App reviews are an important part of the Atlassian Marketplace. Reviews on the app listing provide valuable social proof to customers who are vetting apps.
While we know most Marketplace Partners understand and respect this need for true customer feedback, we also know we can do more to make Marketplace app reviews more trustworthy.
Today, we’re announcing the latest step toward more trustworthy app reviews: reviewer verification.
What we’ve done so far
Flag to report suspicious reviews
We currently have a mechanism for Marketplace Partners and customers to report suspicious reviews via the Marketplace Support service desk. These reports go into a queue that the Atlassian team reviews on a weekly basis. This process has led to the removal of numerous verifiably fake reviews over the past year.
Reviewer attestation
We started taking initial steps toward verifying reviewers earlier this year by adding a check box to the review submission form. When submitting a review, a user must now check a box stating that they are (or were recently) a user of the app they are reviewing. Atlassian recorded this consent.
Introducing: reviewer verification
Now, we’re taking this a step farther, from reviewer attestation to Atlassian verification of reviewers. Starting today, the review process will be as follows:
- user must be logged in with a verified email that does not belong to the vendor of the relevant app
- user writes their review
- user checks the box stating that they are a user of the app
- user submits their review
- brief delay while Atlassian verifies that the reviewer actually has the app installed on their instance, or had it installed on their instance in the past 6 months
- review becomes live on the Marketplace listing
This additional step will add a short delay between review submission and publication, but it will provide an additional layer of verification. Ultimately, we expect this review step to reduce the incidence of fake reviews on the Marketplace.
For now, we will only be adding the verification step to cloud app listings. Also, since we were not previously recording this information and cannot retroactively verify whether reviewers had apps installed, we will not be proactively removing old reviews at this time. However, if you see reviews that you suspect were not posted by app users, we encourage you to report them via the link under the review on the Marketplace.
What we’ll do next
In addition to adding a verification step on the Marketplace, we are working on strengthening our policies around what constitutes fair behavior on the Marketplace. We will communicate updated policies and associated enforcement mechanisms as soon as they are finalized.
Our hope is that with a clearer shared understanding of fair play on the Marketplace, we can all deliver a transparent, honest, and trustworthy experience for customers.
We also plan to explore reviewer verification for Data Center apps and additional checks to prevent fake reviews.
How can Marketplace Partners stay up to date?
Marketplace Partners (and all members of the Developer community!) are welcome to join us for our Quarterly Marketplace Roadmap Webinars to get regular updates on progress for this and all product initiatives impacting Marketplace Partners.
You can also stay up to date by following the Marketplace change log, or watching the updates in the Partner Portal.