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So long Epinions, and thanks for all the fish!Aug 26 '02 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line With a bow of her head & a wave of her hand... she was gone.
Once upon a time… I came upon a fun and amazing kingdom called Epinions. There were people from all over the world, from all different walks of life and they shared consumer information and opinions about a wealth of products. Life was good! I always consulted this community when purchasing something new. I valued the opinions and views… good and bad. I enjoyed finding those people who were most like me, who reviewed products I was personally interested in, who gave honest and thoughtful reviews. I added those people to my WoT, and life was good. But then I came upon many ugly beasts... Epinioners who would give reviews the highest ratings without even reading… just so they would be liked and popular... The “Advisor” who decided he didn’t understand my style of writing and even though I gave thorough and thoughtful reviews, often spending days on them… I was only worthy of “Somewhat Helpful.” (All this after receiving an offer from a local newspaper to become a consumer critic… directly stemming from her reading those “Somewhat Helpful” reviews.) /deep sigh The revenge raters… those ugly 3-headed monsters who see you’ve given them anything less than the highest marks and decide to let-loose holy havoc on your reviews… The holier-than-thou “Editor” who decided I was an atheist for writing a review on a book about life-after-death (oh my!!!!) and sent me nasty emails about going to hell… The cheaters who review products they’ve never used. How sad to buy something based on one of their reviews… People who plagiarize, start-up multiple accounts and otherwise try and make their pennies through dishonesty. I guess these are the people who still believe “popularity” means “I am loved and I am good!”. So sad for them that high school only lasts four years. I believe the “titles” awarded to users and the pennies paid out to reviewers are killing Epinions. I no longer read Epinions as a source of consumer information as I once did. I realize now it’s an immature, ego-feast that fuels so many of the ratings and reviews nowadays (not all, but enough to always leave me in doubt when I read something). So many reviewers simply want to be popular. People still think they can make it rich. Too many “titles” with too much power over the rest of us peons. How many of you actually use this site for consumer information? How many of you actually trust the opinions and ratings anymore? Rarely do I ever see ratings on reviews that are more than a week old… what does that tell me? That User-Joe isn’t rating (or reading) reviews unless he believes he’ll get something in return, and who is going to get a return-click on a review that is a year old? So sadly… I will log out of Epinions in a few minutes and not look back. I cashed in, the check is in the mail (something I thought I’d never do). After three years of toil, the ugly beasts have finally defeated me. I only hope this community can recover. As for me… I have lost faith in this kingdom and its leaders, and I must move on. Best of luck to you all and fare thee well…  |
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