Ratings, Trust, and Epinions.com Overall
Jan 03 '00
I've been a member since late September, and I've always tried to keep to a consistent strategy of rating, writing, and trusting. So here they are, in order:
Rating:
I try to base my ratings on the quality of the review, keeping my own opinions out of the picture as much as possible. Like many others, I appreciate a well-written, engaging review - those by ChesterHY and halfsweet come to mind. I also look for good coverage of the item being reviewed - does the review give the reader a good idea of what the product is all about? Does the author give some details to support his or her assertions? If I feel that the reviewer has done an articulate, thorough job of covering the item in question, it gets a "Highly Recommended" from me. But I'm not afraid to go south with the ratings - reviews that are too short or contain multiple spelling/grammar errors always get the big "Somewhat" or even "Not." It's pretty easy to tell when someone is not taking this seriously.
Trusting:
Here I'm a lot more picky, which probably hurts my page views in the long run. But I really get offended by those people I consider promiscuous when it comes to trust - you know, those members who trust like 280 others. If you are judged by the company you keep, I want to be judged by my Web of Trust. When I come upon a new member, either by random surfing or by them trusting me, I check them out, usually reading the earliest opinions first. Lots of times a person's first review can tell a lot about how serious they are about all of this. Once I've scanned a few of their reviews (giving them eRoyalties the whole time, I might add) I'll decide whether or not I want to trust them. No trust promiscuity for me.
As for Epinions.com as a whole, I am really impressed with what these folks have turned out here. I read the article in the New York Times about what a rapid startup they were, and how the original team was a group of "startup veterans" in the Valley who got together to whip this site up in six weeks or some godawfully short amount of time. At first I just liked the trickle of status I got as a reviewer - first there were favorable reactions to my reviews, then I was asked to be a magazines expert, then I was able to cash a non-trivial amount of eRoyalties! That last one really got my attention, and it's what I think will make this site a raging success. I can only wonder what else they have up their collective sleeve once they take off the "preview" and really go live with this beast. Other sites have tried to execute this concept, but I think Epinions.com got the business model dead right.
But the real crux of it just occurred to me the other day. What they are collecting amounts to a marketing gold mine - Epinions.com can sell the aggregate product data they accumulate back to the manufacturers, which is invaluable marketing data when it comes to future product development. So much like the Hollywood Stock Exchange has attracted the attention of the studios, Epinions.com will attract (or perhaps already *has* attracted) the attention of product marketers everywhere. If you read the FAQ they as much as tell you this when they answer the question: "Do you share or sell opinions?" Their reply: "Epinions.com has many partner sites and provides them with opinions, as well as collecting opinions from them. Your opinions may appear on other sites, but your personal information will not be shared or sold." Translation: Your personal information is all yours, but your opinions will line our pockets with cash. Brilliant!
As a side note, it's fascinating to watch how this site evolves, and how people's use of it evolves. I just checked out a member (computergirl) who has somehow managed to post her own modeling pics as products, then write reviews of them. She's got three up so far, and they're not bad. There are other examples of this kind of thing, exploiting the framework they've given us to deliver social commentary, opinions on child discipline, and the like. I think that rather than squash these little rebellious pockets, Epinions.com should encourage them. They've obviously tapped into some deep-seated need to express one's thoughts, and the best part is that the site is so wonderfully democratic about these "pearls" that emerge. If the rest of the members decide that someone's opinion is hastily scrawled or just badly expressed, that page is stuffed at the bottom of the heap where it will probably never get read. But the really good pieces, the true pearls, are rising to the top, and those authors who produce serious, well-formed reviews seem to be receiving the recognition they deserve (as well as the cash!).
There is plenty of room for abuse, however, and I think that as the membership continues to grow (any idea how many active members there are now?) we will see more people abusing the system and really trying to screw things up. With real cash involved, potentially semi-serious money for a really high-volume reviewer, it's like a siren call for exploitation - what's to stop me from gathering a group of friends, each posting about 400 crapola reviews, and then hitting each other's pages consistently to rack up the eRoyalties? I don't doubt that the Epinions gurus have mechanisms in place to try and detect such behavior, but human ingenuity is astounding sometimes, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is an eRoyalties scandal brewing already. But that's in the future - for now, everything seems to be going swimmingly, and I applaud the Epinions crew for a job well done.
That's all for me - if you read this far, thanks, and please feel free to add comments to this review. I'm very interested to hear your philosophy about this site and how you approach it.
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Epinions.com ID:
DougAlexander
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Reviews written: 61
Trusted by: 137 members
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