This is why we ask for listener reviews/ratings as much as we do & why you really should leave one for ANY smaller/indie podcast you enjoy, to combat this.

Any podcast community I've joined is full of it, lads trading fake reviews to inflate their numbers.

This in no way helps "local" podcasts. It hurts them. Most apps (Apple in particular) use user reviews to determine chart positions, and lads trying to game that system are making it more difficult for smaller creators to find new listeners.

It's already hard enough to be discoverable among all the major network backed shows on these apps, whiteout lads ruining trust in smaller creators on those platforms and making the charts meaningless.

To be very blunt about it: if you need fake reviews, you probably don't have a very good show, and cheating your way into the charts only makes people less likely to actually trust said charts, therefore ruining one of the primary ways people find new podcasts.

Smaller podcasts without a major network or massive marketing budget rely on that and word of mouth. You're hurting both.

End of rant.

Also, please give us a review if you listen to the shows and actually like it