Rotten Tomatoes has introduced Verified Ratings and Verified Reviews. This new feature tags ratings and reviews from people who Rotten Tomatoes can confirm have bought tickets to see the movie in question. Thereby locking out the bad actors.
In March 2019, Rotten Tomatoes made some changes designed to stop people review-bombing movies. Review-bombing being a coordinated effort to lower a review score. Rotten Tomatoes is trying to stop the haters hating, and it has a new trick up its sleeve.
How Verified Ratings and Verified Reviews Work
As detailed in a post on the Rotten Tomatoes Blog, the popular movie and TV review site has introduced Verified Ratings and Reviews. Both of which are limited to people Rotten Tomatoes knows have seen the movie they’re rating or reviewing.
From now on, movies will feature an Audience Score made up purely of people who have seen the film. These will be known as Verified Ratings. Written reviews from those users will also be tagged as “Verified,” giving you more confidence in the opinion.
So proud of team @RottenTomatoes
For those that may not get how things this big happen.
Lemme tell y’all: it’s the cumination of thousands of manhours, convos w/ stakeholders & technical logistics.
I ?? my company is always looking to do & be better.https://t.co/PS9ePZ0905
— Jacqueline @ #Cannes2019 (@THATJacqueline) May 23, 2019
These Verified Ratings will be what’s used for the main Audience Score you can see. If you want to see the Audience Score which includes ratings from non-verified users you’ll need to click “More Info”. You can then toggle between the two to see the difference.
Rotten Tomatoes will verify you’ve seen a movie by matching your Rotten Tomatoes email address with the email address you used to buy the ticket. This currently only works with Fandango, with AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark coming soon.
Stopping Bad Actors From Spreading Their Hate
By introducing Verified Ratings and Reviews Rotten Tomatoes is doing its part to stop bad actors from unfairly influencing people’s opinions. And before anyone cries, “But what about free speech?” the unverified reviews are still there for everyone to see.
Review-bombing isn’t a problem confined to movies. Video games have also been hit by groups with an ax to grind. Things got so bad that Valve tried to stop haters review bombing games. The haters will always be there, but we can limit their impact.
Image Credit: Marco Verch/Flickr
Read the full article: Rotten Tomatoes Introduces Verified Ratings
