A few months back, Amazon invited me to become one of its Vine Reviewers. That means I occasionally get free stuff in exchange for reviews. Unfortunately,my “Vine Voice” status shows up on every product I review, including the ones I’ve purchased out of my own pocket. It also means that people assume my reviews are going to be glowing since, after all, I get free stuff sometimes.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Here are a few of the things I’ve reviewed on Amazon recently, along with my ratings. Items I received for free from the Vine program are noted, as are the things I paid for myself. (You’re also welcome to check out my other reviews, too.)
BOOKS
Source: Vine Program
Rating: 2 of 5 stars.
Find my review here: Too Many Flashbacks, Too Little Editing
Source: Review copy provided by author
Rating: 5 of 5 stars.
Find my review here: A Whole New Way Of Thinking About Change
GAME DOWNLOADS
Source: Self-pay
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Find my review here: Immersive little HOG
STUFF
Source: Vine Program
Rating: 1 of 5 stars
Find my review here: Difficult to format properly with Word
As always, caveat emptor.
Monday, May 17th, 2010, 9:13 am | 
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May 18, 2010 at 4:52 am
Hi,
I must say, very well done. Nice reviews. I was more attracted to the game download review. Perhaps we can also buy these things from online auctions.
May 31, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Hi, You can remove the “Vine Badge” from your reviews by changing the option in the “Your Vine Account” tab “Manage Your Vine Badge”. Your Vine reviews will still have the green banner.
This will likely also reduce the number of random “Vine Envy” negative votes. Mine slowed down quite a bit after I turned it off.
June 3, 2010 at 11:12 am
Thank you for that tip, CFH!