Hi, I think there’s an issue with asset rating manipulation. The scheme is very simple: an asset is first offered for free, then the seller inflates its rating, after which the asset is switched from free to paid and ends up at the top of the ratings with a bunch of positive reviews. Ratings should not be allowed for free assets, as this enables dishonest sellers to artificially boost their ratings.
I don’t see where there’s the manipulation, honestly. By the time you get to the 5 reviews needed, several hundred of people would have downloaded the product for free already. These people would have needed to decide the product is good and give it five stars. From that point on, you can decide whatever you want to do in terms of pricing for future customers. There’s no cheating if everyone can do it, but it’s a personal decision if you want to offer the product you spend a lot of time on for free to so many people.
This is just marketing, really.
The best way to avoid this, would be to get rid of the stupid 5 reviews rule. This way, sellers wouldn’t have to resort to this practice, which doesn’t actually benefit them.
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No you don’t understaid it. The seller ITSELF manipulate ratings, with own 5 accounts, because asset is free. And no, if the asset is free it doesn’t meant people will download it hundred times so it will have 5 reviews.
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Hey there @Mr-Macbeth! I’d like some more information! Do you have examples of assets that have done this?
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Hi, honestly, I don’t really want the person to get banned for this, just remove the possibility of such manipulation.
There’s clearly a cheat here: https://fab.com/s/26eba1b1fe30
Published on March 8, there are already 12 5-star ratings. There are no ratings on the author’s other works.
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this is clear rating manipulation. I checked this asset on release day and yesterday. This asset had exact 5 reviews (and all 5 stars like it’s asset from the God of Unreal) at first day at two or seven hours, no discord or any recourse for asking reviews and it’s literally impossible if people only downlaoded the asset. But after this it received zero new stars.
Even if it’s not self rating manipulation, it can be rating force from friends or any type of users, if it’s fair i I would make at least 75 reviews, but It’s not, it’s human trust manipulation. I’m not trying to offend this seller, but this market is full of garbage assets already and then we have very “smart guys” that makes things like that, it’s like a encourage people who think they are geniuses of marketing…
https://www.fab.com/listings/75455ba4-7407-45db-b24e-160712b9586c
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Oh my god, another amateur move from Fab. I don’t even want to think they didn’t think of this.
Can you prove that? Ratings are anonymous and if a product is free it’s likely gonna get quite a few ratings organically. Assuming the seller is malicious is a bold claim that needs evidence.
It’s not uncommon for businesses to offer a launch as free or discounted to gain trust and attention, this is something restaurants do a lot. It’s not something I would do since as others pointed out you lose out on a lot of sales doing it but it is a method of marketing.
I think our part if something seems suspicious is to point it out and ask FAB support for check. We have no way to prove anything as this system without old text reviews and questions sucks for real
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All I can say is since this rule of ratings not visible until 5 ratings new products on FAB had no visible ratings for a good while. But recently I’m seeing many new products with impressive amounts of ratings… it’s a miracle!
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I’m just curious, will Epic make any changes (like removing the ability to rate free assets) or will they do nothing and let everyone boost their ratings as they please?
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Fair enough
They just need to break back text reviews or make ratings not anonymous. When people are allowed to be anonymous they do some bad stuff
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There are some changes to FAB’s review system in the pipeline to allow for text reviews tied to accounts that will make a dedicated forum post for questions as well. That said, I’ve submitted a report of this issue in the meantime.
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Yeah the ratings are useless right now. I’ve made thousands of sales and have 0 ratings while the front page of fab is filled with low quality assets with perfect scores.
First they needed to reset everyone, as some assets might have earned them 10 years ago when quality requirements were different. And it would not have screwed Sketchfab users so much. And keep the free ratings separate, as there’s a big difference between 5 star free asset or one costing 80$.
There always will be a way to cheat the system, but these small changes would at least improve it by a lot.
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I found some hilarious low-quality asset that was published two days ago, but somehow it has 7 ratings, all 5 stars! Amazing! Hahaha. This person didn’t have any ratings on any other assets before, which makes it even funnier too: https://www.fab.com/listings/14b6c43b-5d56-490a-8e2c-d57aa6c6581f
Is anyone going to do anything about these bad actors?
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Yeah that is clear review manipulation. I have an asset that I sold hundreds of times and it took me over a year and directly asking people to get to 5 reviews. There is just no way someone receives 5+ ratings in two days.
But really the fault is with Epic and their disastrous decision to implement this 5-review minimum rule, and not wanting to also include written reviews. That is basically begging for review-manipulation to happen.
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We’ll take a look at these listings, and take action on cases where there’s been abuse of the ratings system and remove those ratings. We’re currently investigating.
Thanks,
Josh
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