Quit Yer Whinin', It Ain't Attractive* Sep 06 '04    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 The bottom line has announced that it is "smart, funny and talented!" The site name had been chosen, the TOS had been drawn up, the database had been established, the search engine had been ignited (after which it promptly burned itself in effigy and became the charred relic it is today), the staff had been hired………. And Nirav said, “Let there be Epinions” Once upon a time someone, somewhere in California had an idea. He would invite people to write reviews of products from a consumer point of view, and pay them for it! Brilliant. And so simple. No editors, just the writers judging each other as to the quality of the opinions offered, interacting to form a bigger and better bonanza of consumer information. There was only one wee small problem……….. People, Epinions is Made of People! That’s right. Out of this consumer friendly miasma of opinions grew a community. People with differing viewpoints on what was helpful, what was offensive, what was fun and what was crap. So things began to get complicated. There were experts, and advisors and category leads and a whole bunch of other stuff that I’m too lazy to look up. Soon Epinions began to break into tribal factions. Flame wars broke out, tears were shed, protests were staged and fun was had by all. There were epic battles between writers and management, between writers and other writers, friendships were forged, rivalries flourished. That is, until, one day………….ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE LEFT. Where Have All the Writers Gone? That’s right. All the good people left. They took their wit, they took their smarts, they took their devilish glee in rocking the boat. They packed it up and moved on to greener pastures, where there was……..I don’t know. They went away. Or so we hear. Occasionally – more than infrequently but less than often – I see a reference to all the good people leaving in an essay, a comment, on a profile page. How it used to be so much fun here, but now it sucks. It’s tragic. How could all the good people abandon the rest of us to our pathetic mediocrity? Don’t they know that we need them to have fun? To be creative? To enjoy NiravLand? Sarcasm is the Lowest Form of Humor Yes, I am being sarcastic. This should really come as no surprise. All those good people who gradually stopped writing here were indeed good. Those who were still writing at the time I joined the site were great fun. Funny, engaging and smart. I wish they still wrote here. But no one person, or set of people, holds the key to this place. Those members who have gone made wonderful contributions, but to hold them up as the epitome of what this site could ever hope to be is both shortsighted and revisionist. Things change, people. Just like in the corporeal world, ether-neighborhoods are not static entities. People leave for a variety of reasons, first and foremost, probably, because they want to. Which is the way things are. People change jobs, they change hobbies, they stop doing one thing and start doing another. This isn’t news to anybody, I’m sure. What we need to remember is that people leave – and new people arrive. What do those new people think of the plaintive laments of how ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE ARE GONE? Love They Cyber-Neighbor Here’s what I figure. A new person sees a sad, sad writer, grubby clenched fists rubbing teary eyes, sobbing over the loss of the only fun people on the whole damn site. That new writer does one or more of the following: 1) Checks out those writers – a good thing. There is much Eps gold to be mined there; it’s worth digging for. 2) Looks disparagingly at the rest of the writers on the site, wondering why they’ve, pathetically, stayed when ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE ARE GONE. Surely there must be something wrong with anyone who still writes here, now that it’s no fun. 3) Looks disparagingly at their own writing, wondering if they can ever have any hope of reviving the glory days and becoming one of THE GOOD PEOPLE. 4) Yawns widely and never comes back. Why should anyone write for a dead site that’s no fun anymore? Numbers two, three and four should be considered negative outcomes. For what is the future of this place if new writers are chased off by ghosts of old? When we wax rhapsodic over the good old days we need to think of how we might feel if we were on the receiving end of one of these trips down memory lane in another setting. Basically, it’s the cyber-equivalent of sitting on your front porch telling all your new neighbors how fun the neighborhood was before they moved in. Quit Yer Whinin’, It Ain’t Attractive* Nostalgia is great, but not when it takes the place of actively participating in the community as it is today. All the good people are not gone. Not by a long shot. And those who left did so of their own accord, so perhaps it was time (and sometimes, folks, those people even come back). There is fun to be had here, if you’re willing to join in. There are fabulous writers here, if you’re willing to look for them. Nobody is going to jump up and say “Look at me! I’m smart and funny and talented!” And if they do, they’re likely none of those. After five years of existence, Epinions has evolved into a dynamic internet community. That means that change will always be a part of things here. If it weren’t, the site would stagnate and die. So if you’re tempted to whine about all the fun you aren’t having on Epinions anymore, don’t. Read some of your favorite writers’ old pieces (hell, link to them whenever it’s relevant), feel nostalgic for the way things were one, three, five years ago, then let it go. Seek out the new writers who may spread some of that elusive fun. Create some of your own fun. Or perhaps move on to somewhere that holds more interest for you. Looking back is great. Bemoaning the loss of a romanticized past is futile and boring. *This phrase was borrowed from an episode of the PBS series Frontier House, where it was uttered by a thoroughly irritating, offensively judgmental and all around pompously despicable character. It seemed appropriate that I should commandeer it. This is an EpiLustrous write-on entry. For details go here.

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