked or if it used any particularly advanced AI similarity checker or sentiment analysis.

It's pretty easy to spot obviously unrelated reviews that talk about or include pictures of completely different products. What's hard to spot is similar reviews written by bots or people paid to write as many reviews as possible using similar language, especially when there are thousands of reviews.

bb88 2 days ago|||
The last year it's been a mixed bag.

One issue is that seller warnings would appear on Prime delivered products, which meant that the risk is then pretty much zero for the buyer.

The ratings gradings system wasn't very reliable either. I bought a few things that were rated "F" but were fine.

Today I go for a combination of sales + ratings. Amazon also has a warning for some things that are "frequently returned items" or a notice that "customers usually keep this item." And then I buy Prime delivered items, and a return is not an issue for me then.

doppio19 2 days ago||
I found that it did a pretty decent job. Certainly not 100% accurate, but it often picked up on signals that made me give a closer look at a listing than I would have otherwise.

I'm sure detection is getting harder as LLMs' writing patterns become less predictable, but I frequently come across reviews on Amazon that are so blatantly written by ChatGPT. A lot of these fake reviewers aren't particularly sneaky about it.

markrages 2 days ago||
I think a lot of real reviews are written by ChatGPT. People are lazy!
ravenstine 2 days ago||
I've never even heard of it, yet it was acquired by Mozilla? Seems like the problem is right in front of them; they didn't really try.
DrNosferatu 2 days ago||
Anyone in the know care to sum up / list alternatives?
doppio19 2 days ago|
I'm actively working on one at https://www.truestar.pro because I couldn't find a drop-in alternative to Fakespot. I also wrote a blog post last week about the state of alternatives: https://blog.truestar.pro/fakespot-alternatives/ (spoiler: there's not much)
midtake 2 days ago||
9 years? I could have sworn I saw it in 2015, maybe even 2014.
Animats 2 days ago||
Could you fund this via a firm that litigated under consumer protection laws?
hnthrowaway_423 2 days ago||
I think by now I have quickly learnt that they can just read all the worst reviews and see if they can: 1. put up with the drawbacks, 2. see how frequent manufacturing defects are. 5* reviews are only useful if they upload real images.
bdcravens 2 days ago||
Still working for me, but I see the notice on their page. I assume it'll go dark at the end of the day.
CommenterPerson 2 days ago|
Sadly, chalk up a victory for enshittification. I was a Firefox fax, now mostly use DuckDuckGo. Doesn't most of Mozilla's funding come from Google?
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