That's a review I found on Barnes & Noble's site for Voltaire's A Treatise on Tolerance. The reason why I checked it is because whilst browsing I saw that book has a 1-star rating and vaguely wondered why this person hated Voltaire's work so much. It turns out he doesn't hate it at all but rather just got a misprinted copy.

See, this is why I hate online reviews and star system because people don't know how to critique something properly. Let's say for a moment I didn't know anything about Voltaire and just was looking for a book to read, I would from just glancing at it see that it's shit because people are giving it 1 star and then immediately dismiss it. Most of the time people aren't actually criticizing the thing but rather the seller (getting the product late) or customer service (didn't give you the discount you wanted). That doesn't tell me jack shit about the product itself.

I think people before they review things need to sit down and think properly about criteria. Like something being good in general vs. whether it was good for you. For example, I saw a ranking of the NYC subway systems and the 1 train was low on the list because it takes forever to get from upper Manhattan to lower Manhattan. Well... yeah. It's the fucking local train. Do you want it to magically turn into an express train to satisfy your impatience and the people along the route just don't get any service at all? That's a terrible fucking reason to say something is bad. You can complain about the 1's recent signal problems, its propensity for randomly terminating service at 137th, or the high rate of encountering mariachi bands. That's something to bitch about. Not that it's local. You have to acknowledge that something has to be local because if not... well, let's face it: You'll be whining no trains stop by near your house.

I think if websites force people with more specific questions instead of just an open one ("what do you think of this product?" vs. "what was the quality of this product?" and "how was the shipping?") perhaps it would direct people more, but even then I think they'd just say dumb shit.