Yes it was US Appstore account. here is app link http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/draw-venn/id428471883?mt=8 Customer Reviews Very Helpful by John.Slater - 2nd May 2011 Its been great, handy and helpful app. Worth trying. hope this will help you Edited - Is this issue related to country wise, I mean only US people can review!!!!
it's quite strange. i tried to review several apps but i got the same message that everyone got. just now i got a promocode from a developper and that one i could review without a problem.
just a thought could it be possible that with the first batch of promo codes you get from apple you can let others review / rate. but with the second batch you can't ! because you do have developpers abusing the system by updating every day to get new codes..lol.. just a thought that crossed my mind
katday - I would guess the code you received was likely generated prior to mid-April and only offered recently. Hope they change this back or devise a scheme where it's obvious a review was generated by a user who received a promo code - that would be fair.
the 2 games that allowed me to put a review have both just been released. so i dont know if it would be possible to make codes for them prior to it being released !
But the purpose of customer ratings is to, somewhat obviously, get ratings from customers. The opinions of people who are given the game for free in exchange for an "honest" review (often with a wink or a nudge about that "honesty") isn't why the review system exists. The fact of the matter is, it was getting abused, hardcore.
It's more likely that the promo that you used and were able to review was generated before the change while the others were more recent. Promos have a shelf life of up to 30 days (I'm fairly sure that number is right) so I'm not sure apple want's to spend the effort retroactively tagging every promo code and would just rather have them tagged from now on. As soon as a game is approved you get promos, even if the release date is set weeks later. Lots of the bigger devs use that trick to nail the release date and have prerelease promos to give out to sites
I agree it was abused, especially when some codes were given out by the horde-ful, it's just unfortunate as I do see some good reviews that do help provide a vector on whether to buy or not. Of course, those same comments are often posted on TA when the review was done by a TA member, so I will continue to look and post here.
It was a tool that allowed me to solicit honest reviews from users. I'm sure there are those who abused it, but I didn't and I know of a lot of other devs who didn't as well. If apple is trying to combat people abusing the system... limit the total number of codes allowed to 200 a year or something. I would have no problem with that at all. Don't punish everyone... focus the punishment on those who deserve it. I might be a little biased because my day-job is in online retail and ecommerce, and soliciting reviews is a very common tool used throughout the industry. Review sites like Bizrate and other's offer up prizes and daily giveaways for people who submit reviews... good or bad. Even restaurants do it if you fill out their surveys. We've personally found that roughly 70% of those leaving reviews for products only do so because they're pissed. Happy people rarely come back to talk about it unless they are motivated to do so. So as a retailer who is dependent on reviews for sales (and with Apple's model of discovery, all devs are dependent on them) how do you offset the negative slant. You do it with volume in hopes that more honest reviews will help give additional perspective over those who just want to mess with you. So yeah I feel it's a valuable tool that Apple is taking away from already-struggling indie devs. Again, just my opinion.
That would be a very good solution, but still subject to organised abuse. The trouble here in hind site, is that most apps released at v1.0 contain some bug which slipped through the net, with a sudden large amount of "testing" the bug is exposed and the developer uploads a minor update ASAP. It just so happens that a new batch of 50 codes becomes available, and for someone like me for example, it's nice to hand out codes and if someone then gives feedback that's a bonus. Meanwhile I can continue developing instead of also being a part-time promoter. It's all relative, but with so many apps then there is bound to be types who more than bend the rules, like the Ed mentioned there was a huge amount going on. And it makes us all look bad. Ok I've had a couple of opinions now in this thread, and will enjoy reading more of others...
I gave out some promo codes, got a little feedback and a few nice reviews. That was quite nice, but I fear there are a number of developers who misused the opportunity and Apple noticed, causing them to act. This makes the App Store one step closer to even, and I am glad for that.
Perhaps you can still review "gifted" codes? In other words, when I run out of promo codes, I will gift a bunch of copies to myself, then extract the 10-digit code (or however many digits, I forget) from the URL and mail these codes out as promo codes. They LOOK like promo codes but are actually gift codes. If this still works then devs still have a way around this issue (good or bad). I use promo/gift codes for contests and giveaways. My game has plenty of reviews at this point so I don't really need more. EDIT: It is cheap for a dev to use this gift-code tactic, as he/she will still get a sale, meaning that if I buy my own game for $.99, I will still make about $.70 off of it. In the end, I get a "promo code" for 30 cents. In my opinion Apple's new policy changes little. If a dev wants shill reviews it will only cost them 30% of the price of their game...still a good deal.
maybe that's what apple is hoping for. They get a bit of cash out of it. lol jk but I understand where it is coming from, as there are contests where you get a code and leave a review to have a chance to win. In these cases, I actually give a fair review but others don't always and may just give a 5 star 2 word review. so in other words, a few lazy people kinda ruined it. Oh well, it's fine, seeing as nobody really "needs" these contests.
Yes the volume is the key to enhance the fairness of review system. I really doubt the new policy is helpful to prevent shill reviews. Some one above has already suggested that could be opposite. And Indies with zero marketing budget and limited user base can not get enough reviews. If Apple can encourage more customers to review, that will be helpful to build healthy review system. How about an embedded button like "2 cents for 2 cents", user who offer review will get 2 cents real money back. Developers have the option to enable or disable this function. Another thing can be improved is that, if there is not enough rating for current version, an average rating for previous version should be indicated, not only the overall rating. Many apps by indies keep polishing their app, the quality is much better then the early versions. One more thing has been complained a lot is the pop up window to ask user to rate/review when the app is about to delete. There's got be a better place to ask review.
Doesn't iTunes already provide this? Ratings are the Average of all ratings on the current version. Under the breakdown where it shows how the ratings for the current version there is an average rating from all versions of the app. Are you talking about the pop up where you are able to rate an app right after you delete it? If so it was already removed as of iOS 4, due to the fact that it increased the amount of 1 star reviews a developer would get.
What I suggest is another rating indication for previous version, not just the all version average. Good to know the pop up window is gone.
I have been having the same recent problems as others in that promo code area. I am leaving reviews in the U.S store. I can see what the reasoning is behind such a move but I feel it hurts the app store more than it helps it. I know that when I am looking for apps from a developer I don't know, I always look to see what users are saying, the same when shopping at Amazon.com. I find the reviews very helpful and informative, even though there are other places to look up reviews. It is true that the system can be abused but I find for the most part that it works as is. Even without users leaving inflated reviews you would still have that problem. How many times have you seen very short reviews with only a few words posted over and over again in only slightly different ways that scream "Hi, I am the developer or his/her friends trying to inflate my rating". I can't speak for developers in general (and I am only an end-user) but I find the developers who post to this forum a cut above the rest. Even though I am happy to post a glowing review for an app that I love, other times I have given quite the opposite. I try to be tactful and make it solid constructive criticism since I appreciate that they have put a lot of effort into creating an app, any app. A number of times, developers have PMed me to thank me for such solid, helpful feedback even though it was negative! They also seemed to take it really to heart and really improved their products so when they were updated and improved I was happy to update my review accordingly. Although, there may be unscrupulous types who may try to inflate their ratings that way I think in the end the truth will come out with repeated reviews. The developers who really count on that feedback to find out why people have stopped downloading their product, what needs to be improved or even to get word out about their product wind up losing out. To me it seemed like a win-win situation in that not only does word get out about a product with a promo code and review but people are exposed to products they might enjoy but otherwise would not try. As a computer game example, I originally had no interest whatsoever in RTS games (Real Time Strategy), a genre that my brother loves. He pestered and pestered me to try Age of Empires, finally promising me that in 2 minutes of instruction he could have me up and running and that if I didn't enjoy it he wouldn't bother me again. I wound up really loving it and soon after bought my own and subsequent expansions, not to mention other games like Starcraft, World of Warcraft and Command and Conquer to name only a few. Similarly, promo codes to a single app can make people interested in not only that app but other apps from that developer or more apps in that genre. Take catapult games like Angry Birds, if you try and like that you will find yourself looking for not only the other Angry Birds apps but catapult games made by other developers as well. I have no easy answer, apps that free that day can accomplish the same thing (and at least then you could still leave a review) but I hope that there will be some provision made so that developers can still have access to helpful feedback even if it isn't what they were hoping, at first, to hear. Ok, that is probably more than people wanted to read....now to hide before the flaming begins!!
Soon, the admins can close the promo code section. No reviews anymore = no codes anymore. I expect a big whining. Why should you devs give them away now? I would send them to review sites instead.
Too true. Unless a small dev getting his footing into the store is looking for solid feedback within the forums, there really is no incentive to give promo codes here. Or on the opposite end, a big name company gives a few codes away to build up hype and get people doing whatever for their game to earn a code.
I expect some devs may still provide them, but may just send via PM to users who actually provided good feedback. Or they may simply offer a gift code to those same users to get both feedback and rating/review on iTunes.
