I just got my first iPod, and getting to know the experience of the OS and hardware. I deleted an app and it asks me to rate it. This is useless in my opinion. Obviously whoever deleted the app will give it a 1 star or 2 stars..!
I think they should change that and also include a rating system when the user exit the app for the first time...
That Appirator thingy is easy to implement? I am thinking to include it in some of my apps. But I worry if it will cause any incompatibility/memory issues in different version of iPhone OS?
On a second note: Should we all file for a bug report then for this rating at the deletion of app? Everyone wants to do it? Lets do it!
Been the bane of many a developer Rocotilos! It's so biased towards negative reviews, so if you get 3 stars overall I think it's a good show!
Some other developers on the board mentioned a code snippet you could put in your app that prompts regular uses to review the app ever 30 uses or something... it was called something like Apperator or something.. I tried to find the thread where people were talking about it but wasn't having any luck
On a second note: Should we all file for a bug report then for this rating at the deletion of app? Everyone wants to do it? Lets do it!
Yes, everyone is annoyed by it, but I think it does serve a pretty useful purpose. I'm sure the rate on delete brings down the star rating of most apps, but it really hurts apps that have deceptive descriptions or just are too buggy to work --- everyone deletes these apps right away and the bad experience usually is enough for them to tap the 1 star button. If the prompt to delete on exit didn't exist, it would be much much easier for shady developers to game the review system with some shell accounts and fool people into thinking it is a quality app.
True. So just leave the feature there. But instead, we should ask apple to add another feature to bring balance to this - that is an alert to pop up asking for rating just after a user EXITS the app for the FIRST TIME only.
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I think it makes it harder for users to spot quality apps, all apps have low star ratings whether they are good or not so the user is not informed when looking at apps in the app store.
Ive noticed there are a lot of very succesful apps that have low star ratings, and they are bad apps. Check out the reviews and they all say 'this doesn't work I wish I read the reviews first!'. These are right next to quality apps with good reviews but the star ratings are dragged down by the 'rate when you don't want it' effect, so in terms of their ratings they all look to be as bad as eachother.
The creme should rise to the top but this rate when delete thing is stopping that from happening. Users aren't reading reviews before they buy, they just buy based on the icon and title and maybe a quick glance at the description. The ratings don't distinguish a good app from a bad app.
The feature isn't that great and yeah, I've been gauging the success of my first lite version by the number of ratings. Having none was a good sign for me
I added Appirater into Alien Swing for the 1.1 update. It's very easy to integrate, although it requires a fair amount of tweaking if your app runs in landscape mode (there isn't room for the default text). Also, remember to switch the "always show" debug setting off before you submit or you will feel a little silly...
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Thanks! I was really excited after I bought it, and pretty impressed with the iPod Touch. And now suddenly so many updates are lined up after I experience my own app myself. The experience is just so different (obviously).
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Thanks! I was really excited after I bought it, and pretty impressed with the iPod Touch. And now suddenly so many updates are lined up after I experience my own app myself. The experience is just so different (obviously).
Now you can test the "Purchase Full Version" button with a link to the appstore
__________________ Game Pack - All-in-1 Game Pack Shinro - A combination of Minesweeper and Sudoku Nibbles - Remake of a classic snake game Hooptie Browser - Humorous web filter
I've done something similar to Appirater for the past couple of versions and it's yielded some good 4 and 5 star ratings with useful written reviews. On my paid App, it has been very positive. For the free App, it is less useful. Another trick that works for me is to release promocodes via sites that encourage users to leave honest reviews on the app store. Finally you can hit up your friends for ratings though I think mine are getting pretty tired of that by now... :-)
Personally, I think that Apple should require a written review with any rating. If you really didn't like an App, say why not. I suspect that would greatly reduce the number of 1 star reviews I get on my free "SUDOKU Brainiac" app because "it doesn't do Solitaire." Showing the raters and what else they have rated would also go a long way towards reducing fraudulent ratings.
Speaking of fraudulent ratings: The problem with app ratings goes beyond rate-on-delete or false positive reviews. My app is being targeted with false negative ratings: Whenever I release an update to my paid App "SUDOKU Maniac", my Appirater style code (along with some marketing via promocode sites) usually get me good reviews in a couple days. However, for the last 2 updates of this App, someone has stuck me 2 separate anonymous 1-star reviews right at that point. No explanation. No review. 2 separate 1-star ratings at exactly the same time just when I start rocking a 4.5 star rating with the latest version and start passing other Sudoku apps in ranking. At exactly the same time, good written reviews have suddenly been marked as "not helpful". It's pretty clear someone is trying to manipulate the rankings for the "Sudoku" keyword search. Kicking me down with a couple of 1-star ratings only costs those guys 2x my app price so it's a lot cheaper than buying 100 positive reviews for their own app. Also, they get to kick me down again and again with each new version... at no additional cost.
I realize that the Sudoku keyword is quite competitive so perhaps more dirty tricks are being played here but I wouldn't be surprised if what a lot of people think is just a case of "rate-on-delete" 1-star spam is actually a calculated effort by "competitors" higher up the food chain to simply protect their own ranking edge.
I'll close by saying that I find it pointless to ask Apple to investigate all these ratings scams. The solution is to add transparency to the review/rating process:
- Require written reviews.
- Release a supported API for prompting reviews a-la Appirater.
- Encourage users to rate other ratings.
- Etc...
I hope Apple gets around to it at some point. In the meantime, get out your Appirater, use your promo codes, and don't forget to hit up your friends for reviews! :-)
I thought this would be a great idea too, but in the end we would just end up with a bunch of unhelpful reviews such as "it sux. dun by it!". At least now the idiots tend to stay away from the written reviews and serious customers can stick to the written reviews when basing their decisions. Although one of my Android apps got a review from some guy named Ivan that said "wud of gotten 2 stars but its lameskies" so the idiots do sometimes leave written reviews. I'm guessing that the well written 5 star and 4 star reviews will outweigh Ivan. I'm also guessing that Ivan's parents are wishing that they didn't "of" any kids.
I'm also guessing that Ivan's parents are wishing that they didn't "of" any kids.
LOL! So true.
Personally, I really want to meet the guy at Apple that came up with the idea of rating when deleting an app, so that I could slap him across the face with a giant fish.
Personally, I really want to meet the guy at Apple that came up with the idea of rating when deleting an app, so that I could slap him across the face with a giant fish.
What if it was Steve Jobs?
__________________ Game Pack - All-in-1 Game Pack Shinro - A combination of Minesweeper and Sudoku Nibbles - Remake of a classic snake game Hooptie Browser - Humorous web filter
I added Appirater into Alien Swing for the 1.1 update. It's very easy to integrate, although it requires a fair amount of tweaking if your app runs in landscape mode (there isn't room for the default text). Also, remember to switch the "always show" debug setting off before you submit or you will feel a little silly...
Hey Mr Jack, I just read your post and wanted to ask if you could tell me what tweaking you had to do in order to get the default message to show in landscape mode for Appirater. I just came across this bug myself and am about to begin investigating the tweaks I'll need to make and was hoping you could give me a head start.
Also, and I apologize if this is a dumb question (I'm relatively new to iOS development), but which "always show" debug setting are you referring to?
The "rate before delete" feature of iPhone OS...
Linear Mode
