> Imagine if a professional writer for the tech news media submitted this app review to their editor for publication. The writer would likely be fired for incompetence.

It's not an article, it's a review. Everyone knows it's some random fuckwit.

> Below is a one-star review that I discovered today—App Store developers must check manually for reviews because Apple fails to send us email notifications...

There's an API. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appstoreconnectapi...

IIRC there's a webhook too.

> The reviews are irrationally nitpicky, choosing one quibble and making the entire review about that.

I've got bad news on those "professional writers" from the first bit.

> Some App Store users even abuse the review system for technical support purposes...

This probably means you've made your support system too hard to find/use.

> Indeed, if ratings requests were initiated by Apple, then Apple could go as far as to ban developer-initiated ratings requests in the App Store.

They did! It's a one-shot dialog now.

App devs responded by adding a "Are you liking the app?" nag screen of their own, which I say "yes" to, then decline the real one.

Developers made this bed for themselves.

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FabHK a day ago | parent [-]

> > Indeed, if ratings requests were initiated by Apple, then Apple could go as far as to ban developer-initiated ratings requests in the App Store.

> They did! It's a one-shot dialog now.

No. Apple provides an API, but Apple doesn't ask for reviews. The app has to initiate the process to ask for a review (through Apple's API). That is what the developer highlights: If Apple were to solicit reviews from customers, then said API could be retired and apps could reasonably be banned entirely from soliciting reviews. As it stands, they're caught in a tragedy of the commons, with unscrupulous developers winning (e.g. with fake reviews, or the annoying "are you satisfied" pop-up before displaying the Apple API).

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ezfe a day ago | parent | next [-]

The API limits how frequently (3/year) *and* can be fully blocked by any user for all apps.

They do get banned, effectively.

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spacedcowboy a day ago | parent [-]

And there is nothing to stop a developer putting up their own nag screen as many times as they like, only pushing through to the real one when they get a good response... And they do.

	▲	ezfe a day ago \| parent [-]
		If the OP did that then they deserve a 1 star rating. If they used Apple's system then they deserve a rating that doesn't deduct for the popup (and evidence seems to show that's what happens)

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ceejayoz a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> Apple provides an API, but Apple doesn't ask for reviews. The app has to initiate the process to ask for a review (through Apple's API).

I'm aware. The API to do so limits how often you can ask, because of the incessant nagging people did. Minor correction to my earlier comment: It's 3x/year, not 1x. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/ratings-and-reviews/

The nagging devs now get around this by doing their own prompts before it. (As many shitty websites do for web-based push notifications, for similar reasons.)