[infinite monkeys]

I tried a bot with one of the preset settings, with everything set up correctly, and it stood there doing nothing. Since the bot didn't work at all, I left a 1 star review describing my setup and the issue exactly. The bot author acknowledged that I was correct and the preset wasn't working, then fixed it, so I left a new 5 star review. My old review was just deleted, which would be fine, except for the reason:

Your review of the resource ---------- was deleted. Reason: Terrible attitude towards a brand new bot. Author has fixed it regardless, so I'm removing this.

How exactly is it a 'terrible attitude' to give 1 star to a bot that (as the author acknowledged) was standing there doing nothing? What is 1 star for, if not bots that don't work? I'm genuinely asking, because I wasn't rude or dismissive about the bot, and nor was I incorrect, I described the exact setup which really did fail to work. Once the bot was fixed, I re-reviewed it 5 stars. Am I only supposed to leave positive reviews, or what?

 

[cuppajava]

I see this is about my LastRecaller bot

I agree that the review system is pretty muddled. The mods apparently have guidelines of what criteria to delete reviews, and I've heard over the years basically what they are, though I admittedly can't find them publicly posted right now (though I might just be unable to find them).

Essentially, my impression is that reviews should be balanced and not just used to outline negative aspects of the bot. Also, I've read that reviews shouldn't be used as bug report forums (as that's what the threads are for). As reviews are intended to be permanent, giving a brand new bot a 1 star review doesn't really make sense, especially if the author is active. I'm extremely active and fix most bugs in a matter of days, and an update was already in queue when you left the 1 star review. I think the time to leave flat out negative reviews is when you've informed the author of the bug(s) and the author is clearly uninterested/unable to fix a bot. An example of a constructive review would be if the bot is broken for weeks/months, or if the bot partially works but does aspect X very poorly, etc.

I tried a bot with one of the preset settings, with everything set up correctly, and it stood there doing nothing. Since the bot didn't work at all, I left a 1 star review describing my setup and the issue exactly. The bot author acknowledged that I was correct and the preset wasn't working

Also, just to clarify, what I said was that you were right and that one preset was broken. But the presets weren't really the point of the bot, as that bot has fields where you can manually add anything. And also that was the only preset that was broken out of about 15 or so.

To be fair, I understand why you would think the bot does nothing by trying the one preset (where it did nothing), but in a bot that has ~15 presets and also fields where data can be manually entered... that's a pretty narrow view to leave a 1 star review from. It just gets frustrating when people leave 1 star reviews because one aspect is broken; That just leads to people skipping the bot because they think it's broken, when it isn't.

For the record, I didn't report the review, as it's a free utility bot that will only be relevant for another month (though for transparency, I have requested reviews on other bots be removed for being overly critical or narrow).

It's been recommended before to add the ability to upvote/downvote reviews, that way reviews won't all have the same weight, which I think would be cool to give some context. Because as it stands, one negative review saying "bot is broken" is more likely to turn people away than a 5 star review is to draw people in. And also people disproportionately leave permanent "bug report reviews" even if the issue has only existed for a day.

 

[infinite monkeys]

I figured writing a new review would replace the old one, so if it was fixed I'd update it. I didn't realise it'd have a separate review for each version instead. That means one person can count for more than one vote towards the overall rating, which makes no sense.

But the presets weren't really the point of the bot, as that bot has fields where you can manually add anything.

Well all I wanted it for was ZMI, and I saw ZMI in the presets, and it didn't work. I wasn't about to run over to some other activity with a totally different inventory and set of gear to check whether that was broken too. I tried the bot, the bot didn't work, I reviewed the bot. Again, I wasn't rude or dismissive, in fact I gave constructive criticism which allowed you to fix the problem then re-reviewed it 5 stars, so I really don't understand where the characterisation that I had a 'terrible attitude' comes from.

 

[cuppajava]

I figured writing a new review would replace the old one, so if it was fixed I'd update it. I didn't realise it'd have a separate review for each version instead. That means one person can count for more than one vote towards the overall rating, which makes no sense.


Well all I wanted it for was ZMI, and I saw ZMI in the presets, and it didn't work. I wasn't about to run over to some other activity with a totally different inventory and set of gear to check whether that was broken too. I tried the bot, the bot didn't work, I reviewed the bot. Again, I wasn't rude or dismissive, in fact I gave constructive criticism which allowed you to fix the problem then re-reviewed it 5 stars, so I really don't understand where the characterisation that I had a 'terrible attitude' comes from.

Fair enough, like I said I wasn't involved in the removing the review or what the response said. All good my man.