New Connect website Reviews includes ratings with no text - Useless Noise IMO

I've had 1 star reviews where the text was simply gibberish removed in the past.

Maybe Garmin needs to make at least some text mandatory to post a review.  I know that came up often over the last 8-9 years.

"most sites with such facilities allow people to rate apps and not require them to leave reviews"

That's right, and we're ok with that. But why do we and other users see them? Or you know what? Maybe there could be a button to enable/disable seeing them

Seeing what? Ratings with no reviews (no text)?

I said earlier that having those in the list wasn't useful to users.

I suppose it might be useful to developers so they can ask to have the removed (but I don't see why Garmin would remove them).

jim_m_58 said:

This way you can report 1-star reviews  that say nothing.  There was no way to do that before.

Yes, now you can report them, but I'm not sure why you think Garmin will automatically agree with you that they should be removed. Do you really think garmin has exposed these ratings in the review tab for the sole purpose of allowing you, jim_m_58, (or any other dev) to click "report as abusive" on every one of them so they can be removed? Common sense and logic would suggest otherwise.

There's nothing inherently abusive about a user deciding to rate an app (or "leave a review without text"), regardless of whether it's a 1-star rating or a 5-star rating.

It seems to me that you're implying a bad rating isn't valid unless the user decides to explain why it's bad, but as you can see, most people don't agree with you.

If anything, Garmin might start to question why you are automatically flagging every 1-star rating for no apparent reason.

jim_m_58 said:

And will will probably cut down on the reviews with no text.

Only if Garmin agrees with you that bad ratings / "reviews with no text" should be removed.

Do you also want 5-star ratings / "reviews with no text" to be removed? Or are you ok with those lol.

jim_m_58 said:

If someone posts a 1 stat with no test you can also reply so that other users see that doing so is in bad form.

I thought you were assuming that Garmin will remove these reviews when you report them? How will other users see these replies?

If Garmin cracks down on 1-star ratings (e.g. changes the interface to prevent them altogether or removes them at your request), then people will simply leave reviews with filler text like "." or "Here's some long text I copy-pasted because Garmin really really wants me to explain why I didn't like this app. blah blah blah etc". If anything, it might encourage 1-star reviews with useless copy-pasta spam.

However, the fact that they are now showing ratings in the review tab (as annoying as that is), seems to suggest the opposite: they think ratings are useful and they want everyone to see them.

If Garmin truly agreed with you that 1-star rating ("review with no text") is inherently abusive, they wouldn't allow users to leave them in the first place. If Garmin only agrees with you that these ratings are abusive when you happen to click "report as abusive", that would be the most ridiculous scenario possible, since there's no way to distinguish a "legit" 1-star rating from an "abusive" 1-star rating (unless a user finds a way to game the system by leaving multiple 1-star ratings or something.)

IOW, you want the "report as abusive" button to really function as an "I don't like this rating" button, but I don't think that's how it should work.

pstoppani said:

Why would I report a 1 star rating without any text to point out as abusive?  In my experience abusive reviews are so rare that I don't want all this "pollution" to get in the way of people reading real reviews.  I'd argue this new system deters people from writing reviews since they can see how their reviews will be out of view due to the ratings being included.

jim_m_58 said:

You are clearly new.

pstoppani has been posting here for over a year and you have been regularly interacting with him lol.

Oh sorry, I forgot, "clearly you are new but I have been here since the beginning!!!1!" is your go-to argument winner

https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/f/discussion/326026/complications-exitto-for-non-native-apps-possible

forums.garmin.com/.../buggy-complications

Displaying ratings in the form of stars without explanatory text is useless garbage. Why should I waste my time scrolling through it? Perhaps because jim_m_58 took part in the development of the new design? So - this useless function interferes with my perception!

bine8x8 said:

Perhaps because jim_m_58 took part in the development of the new design?

Nope, I did not. I don't even work for Garmin!

I think I see where these ratings with no text are coming from and why Garmin made the change to show them.

If you use the on device CIQ Store app, and look at what you have installed,, it's just a tap or two to leave a 5-star review, where adding text is optional.  Your phone is involved if you want to supply text, but trying that part doesn't work,

So using the on device store, the only way to rate an app is without text!

Ratings without text are something that will stay indeed, due to the on device rating system. Question is if it's useful to show on the website. For me it's annoying when going through my reviews to answer them. But I created a small js script that removes them on the fly. I have this script injected on the garmin pages in my browser.

document.querySelectorAll('.ReviewsEntry_reviewBody__vU5Ml').forEach(function(reviewBody) {
    // Check if the review body is empty (no text content)
    if (reviewBody.textContent.trim() === '') {
        // Find the parent review wrapper and remove it
        let reviewWrapper = reviewBody.closest('.ReviewsTab_reviewsItemWrapper__g41Mu');
        if (reviewWrapper) {
            reviewWrapper.remove();
        }
    }
});

Note that the classnames are probably changing when Garmin does a new css build. I run this on an interval, so when it loads new ratings on scroll, it also removes the new.

As I said, it really doesn't bother me, as I don't get many questions as part of a review, as I direct users to use "Contact Developer" with questions.

And for those that slip through, I get an email whenever a new review is posted, with enough text to see it's a question and respond then, and not by looking through all the reviews.