I received this product free in return for my unbiased and honest review

Hmm... I wonder if Cakewalk would like my unbiased opinion about a free SONAR lifetime update? 

It's just a phase.

I know somebody that does those reviews.  She's pretty honest about them.

free SONAR lifetime update? 
 
I miss out on everything 

I feel the standards for creating online copy are pretty low. A company I work with, published an article about the history of Marshall amps. It was just a cobble of other articles stitched together and not good at all. There was a link to other works by the same author so I followed it. Sure enough, there was her article on Marshall amps along with her observations on the Real Housewives of Atlanta and a guide to New England B&B's. Mostly you get what you paid for on the internet. Just read the Wiki pages on somebody you know real well and you may see what I mean.

Moshkito
 
 For me, I do not write a review if it doesn't tickle me at all ... and because I have a lot of respect for music, in general, I refuse to put it down, although I will often make a fun comment about Metallica, or Strummy's tastes, or someone else's sheep dip lasagna!

At least I don't report you for making 'fun' of me, or the music I enjoy

I bet Steve didn't even know that there was a connection between A Flock of Seagulls and one of his favorite bands.
 
Turns out, the band name (A Flock of Seagulls) comes from a line in the song "Toiler on the Sea" by the Stranglers, which appears on their album Black And White.
 

sharke
 
 
I'm aware that there are other kinds of phony reviews, however you can pretty much spot those immediately by clicking on the user name and seeing their review history. If for example they have 50 reviews all posted on the same day, I'm not going to trust them as far as I could throw them. But whichever way you slice it, there is no denying that someone who has received a free product in exchange for a review has been paid for that review and hence the credibility of that review has been compromised. There will be people out there who have turned receiving free items into a career, and how do you know they deliberately give good reviews in order to make themselves look more attractive as reviewers to companies which give out free stuff? After all, if I was looking to solicit reviews by giving away freebies, the last person I'd select would be a super critical Amazon reviewer who picks fault with everything. 

No doubt.
 
I agree that anyone getting freebies for reviews is going to be highly incentivized to give good reviews to keep the largess flowing. The question is whether a disclosure of this conflict of interest is helpful in discounting an over-enthusiastic review. It is almost a standard practice among journalists who review products to have the review copy provided free of charge by someone with an interest in the review. Some of them insist that the product only be a loan, rather than a gift, but a long term loan may be in effect, and disclosure of the source and conditions is usually just a perfunctory as the Amazon cases you mention. At another level, it is likely that most reviewers depend indirectly on the product manufacturer's approval for their livelihood. After all, the least likely publication you would select in which to advertise your product is one that would hire a reviewer who denigrates your products. It is extremely unusual to do as Consumer Reports does and purchase review copies anonymously at random retail suppliers and refuse to accept advertising. All product reviews are suspect, and should be evaluated primarily on the basis of the features they describe, and to a lesser extent for the problems they expose. The problems they ignore may not show up in any kind of rating system they use, and of course you will not learn about those from the review. 
 
I disagree that you can locate most false reviews by just checking the reviewer's names or pseudonyms against recent postings. The companies that make their profits from generating positive **** have to be able to fool, not just the casual web visitor, but some perfunctory robotic and human analysis from the sites that they are gaming. There are now companies that market their ability to locate the false reviews of the companies that are faking them.  There is some benefit to knowing that the reviewer has actually purchased the product and that a record appears in the reviewer's account with the site, but that is certainly not a guarantee. It is certainly more useful to know that the reviewer has received payment in kind for the review, than not to know it at all. 
 
I have never considered the most seller website reviews to be worth spit. Mostly they are too short and simple-minded to provide any real information. But my experience with them is more the opposite. A customer who gets burned by purchasing a defective or unsuitable product is more likely than a satisfied customer to post his opinion publicly. I am amazed at the huge proportion of negative reviews on sites like Newegg.com. If anywhere near that proportion of the marketed products were that bad, the company would be out of business.  
 

I was also really annoyed with Amazon for allowing this......I recently wanted to get one of those 3d Virtual Reality Headsets, but decided not to (after finding out that the majority of reviews done were after people receive freebies).
 
Practically, they're just being paid to lie. It seems that these companies and the people/reviewers that support them will go through any kind of despicable methods in deceiving the public into buying their goods (just for a freebie or some compensation).
 
Sad to say this, but my general (default) outlook on people is to mistrust them first, and wait until they earn that trust. What ever happened to good old fashioned honesty? Just say it like it is.......say what you mean and mean what you say.

craigb
I bet Steve didn't even know that there was a connection between A Flock of Seagulls and one of his favorite bands.
 
Turns out, the band name (A Flock of Seagulls) comes from a line in the song "Toiler on the Sea" by the Stranglers, which appears on their album Black And White.
 

Mike Howlett, was much more than a name on that band. He became a friend, and we had some fun yapping things up several times. IF, I were to have a music teacher, the person I would choose would be Mike, if he has not yet retired from running a music school in Australia. I love the use of his bass in a lot of that band's material, and it could be considered jazz, rock, canterbury ... so many different touches ... and all of them alive. And in a couple of videos, you get to see him also rip it on free form stuff. Just a very dependable musician and bass player.
 
"Is it too bass'y?"

craigb
Didn't know about that connection.  I've been listening to Bob Nelson's massive discography for the last week and he also produced for a Flock of Seagulls which is how I learned about that Stranglers trivia.
 
That said, I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that we're all happy that you have a friend! 

I was sure I'd posted the connection between The Stranglers & A Flock of Seagulls before ...
 
... and I was right: STRAUMMY'S POST FROM FEB 21, 2011
 
Check out the choon too, it's very excellous:
 

 
I had a woman ship, I took her overseas
She left her hold unlocked, I had to find a dock
I was a toiler on the sea...
 
We didn't use cruel words, to navigate cruel seas
The wind was biting hard, at times I had to scream
I was a toiler on the sea...
 
And when we reached the land
We went aground on the rocks
Became a wreck in the sand
Became a home for a flock
We ventured overland
Fought with the aliens
The young ones used their hands
Pointed the way to a flock... A flock of seagulls! A flock of seagulls!
 
Then we retraced our steps, rebuilt the woman ship
I took her back up north, I lost her in the fog
I was a toiler on the sea...

Good retort as usual, Strummy.
 
As far as Amazon, I was a very good customer and purchased lots of stuff from them and wrote realistic reviews(maybe cause I didnt gloss them up?)
 
NEVER did they offer anything free
 
 

SteveStrummerUK

craigb
Didn't know about that connection.  I've been listening to Bob Nelson's massive discography for the last week and he also produced for a Flock of Seagulls which is how I learned about that Stranglers trivia.
 
That said, I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that we're all happy that you have a friend! 

I was sure I'd posted the connection between The Stranglers & A Flock of Seagulls before ...
 
... and I was right: STRAUMMY'S POST FROM FEB 21, 2011
 
Check out the choon too, it's very excellous:
 

 
I had a woman ship, I took her overseas
She left her hold unlocked, I had to find a dock
I was a toiler on the sea...
 
We didn't use cruel words, to navigate cruel seas
The wind was biting hard, at times I had to scream
I was a toiler on the sea...
 
And when we reached the land
We went aground on the rocks
Became a wreck in the sand
Became a home for a flock
We ventured overland
Fought with the aliens
The young ones used their hands
Pointed the way to a flock... A flock of seagulls! A flock of seagulls!
 
Then we retraced our steps, rebuilt the woman ship
I took her back up north, I lost her in the fog
I was a toiler on the sea...

I actually remember that thread and, also the reason why I didn't recall the trivia part: I never read it.  The first thing I saw was the song link which I played and then kept going in the thread while enjoying the music.