Book Review Craziness

Makes me wonder

According to the author grapevine:

• If the book has no review, it's not shown in search.
• If a book has over 50 reviews, it might be shown to potential readers and included in the selling site's email campaign.

Pressured, desperate authors are willing to do anything to get reviews and it's getting pretty nasty.

• They beg and send "friendly reminders" to friends and family.
• Humiliate themselves with constant begging.
• Give out hundreds of books for free hoping someone might write a review.
• Pay a lot of money to shady services.
• Write "glowing" exchange reviews for each other.
• Their minions write nasty reviews on books in the same genre.

A monster has been created! 
Reviews were meant to be a tool that readers could use to give their opinion freely and without pressure.

I did a reader survey recently:

• 65% of the readers said they don't bother writing reviews. They enjoy the story and move on to the next book.
• 4% said they only write something if the book is crap. Either has a bad story line, or badly edited.
• 22% said they never read the reviews. They look at the cover and read the synopsis, or someone recommends the book to them.
• 9% said they watch for free books on social sites, but rarely write reviews.

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Personal note:
I would love to have hundreds of reviews on each of my books, which author wouldn't? For me, this is the only feedback I get on my stories besides my editor's notes on what I did wrong. Grammar mistakes, sentence structure and so on.

However, realistically, I can't expect the opinion of every reader. But when a rare review pops up on my books, it makes me happy.
I appreciate every single feedback, good or bad (lucky me, so far I only have good reviews)

But...
I will not beg or pay for reviews. I've been giving out ARC copies or run promo days on selling sites, but I don't go crazy over not getting reviews for the free or discounted books.
Hopefully, my books remain to be noticed by readers even with only a few, or no reviews.