1. Selective Review Display for Paying Users:

The passage highlights a perceived disparity in Trustpilot’s treatment of paying business users, who apparently have the ability to choose which reviews are displayed on their site based on star ratings or specific selections. The author questions how this differs from manually embedding customer reviews.

2. Critique of Trustpilot’s Business Model:

The author expresses a critical view of Trustpilot’s business model, labeling it as “shady.” Several points are raised to support this claim:

Unverified Public Reviews: Trustpilot allows anyone to publicly review a company without verification or authentication.

Automatic Listing Notification: Companies are notified by Trustpilot when they are listed on the platform.

Rights Signing: Registering to interact with reviews requires agreeing to Trustpilot’s terms, effectively signing away certain rights.

Email Encouragement: Trustpilot sends emails encouraging businesses to get more reviews.

Widget-Based Highlighting: Businesses can highlight reviews on their website using Trustpilot’s embeddable widgets, starting from $200/month.

Consumer Alert Threats: Trustpilot threatens to label a company as “untrustworthy” with a consumer alert if they use reviews without using the paid embed widget.

Removal of Alert Costs: To remove the consumer alert, businesses must pay $200/month or remove all mentions of Trustpilot from their site.

3. Defiance Against Trustpilot:

The passage concludes with the author stating their decision to ignore Trustpilot’s threats and continue using reviews on their website, despite being labeled “untrustworthy.”

Key Themes:

Critique of selective review display for paying users.
Disapproval of Trustpilot’s business model.
Highlighting elements of Trustpilot’s practices: unverified reviews, automatic listing notifications, rights signing, email encouragement, widget-based highlighting, consumer alert threats, and removal costs.
Author’s decision to defy Trustpilot’s threats.

Implications:

The passage suggests that Trustpilot’s practices, such as the selective display of reviews for paying users and the imposition of consumer alerts, contribute to a negative perception of the platform’s business model. The author’s decision to defy Trustpilot’s threats implies a resistance against what they perceive as unfair and coercive practices.