Envato Rewards Rule Breakers

Envato Authors AudioJungle
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I have been an active Audiojungle author for 5 years. In that time, I have received 51 reviews, spread out over a portfolio of 239 items. The minimum 3 ratings necessary for a visible review have been received by exactly one track, my best seller, which was released in late 2014.

Today I received a promotional email from Envato highlighting Top Rated items. One of the featured items is an Audiojungle track that was released in November 2018, had sold just under 300 times, and received a miraculous, statistically improbable 60 reviews. Its author has two other items with under 70 sales that also have visible ratings.

All Audiojungle authors who have been here any significant length of time know that ratings are rare. Very rare. Whenever a track receives too many ratings too quickly, it’s a sure sign that the author is gaming the system by either buying (and rating) the item themselves, or by having friends do so on their behalf.

So if we know this, why doesn’t Envato?? And why do they not only allow this behavior to continue, they reward it? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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ratings are rare lol yes and we all know that the people who come to rate first is dissatisfied people in priority … LOL

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I saw that email too. Some time ago I reported to support about some author’s strange ratings, which were clearly (for me) fake, I asked them to do some investigation on that matter, and I never heard from them ever since.

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This author has a lot of videos on YouTube, and +10 000 views on each video (I checked it out of curiosity). Do you consider that he still got this rating by not fair way? Maybe he sent each letter to his buyer with a reminder of the rating? Or just a very successful promotion on YouTube? :slight_smile: Although of course it’s doubtful to 60 reviews on one track (in a short period of time), this is a super success, but anything is possible.

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The self-rating game has been happening on Envato for the longest of times, like on Amazon and Ebay, but Envato does resolve this quite quickly. If you suspect someone is self rating their items you can always let Envato Help and Support know and the Author Integrity Team will check to see if this is actually the case. If an author does this on a regular basis they will get disabled.

I report these sort of occurrences quite often and I’d say 95% of the times I’m spot on on self raters, and those get removed quite quickly! :smiley:

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Reporting it now, once it’s already been promoted, wouldn’t much rectify the situation. I’m genuinely curious why the staffer responsible for its inclusion in the emailer didn’t notice this obvious red flag (60 ratings?!?) in the first place.

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In this case, which is pretty obvious for anyone familiar with Audiojungle, they chose to promote it via email.

They either do not know their own marketplace, or willingly chose to promote a self rater.

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What about duplicate tracks and accounts?

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@EightBallAudio, @PurpleFog, mates, the guys that send the newsletters are part of the Marketing and Promotions team. I honestly can’t hold them liable for stuff like this.

In the end, it’s nearly impossible to police, 850.000 files, although staff do catch the obvious ones, some do slip through the cracks, so I do tend to understand how situations like these can slip through if they are actually false rating.

But as I said, do report them once you see them. This is against the Author Terms of Service and the Integrity Team will investigate.

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It’s a simple matter of awareness. I’m sure bringing their attention to the problem via a link to this thread would be an effective first step toward reducing the likelihood of this happening in the future.

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Yeah, it’s a matter of mistake, oversight OR lack of knowledge about the marketplace. I mean mistakes happen and let’s hope it was a mistake. Though some voices in my head keep whispering: it wasn’t a silly mistake :wink:

Hmmm in general I like your posts and way of thinking but this one looks little clumsy for me :wink:

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Well, you can leave all items that self rate and self purchase continue to exist like they’ve always done. I’m sure Envato will hire 100.000 staff members to check the over 4 million products available for sale against self purchases. Really mate, what do you want me to say? There are so many files here I find it normal for some to slip through the cracks. It’s indeed Envato’s job to find them, but with the sheer volume of items in existence, pointing to one that bends the rules is always welcomed and helps speed up things.

We always do that, but, you should always report items that violate the terms directly to Envato Support so the Integrity team can check them out and take the appropriate measure.

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Ich bin seit 5 Jahren aktiver Autor von Audiojungle (auch ich … die größte Dummheit, die ich in meinem Leben gemacht habe!). In dieser Zeit habe ich 51 Bewertungen erhalten (die dümmste Sache, die Sie in Ihrem Leben erhalten haben, bin ich sicher!), Die sich auf ein Portfolio von 239 Artikeln verteilen (WOW … was für ein F … K-Mann!) . Die mindestens 3 Bewertungen, die für ein sichtbares Review erforderlich sind, wurden von genau einem Titel, meinem Bestseller, erhalten, der Ende 2014 veröffentlicht wurde (ich bin beeindruckt!).

Heute habe ich eine Werbe-E-Mail von Envato erhalten, in der die am höchsten bewerteten Artikel hervorgehoben sind. Eines der vorgestellten Elemente ist ein Audiojungle-Track, der im November 2018 veröffentlicht wurde, knapp 300 Mal verkauft wurde und eine wundersame, statistisch unwahrscheinliche ** 60 ** -Bewertung erhielt. Sein Autor hat zwei weitere Artikel mit unter 70 Verkäufen, die ebenfalls sichtbare Bewertungen haben (wenn ich Sie wäre, wäre ich JETZT aus diesem Markt heraus!).

Alle Audiojungle-Autoren, die längere Zeit hier waren, wissen, dass Bewertungen selten sind (und dumm!). Sehr selten (und dumm!). Wenn ein Titel zu schnell zu viele Bewertungen erhält, ist dies ein sicheres Zeichen dafür, dass der Autor das System spielt, indem er den Artikel entweder selbst kauft (und bewertet) oder indem er Freunde dazu auffordert (gut … dumm!).

Wenn also * wir * das wissen, warum * nicht * Envato? Und warum lassen sie dieses Verhalten nicht nur * weiter *, * belohnen * es? : face_with_raised_eyebrow:
(Keine weiteren Kommentare!)
PS … Die verdammten Jungs wollen einfach unsere Zeit … “Zeit ist Geld!”

— Translated using Google Translate by Mods —
I’ve been an active author of Audiojungle for 5 years (including me … the biggest stupidity I’ve ever done in my life!). During that time, I received 51 reviews (the stupidest thing you’ve ever received in your life, I’m sure!), Which are spread over a portfolio of 239 articles (WOW … what a F … K man!). The minimum of 3 reviews required for a visible review were obtained from exactly one title, my bestseller, published in late 2014 (I’m impressed!).

Today I received a promotional e-mail from Envato highlighting the highest-rated articles. One of the featured elements is an audio jungle track that was released in November 2018, sold nearly 300 times and received a wondrous, statistically improbable ** 60 ** rating. Its author has two more articles with less than 70 sales that also have visible ratings (if I were you, I would be out of this market NOW!).

Any audio jungle writer who has been here for a long time knows that ratings are rare (and stupid!). Very rare (and stupid!). If a title receives too many ratings too quickly, this is a sure sign that the author is playing the system by either buying (and rating) the article or by asking friends (well … stupid!).

So if * we * know that, why * not * Envato? And why not just let this behavior * continue *, * reward it? : face_with_raised_eyebrow:
(No further comments!)
PS … The damn boys just want our time … “Time is money!”

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Can’t argue with that. However, in this case, they just had to check one item… before sending out this email.

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Rating on the tracks is very rare now. I think that this man bought himself. It seems to me that Envato should be made that the rating was made easier. Buyers forget about the evaluation after loading. Buyers do not want to evaluate. And if Envato makes noticeable assessment. New tracks at least will be searched by rating. Envato think how to solve this problem please. I wanted to write in support of this issue so that Envato thought over a new evaluation of the tracks. In another case, it makes no sense to

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Totally Agree with @EightBallAudio here, being around long enough to know how rare are ratings, even created threads laughing about this. This is too obvious. I’ve just sent a support ticket with the link of the track and I’ll be looking forward to the answer.

I guess it would be the same as with copycats and template authors: “We are investigating” :sweat_smile:

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Ok, this is outrageous, did you check the reviews? All the users have less than 10 purchases, and all the reviews are “perfect” with 5 starts and they are well written! Not one “empty” review or gramatical error. If you ever had a review, you know what I am talking about.
I completed my support request with all this facts.

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Because Envato is ready to block the accounts of authors who Express their dissatisfaction on the forum. authors who publish the same track under different names, buy tracks of their portfolio in large quantities and do other things that violate the rules - continue to exist as if nothing was broken.

I also several times reported about violations. These authors have not been punished in any way.

In my opinion it is pointless to seek justice here.

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I’ve reported obvious plagiarism twice. Both accounts were banned.

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I’ve seen so many tracks like this here… But the thing is, those authors probably wouldn’t even care if they get banned. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I guess they still don’t ask for a valid ID when a new account gets created.
Don’t get me wrong, I really do like Audiojungle and it took me years (!) to come to the conclusion to make an account here.
Simply because PRO registered music was not allowed (and therefore PRO authors; a fact many, including Envato, seemed to overlook - or just breached several contracts willingly).

I believe Envato CAN be the best marketplace for Royalty free items. And the community IS awesome. Even if the mood here has changed quite a bit since the time I used to lurk around the forums for the first time. And not for the better. But there are good reasons for that. While I’m all for spreading positivity instead of negativity, it would be incredibly naive to stay quiet and try to be positive about things that just aren’t. There are quite a few things that have to change. Many of which have been discussed in countless threads in this very forum. And any great community needs a healthy amount of discussion. So kudos to everyone who contributes the constructive critique on here.
I don’t want to go off topic for too long…

  1. If ID verification still isn’t a thing here, it needs to be. For obvious reasons.

  2. The rating system (or any rating system for that matter) for audio on Envato doesn’t make any sense at all.
    This has been mentioned by quite a few authors here before. Unlike code, After Effects Templates etc. there is no need to test audio. The customer gets what he/she hears in the preview file. If he/she wouldn’t find it useful, there wouldn’t be a sale in the first place.
    So why on earth should a customer even take the time to rate items. That’s why they don’t. Simple.

  3. Showing the number of sales next to an item is counterproductive for the whole marketplace.
    It’s psychology 101. Of course it does help skyrocket the sales of few items. It’s quite a good sales tactic for small music libraries with few tracks. But in the long run, it’s incredibly unhealthy for big music marketplaces.
    There is a very good reason no top-tier music library in the world does this…

Many problems this marketplace has, would be solved by implementing just a few little changes, and guarantee a healthy, continuously growing marketplace in the long run.

I didn’t even want to write more than a sentence or two, but, well… :laughing:

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