CaptainD’s Guide to Building A WOT
Apr 14 '04
The Bottom Line What WOT what?
CaptainD’s Guide to Building A WOT
If you’ve been around epinions for a while now, you probably realise that writing a Very Helpful review isn’t actually that difficult at all. However, you may also have noticed that some people who write VH reviews still don’t have a large WOT. Others have many – some even more than a thousand! So what’s the secret?
Trust Slutting
A good way of getting a large WOT is Trust Slutting, however this is not recommended for several reasons. (Ha! I bet you thought “what?!? Is he actually suggesting we do it!?!?” Ye of little faith… just what kind of guy do you think I am?!?! No, I don’t want you to answer that… ) Like a true-life slut, you will gain many friends this way. And as in true life, these friends will prove extremely short-lived and of dubious benefit.
What is a Trust Slut?
A TS is someone who goes round trusting everybody in the hope that many of them will trust in return, regardless of the quality of the reviews. You can normally tell them by two indicators:
- They trust a huge number of users and add new members to their trust list very frequently
- They rate every review “Very Helpful” (including the ones rated “Somewhat Helpful” or “Not Helpful” by everyone else
Why doesn’t it work?
Apart from being decidedly unethical, trust slutting is the quickest and surest way of losing the respect of established members who have earned their WOT through a high quality of reviewing. Often it’s new members and substandard reviewers who fall prey of the TS merchants, being flattered into returning the compliment. What you may not know about epinions is that not only does the number of members who trust you help your reviews to gain higher placement, but also the number of people who trust them is a factor. (Rather like Google’s “link popularity” algorithm for search engine results.) I don’t pretend to know exactly how this works (ask MobiProf after the epinions source code has become open source!), but I do know that I’d rather have one member trust me who is trusted by 1,000 members than 100 members who are only ever likely to be trusted by trust sluts. And yes, I got taken in by one once, too – look, it was a long time ago, I was young, etc etc…
The point I’m trying to make is, Trust Slutting can sometimes look like it must be a good idea, but at the end of the day you’ll lose more than you gain if you go by that route. And you may end up with hundreds of people trusting you that way, true – but how many of them will actually read your reviews?
You might think I’m going off topic here but in order to know how to build a solid WOT, you first need to know how not to do it. That’s what I think anyway… the wrong way is quicker and easier, but won’t last the distance and won’t help you as much.
I notice many of the members you trust also trust you. Does that make you a “Trust Slut”?
I’m glad I asked myself that, even if I did it in the third person. It’s true, a legitimate way to increase your WOT is to trust others. (Shock Horror Probe…)
The reason for this is simple. If someone has read several of my reviews and decides to add my to his / her WOT, I will see their member name on my list. So out of courtesy and curiosity, I will probably take a look at his / her reviews. If they are a good reviewer / writer and I like their work, I may very well add them to my WOT. I don’t automatically reciprocate trust, and I’m sure that those who I’ve trusted first and then return the favour don’t either. But when I trust someone who trusts me, it is a case of mutual admiration – if I don’t think the person who trusts me writes very good reviews, I will still add them to my email alerts, but not my WOT. Of course there are many thousands of members on epinions and the chances of not coming across someone is high, especially if they write most of their reviews in areas you don’t tend to read in. The writers I trust who write mainly in Beauty, for instance, are mainly those who I noticed because they were on my WOT. They’re fine writers but due to me not being interested in that section I would probably never have read anything of theirs if they hadn’t happened to like my writing and trust me (poor, unsuspecting fools! Repent at your leisure… you know who you are…)
So all of this long-winded explanation proves, I hope, that I am not a Trust Slut. (If you don’t believe me, add me to your WOT and see if I reciprocate… BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA….)
So how do I get trusted, are you ever going to tell me that?!?!?
Okay, I was getting there. I mentioned at the start that writing VH reviews is pretty easy. So why write longer, more detailed, reviews, or take more time over your reviews when you know you could bash out a mostly-VH rated review in a few minutes?
Ah, but that’s the secret. I don’t trust reviewers that can churn out “just about VH reviews” on a consistent basis. I trust them because they write reviews that are more than the “Very Helpful” rating I can give them (or maybe just fail to get “Mostly Helpful” in the areas I’ve got a blue hat in). And it’s not just about the reviews, either.
When I think about whether to add someone to my WOT, I take several things into account. (I often add a whole load in one go since I think to myself, “WHATSHISNAME is a really great writer, why haven’t I added him to my WOT yet? Oh hang on, and there’s WHATSHERFACE too, she’s really goo. And….) It’s not just about writing great reviews. It’s about leaving helpful / encouraging comments on my work (commenting is a great way to get someone to notice you, btw – the more people notice you, the more chance there is that some of them will view you as trustworthy) and other members’ reviews, giving good advice to new members, being consistent in rating, contributing to the community in some way, making me laugh (VERY IMPORTANT). Strangely, one question that never really comes into it is “Do I agree with them?” – this does happen occasionally but is far from the norm! Which is interesting, because that was the first question I used to consider when I first joined epinions. Over time I’ve come to realise that it’s basically irrelevant – a good reviewer is a good reviewer, irrespective of what sort of film / book / whatever that they like.
So what I’m saying is, take time over your reviews. Don’t be content to simply write reviews that will get you an overall “Very Helpful” rating. Be active in the epinions community as regards reading, rating, and commenting – that will get people to read you in return but more importantly will make you a familiar name. (Just try to make sure it’s not for the wrong reasons!…) Don’t write a new review simply because you haven’t written a new one for a while – I don’t know how many times I’ve made that mistake, but the end result has never been one I can ne proud of. Reward good reviewers / writers (some of those I trust never seem to write actual reviews but spend all of their time in Writers Corner or the Member Advice areas!) with good ratings, genuine praise in your comments, and your trust – after all, you want to be rewarded for your writing talents.
Final Words Of Dubious Wisdom
One few more things – not vitally important individually, but they contribute to your overall “trustability” – make some effort with your profile page. Give some worthwhile information about yourself, or make us laugh, but there’s something hugely off-putting about seeing a completely blank profile page – it shouts out “Can’t Be Bothered”. It’s only a minor point, but one worth mentioning.
If you get attacked by “revenge rating” don’t retaliate in kind or leave abusive comments in their reviews. (Comments that state your concerns in a matter-of-fact way are fine, but being abusive shows you up as no better than the revenge rater themselves.) It’s tempting to want to “get your own back” but it’s really better to just leave those losers to their silly little games and get on with what you’re doing.
If you get an email from another member asking you to re-rate their updated review or whatever, always take the time to respond to the email as well as leave a comment in the updated review stating whether you think it’s an improvement and / or if further improvement is needed before you feel it would be “Very Helpful”.
Most of the above really boil down to common courtesy – and you don’t want people viewing you as discourteous, do you?
I hope you’ve found this helpful, at least to some extent. And before you go telling me that ???? is on my WOT and has upset you with some comment / email / rating, don’t bother. These are general guidelines and we all make mistakes from time to time; I’m sure that I’ve upset more than a few people at epinions in my time here, completely unintentionally. So don’t point any fingers at anyone else. Look in the mirror.
(Like, that’s really deep, man.)
CaptainD
I’m not saying you’re life will be more fulfilled if you add me to your WOT. The fact is it will, but I’m not saying it.
Related Links
CaptainD’s Guide to Epinions – Second Edition (may be updated one day…)
CaptainD’s Guide to Writing A Really Bad Review
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