gibbergibber - 1:18 pm on Mar 2, 2007 (gmt 0)

I don't see any way to solve this problem. It's just too easy for anonymous open voting and review systems to be manipulated.

The only way round in theory would be to make it compulsory to leave your identity when you leave a review, and for someone to then check all those identities. But who would bother doing that when it's just a case of seeing if someone's trying to promote sales of food mixers? It's been difficult enough getting identity checks to prevent terrorism!

--ISP's like AOL make it pretty hard to detect this stuff. If you don't have IP addresses to fall back on in detecting fraud, it's pretty hard to know for sure you're getting manipulated.--

Even on ISPs that show IP addresses, it's very easy for professionals to disguise theirs through various means.

For example they could keep computers connected to many different ISPs in many different geographical locations, then instruct them all to add positive or negative ratings and reviews to a particular product which they've been paid to promote or smear.

Normal people wouldn't be able to afford to do that, but professional agencies could easily afford to keep dozens or even hundred of PCs at their disposal for spreading their opinions around the internet.

Each PC could have its ISP switched every month, so every year you could be dealing with thousands of completely different IP addresses all from the same source. That's easily enough to skew any product's reputation on most review sites.

-- Isn't this how the World has always worked?
Manipulating public opinion through the Press, Government Propaganda, Awards, Product Placement etc is nothing new. --

The difference is that it's never been so easy to manipulate people's opinion. In the past the only people who could reach a mass audience were the newspapers, but now virtually any group or individual can afford to set up a website viewable by anyone on the planet.