Coming out of the closet . . .
Feb 29 '04
The Bottom Line "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." —Shakespeare
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While browsing Epinions recently, I noticed I had just passed my third anniversary here. While my official start date was February 24, 2001, my first review was not published until December 2001. That review (of an obscure state park) is the only one of my various reviews rated overall 'Helpful' or lower. It is also my second-highest 'IS' earner . . .go figure.
Seventy seven product reviews and forty seven various essays comprise the sum total of my work/play here on Epinions. Perhaps more than I had anticipated three years ago, perhaps less than I am satisfied with today.
Sixty two of those seventy seven product reviews have been published on 'books' category products. I have always been an avid reader of non-fiction books with an on-going interest in history, science, and sports-related books. (Hey, I did not do one of those 'getting-to-know-me' or 'twenty-things-about-me' essays so bear with me . . ..)
Consequently most of my fellow users that I have become acquainted with are very much involved in the 'books' category. I enjoy learning about new works and old classics that I might enjoy reading. I have not found a better site for quantity and quality in book reviews than Epinions dot com.
I have also been active in these [Member Advice] forums, including this one. Based on reading that I had done in these advice sections while new here at Epinions, I decided in May of 2002 to 'hide' my 'Web of Trust', 'WoT'. I really do have a W-O-T but...'Write-Off" !! was a humorous attempt to acknowledge that I had indeed 'gone hidden'. A bug at that time resulted in users with 'hidden WoTs' having their list of people trusting them 'hidden' also.
Why did I choose to go 'hidden'? I simply wanted to avoid all the games that can be played using the 'Web of Trust':
• 'I will trust you if you trust me.'
• 'I don't like that user you trust, therefore I can not trust you.'
• 'I added you to my trust list, why haven't you added me back...?'
. . .and many more that are described in other essays here in this advice category.
I was confident that I could prove myself worthy of trust even with a 'hidden' WoT. I felt I could 'prove' that I was worthy of trust based on the quality of my reviews, the quality of rates that I left as I read on Epinions, and the quality of comments that I left on other user reviews.
While others have been successful in building larger numbers of fellow users trusting them; I have been very satisfied with the numbers I have accumulated over my time here. But more than that, I have been very satisfied with the quality of individual users who choose to trust me.
Who do I trust? You can go look now, if you care to do so. As you browse the site you might find my user-name at the top of some user WoTs whose reviews you already read. You can now see who I trust because I have decided that now is an appropriate time to reveal my Web of Trust.
I decided to delete all the users I had trusted and re-add them (in the order I originally trusted them) to my WoT earlier this evening. I did this simply so that they might be more visible to that user and to the community. Not that my 'trust' is worth any more than another user's. Not that the individual user wouldn't already see their name prominently displayed when they visited one of my pages. It simply seemed a good way to make sure they saw it. If that be bad, it be bad.
Would I hide my 'WoT' again? Would I recommend others do the same?
Yes, to both questions.
But with some advice. You have to be willing to 'work' at Epinions. That is:
• publish quality reviews;
• interact with the community in the various advice forums and the [Writer's Corner];
• leave comments that show the writer of the review that you thought about their
review and had something intelligent, fun, or relevant to say about it;
• rate fairly and consistently in whatever categories you frequent.
Whatever you do, simply be yourself. If you try to change yourself to suit others, try to change your writing to suit others . . .you will simply be like a top spinning crazily across a table top as it winds down. Instead set your sights on what you want to accomplish here at Epinions. Line your compass arrow up with the goal and make minor corrections as needed. Only then will you know where you have been and where you are going here at Epinions.
Sorry so long-winded. That is so unlike me . . ..
...tom...
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." —Shakespeare
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Epinions.com ID:
sleeper54
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 in Movies, Books |
 in Books |
 - Top 1000 |
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Member: ...tom...
Location: "Is this Heaven?"......"No. It's Iowa."
Reviews written: 496
Trusted by: 549 members
About Me:
Back-in-the-heartland...brief respite before real-world work begins. Hopefully less intensive than I imagine it will be..!!
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