Review abuse

  • 1
  • Problem
  • Updated 8 months ago
  • In Progress
Hi. I would like to report that my reviews have been targetted by a malicious user tonight. So far the last 150 reviews I have submitted have been hit with a 'not helpful' vote in the last half hour. As you can see from the link below:
https://www.imdb.com/user/ur1616919/reviews
I would appreciate very much if this could be investigated and hopefully reversed.

Thanks in advance...
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Frazer Caird

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Posted 2 years ago

  • 1
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Jeorj Euler

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Hi, Frazer Caird. If the "no" votes were submitted by a somebody other than a bot, troll or spammer, then there might not be any merit in reversing them, as nobody would know whether the users who assigned the votes acted in good faith or not. It is possible that somebody read each and every one of your reviews and happened to sincerely not find any of them to be helpful. We don't know. However, let us see how the IMDb staff will respond, and if they uncover a dubious plot.
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Frazer Caird

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Hi Jeoj. It is definitely abuse mate, no doubt about it. These 'not helpfuls' are to every one of the last 150 in the space of a few minutes. Something similar happened a few years ago - although nothing like on this scale and the IMDb admins were able to reverse it, and presumably identify the abusive user. So I am hoping this can be reversed. It would be very disheartening if not, as it is a lot of submission work simply being trashed in the space of 5mins by someone.
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Frazer -

Thanks for reporting these occurrences, I have filed a ticket for the appropriate team to investigate further.
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Frazer Caird

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Hi Michelle. Its been a month since I reported this, is there any news on it?
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Frazer Caird

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Hi Michelle, is there any update?
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Frazer Caird

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Thank you very much Michelle. I appreciate this very much :)
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Frazer -

I just checked on the ticket and it is still being reviewed and investigated by our tech team.  Once I have an update I will let you know the status here.  Thanks again for your patience!
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Frazer Caird

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This has been over two months now Michelle. I have been really patient but nothing seems to be happening aside from me chasing it for an update. How much longer am I liable to have to wait?
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Frazer -

The ticket filed is still open and pending further investigation, as mentioned above, once the issue has been addressed I will update you with the status here.  Cheers!
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Frazer Caird

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Thank you Michelle.
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Bethany

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I'm having a similar problem Frazer, and am sorry you're going through this. My case is not as bad, being not for every review, but I am confused and upset by it as I put a lot of effort and thought to my reviews. I have been writing reviews for individual episodes of 'Once Upon a Time' and a couple of hours ago or so I wrote a review for the Season 5 finale. I have found from about last week that somebody downvoted all of my Season 5 reviews (I haven't seen whether they've done it for my reviews of the previous four seasons but it seems likely) in a matter of minutes or certainly a short period of time which makes me suspicious. I just found that they downvoted the latest review clearly not long after it was submitted, I just checked as to whether the previous three reviews for the episode were downvoted too and they were not which makes me feel I'm being targeted.


What's upsetting for me is being in the dark as to why this behaviour is happening and why I seem to be targeted as I don't feel there's anything wrong with the reviews, it's all my own work and there is no terms and conditions violating. I do feel they achieve my aims of being perceptive, evaluative and respectful, clearly outlining what was good and bad without resorting to insults or condescension. That cannot be said for a lot of reviews being submitted nowadays. There is some similar wording here and there in summing up my overall thoughts of the show and of the respective seasons, due to many having similar strengths and faults abd showing whether the episodes fare in correlation, but from my outlining of the good and bad and naming standout scenes, performances and particularly good or bad assets without giving anything crucial away there is a lot about the episodes themselves. I really do not want this behaviour to continue, and it would be helpful for this to be investigated as it is starting to be with you because this is definitely suspicious. If I am doing something wrong, I will put my hands up outright and address it.


Sorry for the rambling. I try to explain and justify a lot and I find myself always writing a chapter of a book's worth. Hope this is sorted for you as what is happening is definitely suspicious activity. Writing reviews for the episodes have been part of a project of reviewing all the episides of the show. This I feel abuse has put me off continuing with the project if the reviews for the next two seasons are treated this way. Is it possible for the not useful votes are removed and the user(s) responsible dealt with?
(Edited)
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Frazer -

I'm just following up here to confirm that the abuse case you reported has been reviewed by the appropriate team.  As we are considering systematic changes and approaches to this type of behavior we have documented this as a working use-case to prevent this abuse from happening in the future.  Thanks again for your report!
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Jeorj Euler

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Glad to hear.
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Frazer Caird

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Encouraging to hear Michelle. Do you know if the abusive behaviour can be reversed in my case?
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Frazer Caird

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Well, that has been a whole year and still nothing has been done with this! I guess prolific reviewers such as myself are of extremely minor importance these days in IMDb. Several years ago when I reported the exact same issue, the admins sorted the problem and reversed the mass negative feedback within a couple of weeks of me reporting it.

I have submitted just shy of 1,800 fairly detailed reviews to the IMDb over the years. But you will notice I have not submitted a single one since thie fiasco happened a year ago and I certainly intend never to submit any others as long as this situation remains. I've been very patient but you guys have up to now did literally nothing for me here.
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