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Do The Right Thing – Epinions Hall of LegendsAug 19 '03 (Updated Aug 21 '03) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line There are some members whose value to the site and community exceeds their value as mere reviewers. It's time for Epinions.com to publicly recognize this fact.
The creation of this new editorial topic heading lends itself well to a subject near and dear to many of us long time members of this site. Before delving headfirst into a discussion of something long overdue, I offer my thanks to Epinions for their consideration of the membership’s needs. A recent chain of events brought to the forefront a concept that one Epinions member mapped out for our then CEO, Nirav Tolia, during a round of discussions that took place in December 2001 and January/February 2002. At that time, Epinions and certain members fleshed out the fine points of the Member Advisory Board, now titled the Category Lead program. The outcry from the community for a human touch in the Top Reviewer and Advisor selection process became part of the focus. Additional responsibilities discussed during those days also became part of the duties listed on Category Lead contracts. One lone voice brought up the idea of a Wall of Fame or permanent tag representing the best of those listed on Epinions’ membership roster. This concept sat on the back burner, occasionally mentioned in passing, until this week. What brought the idea back to the forefront has bearing on this editorial. Instead of my handing out a blow by blow report of recent events, I sent a request to the original mother of this invention asking if I could also post his editorial, too, in order to gain a wider audience for the topic at hand. In addition, please understand that I, on a personal level, would fight tooth and nail should Epinions decide to start churning out titles for every possible situation. The present system of Top Reviewers, Advisors, Category Leads seems to cover what the site requires to operate as an effective consumer resource. The addition of "Legend", for example, would simply give credit where credit is long overdue. Happily and most generously, Aggiebrett agreed that the dual posting under both of our names might expose the concept to a wider range of Epinions members. The importance of a more widespread readership lies with the fact that we are asking you to take part in the process of getting the idea from drawing board to actual implementation. What do we ask of you? Should you also feel that this idea of recognition for those members whose body of work and efforts on behalf of Epinions and the membership should become a reality, please use the following e-mail address to make that fact known. We will forward all e-mail in one packet to Epinions. Also, instead of placing a comment on this editorial, please use this link to Aggiebrett’s editorial titled It's Time for an "Epinions Hall of Legends" to show your support within that piece’s comment area and by placing your honest rating. Please send your correspondence to Epinions regarding this issue to: epskids@earthlink.net From this point forward, the words and concept belong to Aggiebrett. It's Time for an "Epinions Hall of Legends" The Bottom Line There are some members whose value to the site and community exceeds their value as mere reviewers. It's time for Epinions.com to publicly recognize this fact. If Epinions.com truly considers itself a community, then at some point some amount of reflection upon the question of "Where did we as a community come from?" seems appropriate, if not absolutely unavoidable. New members continue to flock to the site today some four years after the original launch -- a lifetime in the crazy dog-years of the Internet -- yet in many (most?) cases these newbies arrive seeing just a website as it exists today, with no sense of history or appreciation for the people and personalities that have already come and gone before their arrival. Someone arriving onsite for the first time today might never understand the impact of now departed earlier writers such as Hard to Please or Sloucho, nor might they fully appreciate the continuing legacy of excellence from such reviewers as KCFoxy. Too often, instead, it seems as though Epinions treats these truly special reviewers as mere commodities. "If we lose one, we'll plug someone else in as a replacement," seems to be their attitude, as if unique passionate eloquent voices are a dime a dozen and as easily replaced as a burned out bulb. I find this attitude utterly disgraceful, and I was reminded of that earlier this week when one longtime top-shelf writer had her favorite and most deserved title stripped away without explanation (KCFoxy), and another longtime member of incredible influence and importance pulled up stakes and left the site to seek more rewarding writing opportunities (Sordid-1). I find the attitude disgraceful because it contemptuously disregards the years of service that such writers have donated to this site, company and community. Because it reduces people, living-breathing people with personalities and feelings and hopes and histories, to little more than a series of unrelated reviews dumped onto a particular web domain. Because it suggests that there is no context for anything that now exists on Epinions, that everything today is as it is because that's just the way it is, and that the efforts and contributions of these and a hundred other longtime veteran writers have played basically no part in helping this site (and company) to survive and grow during a time when a staggering number of other online ventures have shut down. Epinions has long offered "titles" to specific writers to denote them as somehow worthy of note in some area or category. Some people are blue-tagged as "Top Reviewers" if they maintain a period of useful productivity, while others are tagged as "Advisors" if, in the eyes of Epinions management, they do a superior job of rating accurately and fairly. An even smaller number, a handful in fact, get tapped to become "Category Leads" and serve as a liaison between the "civilian" community of reviewers as company management, helping to identify specific problems and areas of concern and working with management to develop solutions. But, Epinions has no title to denote a member as worthy of respect and praise for a career of dedicated service. They have no title to clearly mark someone as a longtime member with a track record of excellence going back three or even four years into the misty reaches of ancient Epinions time. They have no trivial little wad of colored pixels to paste next to someone's name to say "For everything you've done, we salute you and thank you." And, I think it's high time they corrected this oversight. I think it's absolutely essential that Epinions develop and institute some new class of title that might clearly highlight a small and elite group of members as legendary within the community, deserving of special praise and attention and appreciation from not only those folks who have been around long enough to figure this out for themselves, but more importantly for the newbies arriving everyday and don't realize what sort of standards for excellence were set years ago. What Epinions needs is a "Hall of Legends." A Walk of Fame. A Ring of Honor. I truly believe that Epinions ought to create a fourth title-- I like "Legend," with a gold bar as the indicator icon-- in order both to thank these rare and deserving people for all that they have done for this site, and also to give newbies some frame of reference for what truly constitutes excellence. Instead of expecting the community to teach every newbie what is expected of them on a case-by-case basis, site members could instead peruse the "Hall of Legends" where they would see nothing but the absolute best reviewers and site members Epinions has yet been lucky enough to attract. Perhaps if more members realized and appreciated just how high the bar has been set by previous members, they'd be more understanding when their own reviews failed to impress as much as they'd expected, or perhaps they'd be inspired to try and pour even more heart and soul into a simple review of some unremarkable consumer product, or perhaps they'd be more eager to refer the site to friends and family, saying "Look, this is not just a review site-- there is some amazingly good *reading* here!" Or, perhaps they'd be moved to become more outgoing and supportive with regard to other writers and areas of the site. I can think of only good things coming from such a plan, while it would cost the company approximately nothing to institute. (On that last point, I also happen to think that some form of additional monetary award should accompany the title, some small one-time or monthly honorarium, but I expect that Epinions (Inc.) would balk that part of the suggestion even if they choose to take the rest of this idea and run with it, but if Epinions set it up so that this honorarium was in the form of gift credits with partnered vendors, it seems as though the real-dollar impact would be reduced greatly while at the same time it might provide some spark to prompt additional reviews from these "Legend" writers, as they would have more books and CDs and products *to* review, plus some sense of gratitude to and appreciation from the company.) I mentioned a similar idea to Epinions management some 18 months ago, but (as usual) I received not a word of response, so I took that as a sign that the company had no interest in the plan. As I sit here today, however, and consider that some of the best and most influential names this site have ever known are starting to fade into obscurity and oblivion, I can't help but feel the issue is even more serious and worthy of attention. How many more truly great people can this site afford to lose? How many such people does the company think are out there and likely to join Epinions to "refill the holes in the ranks" created by the passing of these previous giants? What message does it send to dedicated contributors if they are repeatedly given the clear message "management doesn't care what you have done so long as you just keep doing it so that we can keep generating revenues"? Epinions has already lost more talent and passion than they will ever know, but they might yet staunch the bleeding by taking this small step to say "we recognize and appreciate what you people have done for us.” It's time for Epinions, Inc. to salute the great reviewers and great community members who have helped create what legacy of excellence still exists on this site. It's time for Epinions.com to admit what most site members have long known: that there are some members too damned important and too damned good to be flushed, forsaken, and forgotten. - - - Note: if I am not alone, and if you agree that a plan such as this makes sense and would be a good idea, then drop a note to Epinions management to say so, and feel free to link back to this article if you like. Perhaps if other folks (instead of or in addition to lonely unloved little old me) jumped on this idea and started clamoring for it, those deserving folks out there who are *still* toiling away on behalf of this site would understand that they *are* appreciated and their efforts-- past present and future-- *do* have value and significance in the eyes of Epinions management and community. Thanks for enduring my turn on the soapbox. Please click through to It's Time for an "Epinions Hall of Legends" to show your support by placing your honest rating and posting your thoughts in comments.  |
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