If anyone ever watches America's Test Kitchen on PBS, there was a hilarious moment regarding recipe reviewers that change absolutely everything about a recipe and then give it a bad review. They did one of their 'letters to the editor' segments and Chris Kimball read a letter which mentioned a previous test kitchen recipe which the writer had changed a lot of things in - I think they swapped chicken for shrimp, and didn't use dairy in the sauce, or something like that - and asked why the recipe didn't turn out. If I recall correctly, Kimball just replied with something brief like "yeah, that is a surprise" and moved on. Very New England.
I thought of another thing that bugs me about clothing reviews - don't assume that the color you bought will be obvious from your review. Most online retailers aggregate all the reviews of an item with all colors, including ones that may have sold out and aren't on the page anymore. So "most gorgeous color ever" or "a bit too orange" aren't really helpful if you don't *tell us what color you bought*.
Rabbit, I love the spoof Amazon reviews, because they're usually well-written, and very droll. And you're right, the review tells you about the reviewer and what they value, if it's any good at all. There have been a lot of times when I've bought a book, for instance, because of a bad Amazon review, because it's clear the reviewer has completely opposite preferences to mine or is just someone with an ax to grind. Same with some bad Yelp reviews of restaurants: "this place is way too quiet and mellow, I prefer loud music and lots of hot chicks in short skirts." I'm heading there for dinner right away!
