You know how I kind of ramble about whether you can trust reviews online (Among other things. :p ) There's a reason for that.
I was browsing Steam some time back, and there was this one particularly harsh review. This prompted the devs to respond publically. And what they said was essentially "Someday, you're gonna make enough money from your projects to make it worth sending lawyers after you"
And then there's the stories about moderate reviews on Youtube getting culled so the critics of Ghostbusters look like frothing at the mouth crazies, or the various Yelp lawsuits.. Hear enough and you start to wonder how common it is to "silence" any and all criticism, by whatever means necessary (Never mind if some palms are greased on top of that. That's kind of expected, that people court relationships with others for mutual favors..)
The big thing that got me thinking was a personal encounters, though. How common it is for people to use the word "sue" as an intimidation tactic in real life, for NOTHING. (I've had a snotty auto parts dealer threaten to sue me for defamation because I told him I'd tell my auto club to steer clear of this arsehole. Who was basically ranting on me claiming a part did not exist for sale, and I found a part and tried to point it out, while he didn't want to hear it.)
So yeah, I'm not ranting about "lies" or "conspiracy theories" or anything like that. More, I'm wondering if everyone "intimidates" now, for any minor offence,,and if most people "cave in" (Say, remove/alter a review on threat of litigation.)
And not knowing, it's hard knowing who to trust. Which for me is VERY annoying (Makes me feel like a paranoid nut..)