Web2 As A Laughing Stock? Are We Living Ahead Of Our Time?
Last week I ordered a handbag online as I needed one. Online shopping is not only easy but it saves me a lot of time too, and as time is what I can't buy, it's obvious I always go for the best solution available.
The bag arrived in a few days. Most of the times I can get my purchase in max two days, sometimes even within 24 hours, but we had a bank holiday, so the delay was justified. No complains there. The bag is as expected, it's good quality, the color is good and I love it.
Web2 As A Laughing Stock?
Yesterday I got an email from the seller, letting me know that I can review the product. It's not my habit to leave product reviews, but not long ago I decided to change my habit. Before buying anything, I always read the reviews to see what others think of the product and I can say (even though I know reviews can be manipulated) it saved me from a lot of disappointment and from throwing money out of the window. These days you can always send the product back, but that means waste of time and blocked money.
So this time I was ready to drop a review to help others decide whether to buy the bag or not. I clicked the link in the email and landed on the seller's page, just to find out I can't review the product as that option is only available if 5 days passes from delivery. 5 days? Wtf do you need to wait 5 days for? This is a bag, I can decide if it's good or not in 2 minutes. Don't need to test it for weeks to see if it suits me. And if so, why are they sending me notification email if the conditions are not met? 😳
This case brought back some recent memories, from the end of last year, when I bought a battery for my laptop. I ordered according to the technical description, but what I got was not compatible with my laptop. A laptop battery is not something you can adjust or customize at home, so I had to send it back and ask for a refund. I did the refund request online and dropped the parcel in an hour. In two hours from filing for a refund, I got a call from the seller, asking me for details as according to Dell's technical description, the battery should have been perfect. Long story short, I was able to show them what the problem was and they admitted I was right. The the seller offered to find me the battery I was looking for and the swap went smoothly.
In this case I thought it would be best to leave a review, warning others that the mentioned model is not compatible with the type of laptop they said it was. I asked the seller to modify the listing, he said he is going to, but I thought in the meantime it would be nice to put the vreview out there, which I did.
After 10 days or so, I got an email from the platform operator, which is similar to eBay, just local (not the seller), letting me know that my review was published and it is already visible. 😳 Wuuut? After 10 days? WTF do you need 10 days for to publish a review, that can be published the second I hit the send button? Back then I wasn't in the mood for digging deep into this, so I just let it go.
In the case of the bag, I decided to look into it, to see what are the conditions and right now I'm shocked. They have a set of rules on how to post reviews.
They say:
Your opinion is very valuable to us. By adding your opinion you let us know if the product met your expectations and you help others to make the right choice!
This is all nice and polite, but after reading the next one, you may have some doubts.
Your opinion will be displayed on the product page after its acceptance by the moderator. This may take several business days.
😳 At this point I started to raise my eyebrow.
All opinions submitted become the exclusive property of the company. We reserve the right to shorten or change submitted opinions, provided their meaning remains unchanged and non-publication or deletion of opinions that do not comply with the regulations.
😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 Wuuuuuut? So let me see if I understand what they mean. They said
"Your opinion is very valuable to us."
"All opinions submitted become the exclusive property of the company."
Soooo ... I'm confused here. How can my opinion become the exclusive property of a company?
"We reserve the right to shorten or change submitted opinions."
How is that my opinion, after they shorten or change it? Why is there a need to change any opinion, when you can limit the number of characters submitted, to assure the length of the review you prefer are respected?
The person placing opinions agrees to their unlimited use in time and in any place, in this way you assure us that your opinions are not under the influence of third parties.
😂 This is quite hilarious. So you assure them that your opinions are not under the influence of third parties, but you also agree that the company can modify your opinion as they see fit and this action is not considered by them an act of influence of third parties.
I haven't checked the other platforms' rules, but I know these platform usually censor reviews as they see fit.
These conditions I listed above seems not only pretty stupid and ridiculous, but also disrespecting your rights to your intelectual property.
Are We Living Ahead Of Our Time?
Blockchain technology offers a solution to these issues and resolves a lot of problems that web2 is creating or allowing people in charge to create. Being on Web3 platforms for years changes you quite a bit. Not everyone though as we still have quite many who are still stuck with a web2 mindset, happy to get whatever little they can, anyway they can, but the majority of us already thinks differently. Once you experience there's a different way of doing things, there's a way for granting and protecting authorship, it's hard to go back.
The biggest shock to me is when I need to go to a governmental office to take care of some legal business and see the system they use and how they work. Even though we made good progress and you can already do a lot of things online, there are still things you need to stay in line for, go from office to office, to get a document or a stamp.
Change is not wanted. Automating some of the process would mean less people paid for doing nothing. It would mean less control and less useless, incompetent people getting huge bonuses from the state budget they don't deserve.
Usually I prefer not to stress myself with things that are out of my hands and can't change. However, I'm not blind either and can't stop thinking of how many advantages we could have with faster development, faster adoption and focusing on what's important for the country/world, not just for some individuals. Many times I'm biting my tongue, especially when I'm in company of those who are not familiar with web3, crypto in general and the endless possibilities new technology has to offer. Detailing what could be done to these people would be like explaining to Ötzi what Hive is.
Keeping people in the dark has always been a useful and powerful weapon in the hands of those in power. It is also true that some people still don't want to change, nor want any change. It's easier for them to complain and wait for others to improve whatever in wrong, instead or making some steps towards change.
So yeah, my opinion is valuable, as long as I agree it becomes the property of the company after submission and also agree that they can shorten and modify it as they see fit. How nice of them to still allow me to have an "opinion".
It's time to wake up. My opinion is my opinion, it's not transactional and not modifiable.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
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- Cross Posting And Reposting Explained, Using PeakD
- Hive Is Not For Me
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- Tips And Tricks & Useful Hive Tools For Newbies
- More Useful Tools On Hive - Newbie Guide
- Community List And Why It Is Important To Post In The Right Community
- Witnesses And Proposals Explained - Newbie Guide
- To Stake, Or Not To Stake - Newbie Guide
- Tags And Tagging - Newbie Guide
- Newbie Expectations And Reality
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Oh my god. It took 10 days to publish reviews? I think it's not a short time and unfair rules.
Yes, some weird stuff there.
I don't usually shop online but when I do first thing i check is review to not get disappointed with products...
Haha, 5 Days wait for Review !LOL whyyyyyy.
Lmao, the moment I saw review will be "approved by moderators" knew it what's coming next.... That's just Soo Soo Web2 Thing.
Sadly this thing happens more often on Web2 and people Get rob when they shop cuz of these manipulation reviews.
I totally agree with your point... Web3 is way ahead of it's time and also everything on Blockchain is transparent easy to see what's going on off and on screen.
99% of People don't see thing's in web2 like the way those who are aware and used to with Web3.. media has always kept people in dark and shows whatever they want to make people believe.
I can't really complain about the service in general as you can return the products and get a refund. If you know how to select what you need, you get decent quality, but as you can see, there are problems.
I think you wouldn't trust in those reviews any more 😅😅😅
I was reading you and I was thinking in my country and how government have wash the brain of people for decades, it's very difficult the people change the way they think, as in Matrix always there are people who prefer to live inside and to feed them self with lies
These reviews always have to be taken with a pinch of salt, that is a known fact.
I'm sorry to hear about what's going on in your country. Living in communism is not easy.
Not easy at all 😅
I know 😕
Have you ever moderated a forum or a popular blog? I understand them - they'll get tons of offensive and badly written reviews which would make their site look bad.
Unlike Web3, Web2 needs censorship, especially for reviews which aren't linked to an identity or profile.
Yes, I have. However, this is not a forum or a popular blog, it's an e-commerce platform, where you have the right to write a review if you purchased the product. So reviews are linked to a identity.
The issues about the company’s review policies are really funny. I’ve shopped online only once, and that was in 2019. I remember everything quite well, I ordered a cute bag teddy bear pillow and a medium size t shirt on kikuu and almost a month later, they delivered a teddy bear key holder and a little rubber t shirt to me.
Not everything in this blog I can relate to but at least I can definitely relate to queuing in long lines just to get a stamp on a document.
I believe every student in Ghana has gone through this tremendous process, the stress that comes with it is something else.
Covid bypassed 8 years of evolution as far as online shopping is concerned and that evolution can't be deleted or turned back. Obviously evolution is not the same in every country.
Delivering the wrong product happens from time to time but customer service should take care of it.
Looks like Ghana has a lot to learn still, but you'll get there eventually. This includes handling students' affairs online too.
"All opinions submitted become the exclusive property of the company."
We now own your opinion! :DDD
You submit any comment to my post and I own it 😂. How is that? Oh, wait, I can moderate it and adjust it as I want. How about that? 😁
DELL use to make great laptops. I don't know what has happened, but both DELL and HP are nowhere near what they used to be.
Well, in this case they made a mistake, or someone along the line made a mistake. I'm ok with my DELL laptop mostly, the only problem, besides the battery was the keyboard. In a year and a half, the paint was gone and had to have my keyboard repainted. It should not happen as these keyboards are made to use, not to look at them, but ... it is what it is.
The almighty web2 cartels and their mischievous craft. Web3 wave is coming!
It's coming and it's unstoppable.
I generally don't do reviews on things, although I read them from time to time. The national real estate company I used to work for made them up (Google reviews) and wrote them themselves which I thought was rather dumb. There were no bad ones of course. I think people see through stuff like that, although I suppose many people read reviews and purchase regardless of bad ones. Maybe the desire to buy outweighs one's own logic.
I have the habit of looking at negative reviews, low ratings to see if there are any. So far, I have always found a few, but you can never trust them as the evidence is there, they even reserve the right to modify your review, which is outrageous. This has to stop.
It's all a bit silly if it's not a true representation of the customer's opinion. what's the point to it? Although, most people are like sheep and will follow blindly along and corporations know that. It's just more human nutbaggery.
I quite remember when you made that post about the battery. I was impressed with your level of patience as well as that of the battery dealer. If such a thing happened where I live. That would have been the end of it. Getting it replaced would be extremely tedious, that’s if it’s not impossible.
I also thought reading reviews would give you a heads up on what you are about to buy. But being a computer science student, at a point earlier this year, I decided to learn how to build websites using Wordpress and I got to a tutorial about people leaving comments on your post. The author has the sole write to do as they please with the post or choose not to even post it on the platform. So you would hardly find a bad review on products these days since everything has been filtered to suite their needs.
And don’t get me started on government offices using “outdated “ modes of operation. Even for universities that claim they are technological universities, everything has to be done manually. I did an internship at a company last year and it was really annoying to me the fact that everything was done using a paper and pen and they have a whole file room where individuals are assigned to search for files needed at a point in time while there are desktop computers lying around and not being used.
Strange way to value your opinion! Of course, this denotes that you yourself are treated with a product to exploit for your own convenience.
In any case, it is difficult to fight against the wolves when you are squeezed among the sheep of consumption.
Certainly, one must be brave to defend or try to regain one's kidnapped freedom. Although the problem is that most have not even realized it, or are too comfortable to swim against the current that leads you to servility.
People are pragmatic, and few dare to be iconoclastic. Although it is enough that one of the irreverent ones succeeds for others to follow them and cause the change to which all aspire, but they keep silent waiting for it to appear.
I think of those who walk on the web3, and when it ends up imposing itself. Of course, there will be resistance: who wants to lose power?
Maybe your opinion and mine, like those who want freedom and respect, will be worth it when the Web3 change is massive and everyone uses it.