So...fake reviews...obviously a problem for everyone.  Not sure if this sort of idea has ever been considered:

- hobbyist posts a review of a provider
- like today, TER reviews and publishes the review (it is now visible to VIP members)
- however, it will display as 'unverified'
- provider is then prompted to verify the new review
- verifying a review only confirms that provider and hobbyist met withint last three months or whatever, nothing else..does not signify that provider is confirming/agreeing with all activities reported by the hobbyist
- once provider verifies, the review status will change to 'verified'
- however, if review is fake...a provider can report it by returning that status rather than 'verified'

- only verified reviews count toward free VIP membership
- only verified reviews count towards overall ratings/rankings
- provider can earn free VIP by verifying reviews or if a provider fails to respond to new review prompts within a certain period of time...they might lose ad or posting privileges for some period of time...


-- Modified on 8/4/2013 5:22:50 PM

couple issues I could arising.  
Not every provider is aware of TER, especially on BP.
A review is nothing more than a fictional account (HA), by being verified by the other party in theory it could be used in any type of court action as confirmation of activities.
Who is going to verify a bad review regardless of its accuracy.
If only verified reviews count towards VIP days then the incentive for false good reviews only increases.
If only verified reviews count towards ratings, many will only approve good reviews and then the search function based on score would become useless (assuming it isn't already).
     My personal opinion is that TER is by the guys for the guys. That fact that ladies post and can place ads is a bonus in my book. I feel its supposed to be a place where we can share honest information based on our "fictional" experiences for the benefit of others in the community. Allowing or requiring the ladies to approve or even acknowledge that their reviews are legit is a bit of a slippery slope in my mind. I like that there are ad malls that offer ladies the ability to verify they are who they say they are but the reviews are by us, for us.  

     Just my .02

Fair points...thought of a couple of thos myself when composing the idea.

True....so...nothing would really change for these reviews/providers. Not a lawyer...but, I somewhat doubt this.  Only VIPs could even see this in any case.  If the current reviews aren't being used in legal proceedings...not sure how this would change things. Fair point.  Thought about two provider responses: 1) confirmed vs fake and 2) accuracy score of review 0-100%.  But, this has a similar problem.  What provider will give a 100% accurate rating on an authentic mediocre let alone bad review.   We'd have to ask the ladies...but...I doubt they want fake good reviews either.  Also...it gives the ladies a little power as they would effecrively be deciding who has access to reviews (for free) and who does not.  Why would they approve of some random review?  Sure, there are some that would take advantage, but, you have that now.  So...don't really see this changing things.   Providers don't get to choose.  They are prompted to confirm or deny all submitted reviews.   Agreed.  And having fake reviews hurts this.   Agreed...the slippery slope is there.  Just attempting to incite some conversation that might generate a good idea to solve the fake review thing.

But to me there are two types of fake reviews. First type are the ones where someone is just trying to get free VIP. Girl has 10+ reviews all averaging between 7's and 9's. Guy writes a fake review giving her the same type of scores and basically copies what others have written. As a hobbyist I find those annoying but relatively harmless. Those seem to be the fakes that most providers talk about here on TER (BCG had one recently). The other type are the ones that create problems for us. Girl writes her own or has someone write one for her. Almost always her first (his as well) and nowhere near accurate to what the next guy experiences. Those are the fakes that drive me crazy. Haven't personally been burned that way but many have. As I understand it TER is starting to put holds on first time reviews by first time reviewers in an effort to help establish some consistency. Not fool proof but its a start. I'm all for the discussion, but i don't know there is much TER can do. Only thing I could suggest (may already be policy) would be lifetime ban/delisted for anyone caught deliberately gaming the system.

-- Modified on 8/4/2013 10:11:59 PM

Sometimes when girls refuse to see a new guy, they get threatened with a fake review. Sometimes it happens when they "fire" an existing client. And sometimes it happens with a guy who they did see, throws a tempertantrum because she wouldn't do BBFS or other "off menu" activities etc.

Fake SELF reviews mean you might get a "6" level of looks or service instead of a "9"... But a few fake REVENGE reviews can unfairly destroy a girl's entire livelihood.

How is a TER provider supposed to be able to match clients name with TER name?
I don't provide my TER name to every provider.

You can report obvious fake or problematic review which then may or may not be pulled by TER.
This has been discussed many times before with no better system devised.

Valid point.  Especially if the provider is high(er) volume.  Might be really difficult for her to tie these together.  This somewhat brings the value of the review model into question.  We go on and on about "see only well reviewed providers". What else could that mean other than a provider with a critical mass of reviews?   At least some portion of this group of "well reviewed" providers are the same ones that would easily be targets for fake reviews.  Now, Ram made the point that these probably aren't huge issues because chances are...the fake reviews are modeled after legit reviews in order to "blend in".  However, if we can't trust the body of reviews...then what value do they offer?  Seems like there is some sweet spot of providers that are moderately reviewed...enough to be 'well reviewed' but not so much that fake reviews blend in.  
    That may be....never hurts to discuss ideas though.  Membership changes...who knows what idea might be generated from such discussion.  Thanks for posting your thoughts.

to get around to verifying!Yeah I can see this working well,I've seen some of these providers go thru 3 phone # in that time lol.
Granted I don't hobby the "well respected hobbyist" way.I don't spend half my life on this site typing my trivial opinions.Since over 70% of my reviews are TOFTT, yeah I want to ADD more reliance on TER & on providers, the vast majority of which commitment & responsibility  they can't spell much less adhere to .
Make it Simpler not more convoluted!

But you got guys that Shill there ass of for certain agencies & certain ladies for the sole purpose of getting perks & such.
No offense but if you ain't smart enough to do a bit of research and discern fake reviews, then in my book your getting EXACTLY what you deserve!

Agreed. My only revenge review was from a guy whose ATF hated me. I could not get it pulled because I actually "saw" him, but that does not make his review any less bullshit.