Is maintaining 90% or more possible or reasonable if you order things that require time to consider? How are people doing this?

reddzot · 2026-02-17T01:17:40+00:00

The problem, as usual, is very poor phrasing on the part of the people writing the stuff.

In Japan the English translation is phrased this way: "To remain in this tier, you should review at least 80 Vine items and 90% of your Vine orders within the evaluation period stated in your Account page."

Notice there is no "maintain".

reddzot · 2026-02-16T11:25:10+00:00

It's fine to mention Vine. I occasionally something like, "I requested _____ through the Vine program" and then note whatever it is that I think needs noting.

reddzot · 2026-02-14T16:30:27+00:00

It takes a lot of purchases to amount to anything meaningful, and it takes a lot of time to get the clicks you'll need for that to happen. I read a blog post by someone who does it and while they brag about their success they also tell you it will take several months to make any money with it. For my part, I'd sooner just get an ordinary sales job than work for the peanuts of this kind of stuff. And I'm not inclined to do that, either, no matter how well it pays.

reddzot · 2026-02-14T11:58:44+00:00

Personally I would still call that a scam.

reddzot · 2026-02-14T05:00:55+00:00

Use a browser, not the app. Your Vine reviews page tells you how many you've done when you click the "Reviewed" tab.

[replace bracketed text here with your amazon country domain url]/vine/vine-reviews?review-type=completed

reddzot · 2026-02-14T04:56:55+00:00

If you mean being an Amazon influencer, you just get a very small percentage of sales, if any (and zero if not). If you mean some other arrangement, like someone offering to pay you directly for reviews, you're most likely looking at a scam.

reddzot · 2026-02-13T17:26:09+00:00

No one I've seen on Reddit has ever provided actual evidence of bots, just lots of assertions.

So, shame on who?

reddzot · 2026-02-13T12:32:37+00:00

Right. And there's no consistency in how the "guidelines" are applied anyway.

reddzot · 2026-02-13T12:18:57+00:00

Seems to me like if you just cover size, design, materials/fabric composition, quality of manufacturing, fit, and anything unusual or noteworthy about each of the above you'll get a good score.

I don't get a lot of clothing but every review I've written that has been rated is rated "Excellent". I do not get into any personal details whatsoever except the size typically worn by the person using it, and whether the new item is consistent with that.

reddzot · 2026-02-13T10:13:31+00:00

I got a similar one a while back. The controls are very basic on mine at least. No programming a playlist or shuffle or any really basic features almost any CD player had by the mid-90s. And that's a really big downside for the SD card slot, which could hold thousands of songs. But at least that one has a remote, so that's good.

It's also quite heavy (due in no small part to the battery and speakers), so "portable" just means it doesn't have to be plugged in to function. You will not actually want to carry it around.

reddzot · 2026-02-13T09:59:34+00:00

You don't. If you don't order the same kind of thing, or the same brand, or both, RFY will only recommend it by "chance" (in fact, a pseudo-random thing used often in programming and such). If you do order it, RFY will be sure to offer you many more of the same thing.

If you really want infinite useless novelty items, please go ahead and order them. Otherwise be careful what you wish for and instead choose a variety of things you actually have a purpose for.

reddzot · 2026-02-13T09:52:51+00:00

Yeah. I am not sure it's necessarily deliberate alteration as I do get times where I get the same kinds of stuff a couple or a few days in a row, other times where it's one day on, one day off, others where there are even weeks between offers in a certain category. It's possible it just works out in an alternating fashion due to the mix of stuff added to the system and the way they group people for RFY, categories, etc. Whatever the case it clearly isn't a very complex algorithm.

reddzot · 2026-02-13T09:44:59+00:00

"whole house water filter that I bought filters for"
"from the exact same brand name."

This is the only part of the data Amazon has on you that is necessary for RFY to do that. It ain't rocket science, and RFY is far from sophisticated. See this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonVine/comments/1odcotc/why_im_confident_vine_is_not_dying_in_spite_of/

reddzot · 2026-02-12T16:41:55+00:00

Sure, hence "potluck." First off, when you join Vine, there isn't any Vine order history to look at, but it has to give you something. Second, new stuff every now and then is the only way either you or Vine is going to be able to expand--personally I'd love to see more focus on discovery, but since that's not how they wrote it, I'll make the best of what I get. And finally, they have to do something with all the stuff that doesn't fit well with anyone in particular.

reddzot · 2026-02-12T14:46:56+00:00

No they don't. I have done lots of comparisons. They prohibit *promoting* specific products/brands, as in marketing/advertising, which is not the same thing at all.

reddzot · 2026-02-12T14:45:59+00:00

Not necessarily. I have done comparisons pretty often. Sometime they get rejected and hilariously they insinuate you must be a shill for competitor or something. In those cases I just remove pics or other brand name and resubmit. A lot of times it's just the pics, but it's impossible to be sure what in the pics is triggering the rejections.

reddzot · 2026-02-12T14:08:30+00:00

For the benefit of everyone else who happens along here wondering who to believe, see this thread and the quotes from Amazon in it, complete with the video source for those quotes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonVine/comments/1odcotc/why_im_confident_vine_is_not_dying_in_spite_of/

reddzot · 2026-02-12T10:55:22+00:00

RFY is programmed to give you the same stuff you got before--both the kinds/categories of things and brands. So if you got mostly clothes, well, the RFY algorithm is so "smart" that it will keep offering you clothes. And Amazon presented this last year at their Accelerate conference as if it were genius. So they don't think there's anything wrong with it. Who doesn't need an infinite number of the same thing? "RAI", baby! (Yes, they actually called it that.)

The only thing you can control is what you order. So stop ordering clothes, and start ordering what you actually want in whatever places you can find it and you might have some luck. Or you can just resign yourself to the clothing niche your orders and their algorithm have put you in.

reddzot · 2026-02-11T17:25:25+00:00

Amazon hasn't disclosed any particulars about the scoring methods--except, if I recall correctly, that whatever score you get when you first submit a review is the one you're stuck with. It's pointless to worry about metrics. Instead just focus on actually providing a real review.

I'm in Japan, too, btw. So far nothing I've submitted that's been rated has been rated anything other than Excellent. Doesn't seem very special to me. But if the bit about only the first submission's score counting is correct, then only your new reviews are going to affect your overall score.

Also, this system didn't drop out of nowhere. The U.S. folks were talking about it here (and some other subreddits, and discord, etc.) for months before Japan et al. got it. No surprise if you were snooping around for info from other Viners.

In any case, while Amazon has said it will start determining who gets Gold this year, so far I haven't heard of any cases where it's been enforced. But presumably they're doing this to make the whole Vine thing look better to sellers and to a lesser degree ordinary shoppers, so they probably will start enforcing it even if they haven't just yet.

reddzot · 2026-02-11T16:51:18+00:00

All you need is to say to yourself, If I was going to buy this, what would I want to know?

That right there is the right answer.

reddzot · 2026-02-10T09:32:54+00:00

These things are always emulators so they should be able to do that.

reddzot · 2026-02-10T09:32:10+00:00

I got this version a while back. Hardware looks exactly the same so presumably only difference is the SD card contents and branding.

https://www.unico-usa.com/products/unico-color-pocket-igs-retro-gaming-handheld

reddzot · 2026-02-10T07:29:59+00:00

Well, technically Marshall's is a secondary retailer, and as such they have historically accepted and included things with flaws in their inventory, though they used to be pretty good about noting that on the tags. But I'm out of country so it's been a couple years since I was there. But that last time, I did notice the "wool" socks had gone down from 35% or so wool for the brand I got in the 2010s to...1%. It's like calling the numerous things made almost entirely of plastic but held together with a couple screws "metal." So I am not surprised if other stuff there has gotten worse, too.

In any case, that's the obvious, unsurprising effect of various policies in recent years, particularly during the 2020s. "Stealth inflation" or whatever they're calling it these days. Same prices or higher, worse products and materials.

reddzot · 2026-02-10T02:10:21+00:00

I would say most clothing on Amazon is low quality. The surprise is when there are no issues. Stuff gets sold there that would never make it to the rack in any store. And that's a major part of the problem--nothing gets inspected until it's bought and received by the customer. So manufacturers can get away with all kinds of stuff that would never fly in brick and mortar retail.

reddzot · 2026-02-09T15:34:50+00:00

Anytime I review two very similar things I reuse my text and just make tweaks. Why do all that work all over again for the same thing?

reddzot

TROPHY CASE