My first few weeks, my first few epinions, my first few experiences and observations Aug 30 '02    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Books Mildred D. Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: A Literature Unit From $8 Olivier Dunrea - Ollie From $7 The Bottom Line I've enjoyed reading and contributing to Epinions so far. Expect to see more of me in the near future! I joined Epinions a few months ago and have since been writing my first few reviews. When I put up the first one, I was surprised to find that after only a few minutes I had a comment on it. I guess there are quite a few people keeping an eye on the site for new epinions. To all of you who have already commented on my reviews, thank you for making me feel welcome to this site. Good to see that it automatically spellchecks reviews. Though it would be even better if it: - gave the user a clue of the correct spelling (though this isn't really a problem for me); - didn't have a bug making it catch "didn" at the beginning of this line, as well as any word followed by a quotation mark; - had an option to stop it highlighting every non-Americanism on the page; - recognised the product name being reviewed as being spelled correctly; - knew the name of this website! I've set up comment notifications on a few reviews. I get these even if the only comment is my own one, and even if I switch the notification on just after posting my comment. Do I really need an email telling me that I, myself, have written a comment on a review? I'd personally rather have the email telling me that someone else has replied to my comment or otherwise added one. Looking at the FAQ, I found the following: At this time, Epinions is not accepting suggestions for additions to our product database. In the future, we intend to provide tools for you to help us expand our offerings. And I've also found in the General Feedback form a "Suggest a Product" option. What's this if it isn't a way of suggesting an addition to the database? I've also noticed that the ability of category leads to add products is being phased in. I wonder if this is what the "tools for you to help us expand our offerings" is referring to, or if that's something else they're planning to implement. Aside from a few individual products that I've noticed aren't listed, there are few kinds of things that I just wish Epinions covered. These include services for webmasters, such as guestbook and mailing list providers. (There seem to one or two things of this nature in Online Stores and Services, but they don't seem easy to find.) A number of websites list these services, but although they tend to be free, it isn't easy to 'shop' around as it often takes signing up and trying them out for a while to see if they really have the features I'm after. Maybe being able to read users' reviews of these services would make things easier. Still on the subject of what's listed and what isn't, for some reason certain sections such as "Theme Parks" and "Colleges and Universities" seem to be limited to the USA and one or two of its dependencies. If Epinions is anything like as much an international community as the rest of the .com TLD and the Internet as a whole, I'd be very surprised if in the years it's been running nobody's submitted a suggestion for a theme park or university anywhere else in the world to add to the listings. Surely the structure of these sections should be able to accommodate these, even if this aspect of the structure is hidden for the time being. Or does it? Most of the reviews I've written so far have been on computer software of some kind. I've noticed some inconsistency in what rating fields are provided. Obviously some fields aren't always applicable, but even so, I've noticed: - There's no consistency in whether an "Amount paid" field is provided. As far as I've noticed it's on all the practical software but not the games, and it's missing from other parts of Epinions as well. - The game-related ratings (learning curve, replay value, graphics, sound) appear on PC games, but are missing from a lot of console games. Here's something else I'd like your opinion on. What would be the best place, if any, for a review of, say, WS_FTP LE? This doesn't have its own listing at this time of writing, but WS_FTP Pro does. I can see a few options here: - Although strictly speaking it isn't WS_FTP Pro, it is in a sense a demo version of it. Would a review of WS_FTP LE (clearly titled as such) be welcome under the WS_FTP Pro listing? - I'm not sure if the term "Freeware" really applies to cut-down versions of commercial products, but it seems the Freeware Worth Writing About topic is the other possibility. - Or do you think it would be off-topic under either heading, and that suggesting a separate WS_FTP LE listing would be a better course of action? Guess it's time to stop picking nits and look on the bright side of life. In general I am pleased that I found this site, and sharing my experiences and opinions (as well as quite a bit of factual information) has been a good experience for me, as has reading some excellent writings from fellow epinionators. That was my 10th epinion. No doubt there'll be plenty more to come when I've worked out what I'm going to write about. It's early days yet, and I'm probably not going to be writing my 100th epinion for another year, but who knows what the future will bring?

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