Better Living Through Technology

[elmo_iscariot]

Y'all know I'm not a great fan of regulatory agencies in general, particularly at the federal level. Nitpicking and line-drawing issues aside, I think most reasonable people can at least agree that our current system, in which regulatory agencies generate libraries of micromanaging rules for every conceivable industry, creates costs that are

Comments

[knirirr]

Do you find community consensus to be useful? I wonder as I have sometimes got the impression from looking at reviews for items and/or services that those who have bothered to leave reviews have been at both extremes of the range.

[elmo_iscariot]

Where I said "a community consensus," I'd meant to say "a community's consensus," to indicate the need to choose whose opinions you want. I expect an app marketplace will end up filling all kinds of specialized review niches for people who want to know which products are most environmentally friendly, or most paleo, or most attractive to model train enthusiasts. The one-size Amazon-review standard will probably look quaint in the near future.

I find reviews fall into two broad categories: niche products with a handful of reviews, and mass appeal products with hundreds or thousands of reviews. For the latter, large numbers dull the effect of extreme reviews. For the former, it's relatively easy to read the reviews at the poles and see if their criteria are reasonable.

[knirirr]

Ah, I see what you mean - thanks.