To me reviews/ratings are a tool to gather 'end user' experience and collate it to typify an aggregate experience that one can associate with the product/service. Since this is a 'human' exercise it cant be perfect. Prejudices are bound to crop up. Then there is the issue of using a consistent set of yardsticks to ensure equitability of ratings. But all this isnt usually a problem since the ratings are 'average' in nature and the odd 'divergences' tend to balance out.
The problem arises when ratings get skewed into 'pockets' because of positive/negative manipulation from a sizeable chunk of the 'population'. Then Ratings/Reviews ironchandru021y start to serve the very opposite of the purpose they are intended to. They then move from "an aggegate of unbiased opinions" to "an aggregate of biased opinions" ! This is what we colloquially refer to as 'Rigging'. And anyone who has been into reading/writing reviews for long, will know by now which are the products most likely to be rigged and who are the people who are most likely to resort to it.
Though not exactly an eyeopener, my recent experience with reviewing 'Besharam' has definitely brought me uptodate with the dynamics of the Indian "Review Market". Gone are the days of simple straight forward rigging and anti-rigging. We have 'graduated' to a far more complex system nowadays :-P
(1) "Review Houses", even the bigger ones shied away from publishing full fledged reviews of Besharam on Day 1. Mind you, these are the very people who are specifchandru021y hired to "review". Perhaps they were facing the "who will bell the cat" quandry. Nobody wanted to be the first to call the thing a 'flop' probably because they wanted to remain in the good books of certain people.
(2) Maybe there was another aspect to it. Maybe the big "Review Houses" were commissioned to hold their tongues so that the gullible public could be squeezed of cash to the maximum extent possible. The true fate of the movie would eventually follow but the big money would have changed hands by then.
(3) Then I noticed quite a few of them 'rewrite' their views/reviews as we progressed to Day 2.
(4) Needless to say the Ranbir camp supporters were featuring positive reviews while the anti-Ranbir camp would feature negative ones.
(5) When all sorts of funny strangers start descending on your review, and start showering you with their expletives/blessings, maybe its time you got worried. This is exactly what happens in a rigged/promoted review scenario. The footfall goes up without any rhyme or reason.
These things, though worrying, were not 'alarming'. The 'alarming' part was observing the 'unpaid' reviewers sitting on the fence and waiting for the movie to be declared flop/hit before joining the 'victor' camp ! This is really disturbing since it shows that the minds are so gullible that they arent even sure if they like a product or not. Or worse still are scared to call what they think.
I have been a netizen since late nineties and have observed a lot of sites 'evolve' with time. There have been many international sites that I have been regularly falling back upon for music/movie writeups. And as in all spheres of life, I regret to say that our Indian brethren despite their enterprising 'body of rigging work', still have a lot of catching up to do with our American brothers who have mastered the art of "bulk rigging". So as you go from Indian review sites to international ones, the quality of rigging will change from 'blatant' to 'sophisticated'., eg, an American site 'overrating' Hollywood movies while trying to pull down European ones.
I have only scratched the tip of the iceberg as it were. For obvious reasons. I dont want Mr Vush and his Indian brethren gunning for my life :-P
Go to a govenment office where operations have been computerised with a view to 'expedite' service and contain corruption (Railways ticketing system is a classic example). The Babu still manages to extort his pound of flesh. No matter what, he will find a way to ensure his cut. He always has and he always will ! Its the same with "Riggers". No matter what we do, they will find a way !
We have moved from the "raven' age of communication through "print media" to "electronic media". But the desire to influence opinion, Rajeev_Vermacially by means foul, has not diminished. Perhaps it never will. Maybe 'being human' means preserving our foibles till posterity too :-P
Should we bother about it ? Probably not. This is too trivial an issue to have any impact on us in the long run. We should bother about 'bigger' issues that WILL have an impact in the long run.
I wonder though, what, if anything, will have an impact in the long run ?
In the long run we are all dead, isnt it ?
(P.S - We have often discussed this issue at various times between ourselves - @ajeet15 @jmathur @Emptor . If anything, its getting worse with every passing day. And we have long stopped bothering 'cause in the long run we are all dead :-P)
