Ulfson's Interview Yourself Write-Off: 10 Questions, 10 Answers
Feb 09 '05
The Bottom Line This is a 10 question interview with me by me about me. This is part of Ulfson's write off. I hope you enjoy it and get to know me better.
I have never participated in a write off. I didn’t even know they existed until recently, but thought this would be a good one to start with since I have been here almost five years but not really. Um…I mean I have been a member for that long but haven’t really been around for three and a half years so I am sort of a rookie who has been on the bench and jut got called up to the big leagues. Or, uh, something like that.
Since this is a 10-question interview based on what I think the people here would be most interested in or would want to know about me, I picked 10 questions that you probably either wonder about or don’t know about me and explained myself.
I am usually the interviewer so this is a strange twist for me but here we go…
1) Interviewer: The obvious first question here is why did you become a member here in October 2000, write a few reviews, and then take off until recently?
Patty: That’s a good question and deserves an explanation. I joined epinions.com with several friends at the time. I really didn’t know much about the site, only that you could write reviews on items and services and make a little money as well as refer people who could also make a little money and would help bolster your earnings. I wasn’t here to get rich but it was a fun place to write reviews. Since all I really like to do is write, another place to opinionate was great. I was just entering a phase of my life I call “The Black Hole” because the company I worked for -- WCW (World Championship Wrestling) – which was keeping me very busy as their official magazine’s Executive Editor and as their website’s only female columnist, had come to a screeching halt and was bought by another promotion (WWF/E). I was still involved with wrestling but suddenly, my cushy job, fat pay check, and lifestyle had changed dramatically.
After joining epinions, I became immersed in building my own website (which still is going strong today), writing for every major wrestling magazine and website, and essentially looking for a place to call my own in the writing world once again. I was writing for mainstream magazines but still writing newspaper columns, magazines articles, and more for wrestling magazines.
In a sentence, I overwhelmed myself. Something had to give. Epinions was only one of the many things that had to be put on the back burner while I got my life situated.
It’s situated now and I am back and don’t plan to leave again unless by force or if something out of my control happens. I would like to be an integral part of this community now and feel I have learned a lot from the new breed of writers here and have a very high standard to live up to when writing reviews.
Interviewer: That was quite a long winded explanation that could have taken two sentences to explain.
Patty: I am always long winded. I start out with the idea that I will be precise and to the point and end up writing a novel. It’s the writer in me I guess. It doesn’t know when to shut up.
2) Interviewer: Since you mentioned wrestling, a natural progression in this interview is to ask what in tarnation are you doing in pro wrestling, what do you see in it, and why on earth are you involved with it?
Patty: I will definitely try to be short and to the point (in my own way) about this. In 1989, my (then) four-year-old son was watching WWF on Saturday mornings. I hated it. I watched with him to show him how terrible and lame the whole “sport” was. I pointed out how the people aren’t really hurting each other and how the characters aren’t really heroes or villains. After many weeks of watching with him, he got the point. But I was hooked. He moved on to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I kept watching. And have not stopped since. I started writing about wrestling on message boards and in a little online newsletter, expressing my opinions everywhere I could. If I like it, I write about it. If I have an opinion, I express it. I met the publisher of WCW Magazine online, interviewed him, and long, long story short, ended up working for the magazine. I became Executive Editor and life, as I knew it, changed forever. I was on the road with the wrestlers, staying in hotels constantly, going to shows all over the country. I learned all the backstage secrets to pro wrestling and met all the big stars of the era and made great friends. I was ribbed and I was taunted but, after a while, I guess the wrestlers saw I was not going to go running away because they ribbed me and I became “one of the boys” which was great because I was allowed pretty much anywhere they were. I avoided their locker room though. Heh.
At the same time as I was editor of the magazine, I was also writing for PowerSlam Magazine in the UK (which I still write for) and for the WCW website.
It was the greatest experience of my life. I got to do things I will never do again and I am so glad that I was involved with wrestling to the degree I was. I grew to respect the men and women in the business and I learned so much that I could write a book. And may some day.
Life after WCW was crazy but I managed to stay inside wrestling by writing for every wrestling mag out there at the time as well as respected websites and I had a weekly newspaper column. I continue to write for PowerSlam Magazine in the UK, maintain my website which is pro wrestling themed, and do other wrestling consulting work that I can’t really talk about publicly. I was a published mainstream writer before wrestling invaded my life and I have gone back to mainstream writing again and am trying to relearn how to talk normal every day talk. It’s not cool to say that I “gassed out” when I mean that I got tired or that I was “busted open the hardway” when I mean I cut myself by mistake. I also have to remember that most people don’t call themselves “marks” for things they like or call others “marks” who buy into schemes and other things that that they should have known better about. I am getting there and epinions has helped. I don’t think I have used one wrestling related term in any of my reviews.
Interview: If that is short, I truly fear what a long explanation would be.
Patty: Sorry, I will try my best to be more concise and less wordy.
3) Interviewer: It has never happened yet and I doubt it will happen here. But I digress, moving on to question #3. If wrestling is such a passion for you, why is there very little about it on your profile page and only one wrestling related interview among your reviews?
Patty: I don’t really like to push my personal interests onto other people too strongly and, to be honest, I am well aware of the stereotype that professional wrestling has. I don’t want anyone to see that I am involved in wrestling and have an opinion formulated of me just because of that. I have been both revered for being a woman in man’s world and put down and called names for liking “that junk.” I don’t hide what I do and what I like but I don’t plaster my profile page with pictures and info about it either (although I did just put up a link to my website which is a big step for me!). As far as reviewing wrestling related items, I find it nearly impossible. There are just too many personal connections for me to do a fair job reviewing the books, DVDs, and other wrestling related products. I plan to review one wrestling related website soon and it is going to be difficult as I worked for that site at one time and they all know me and the review isn’t going to be glowing. But I think it should be reviewed and no one has, so I will. But I prefer to let others do the wrestling reviewing and I prefer to read their opinions and enjoy their ideas and styles rather than do so myself.
4) Interviewer: What is your goal here at epinions?
Patty: Goal? I don’t have really have a goal. I don’t aspire to get rich or famous here. I don’t think I will ever be a Top Reviewer nor have any other title since my reviews are all over the place. I don’t have a specialty. I review whatever I feel like reviewing. So my goal is really just to write good reviews about products and services I am familiar with and feel comfortable writing about. Other than that…it would be nice to be a part of this community and get to know people from walks of life other than wrestling but that isn’t my primary purpose for being here. I just like to review things and to tell my experiences as you can see.
5) Interviewer: Yes, I see that. What things do you like to review?
Patty: I love to review workout videos and DVDs. I do a lot of them and it’s great to help people make choices because I have wasted so much money on workouts that promise big results and end up being junk. Anything health related from nutrition bars to body fat scales to workout equipment is something I enjoy writing about. Beauty products and skin care would be my other love. I haven’t written as many reviews as I would like in this area because many of the products I use aren’t in the database or, if they are, there are many reviews of the product and I feel I would just be repeating what everyone else said. Other than that, anything that strikes my fancy, I write about. I do tend to hyperventilate when writing about electronics because I am not at all a techie and I just know if it works and I like it and don’t need someone to work the item for me, it’s a winner. I need to get into that area a little more and take a chance that I will get rated poorly. But I do hope if I do get poor ratings, people will explain why so I can fix the review and become less terrified of writing electronics reviews. I stay away from books and movies usually because I just don’t feel I am a good reviewer in that realm.
6) Interview: How do you go about picking people to add to your WOT?
Patty: I read their reviews. Many of them. I read first for content. Is everything in the review that I need to know to make a buying choice? Is it understandable to people who may not be familiar with the product? It is an all around really good review? Next I look at structure. The editor in me will always see mistakes. I know I make typos and errors myself so I don’t NOT trust someone because there are some typos in a review. But writing that isn’t flowing and really put together is a turn off. The volume of wonderful writers here is amazing. I can’t believe some of these people don’t write for a living. Anyway, if the reviews are very helpful to me and consistently are well written, I will add the person to my WOT regardless of whether I agree with their opinions or whether they add me back. I trust them to consistently review well and I like to read their reviews and I believe anyone who reads mine, would enjoy reading theirs. It isn’t, to me, about actual “trust” in people as I usually don’t know them. It’s a trust in their ability to review fairly and comprehensively. I guess there are a lot of other ways to pick people you add to your WOT but that is how I do it.
7) Interviewer: I am gassing out here thinking of questions to ask you. Here’s one! When do you find time to write your reviews?
Patty: Good question. You’re a better interviewer than I am. lol. I have the craziest schedule on earth. I work both from my home office and an office about a mile from my home. I write almost all day and night. I have deadlines to meet and interviews to conduct. I am typing sometimes literally 20 hours a day. When PowerSlam is at deadline or when the other projects I am working on are nearing their due date, I pull all nighters to get them done. Sometimes I have slow weeks where all I have to do is supply news and material for a hotline in the UK, keep up with my website and message boards, and do research. I just sometimes stop everything and write reviews. I may be right in the middle of a big project and decide I want to review something. Usually, these reviews end up written at four or five in the morning. The last review I posted was at 6:30 a.m. and I had still not gone to bed yet. I usually try to post a review or two then take some time to read reviews and rate them as well as comment. I don’t comment for nothing – I comment when I really have something to say. That may not win me lots of new friends but to comment for the sake of commenting isn’t my style. So, in a nutshell, whenever my overactive brain kicks in, I will write a review. I have a list of things I want to review and when the mood hits, I will sit down and write one. Some things are much easier to write about for me than others are so, when I have a review that is going to take me a long time and a lot of revising, I wait until I am not so exhausted to write it. Otherwise, most reviews are posted about the time many people are waking up for the day and I have yet to go sleep.
8) Interviewer: What changes would you like to see here at epinions?
Patty: That is a tough question because I am not sure what has changed since I was here in 2000/2001. I know I made fairly decent money here for the few reviews I wrote and I tend to think that structure has changed from what I have been hearing from other reviewers. I think the database is in need of a good updating and I know that is being done now. I wish there were more products I use to review in the database. I know there are SAP forms and I have used them but there seems to be a load of popular items completely missing here. I would love to see new beauty, skin care, and clothing items added. I also noticed that the clothing section is pretty unspecific and it’s hard to review something unless you are sure the product you are reviewing is the product that epinions had in mind for you to review. I think the biggest thing is the search engine here and the ability to look things up and get results. It seems that people could easily overlook reviews due to the search engine flaws. I know that is being addressed (“year of the catalog” and all) so I suppose the only other thing I would like to see changed is that we get $100 a hit. Ha!
9) Interviewer: Is there anything here that makes you feel uncomfortable?
Patty: Yes. I feel somewhat uncomfortable about commenting on a review that I rate Somewhat Helpful or even Helpful. Because I consider myself to be a rookie again, telling others how to write a review that will get a VH rating makes me feel like I am coming off like I think I know more about review writing than the reviewer. Still, when I rate someone below a VH, I DO tell them why. I do it because I really want to know why someone rates me that way and appreciate when they take the time out to explain what they think about the review and what they feel would make it better. I don’t feel I am in the position to tell anyone how to write a good review at this time because I just started writing again on January 1. However, I do know, as a consumer, what I want to see and that is how I comment - as a consumer who is looking at the review and using it as a guide in deciding whether or not to buy an item, use a service, or whatever.
10) Interviewer: Whew! If anyone is still reading this, they should get a reward. Any predictions for the future?
Patty: Yes. I think after Mania, Cena will be traded to Raw and possibly Orton to Smackdown. I think that Cena will end up wrestling for the WWE strap at Mania and Batista and Trips will battle for the World strap. I don’t think Batista will win the strap just yet though because there is more life left in that feud and I am not convinced he could carry a show or PPV as champ just yet. Of course there is still time to fine tune his character. I think if TNA keeps having successful PPVs, particularly the special X-Division one, we can expect some WWE cruiserweights to jump ship and go to TNA where they can actually work their own style. I also think Ted Turner will be back soon with a promotion of his own which could reheat the wars from the past. I think the June ECW PPV will be a huge success but only if Heyman is involved and if RVD is recovered by then. I do feel the show will disappoint hardcore ECW fans because, despite the name and locale, it’s not going to be a real ECW show, it will be ECW-lite and we ECW hardcores will revolt against that. I think the current plan to turn Eddie Guerreo heel is a stupid one since he is about the most over wrestler on the roster right now and I hope they reconsider. I also think that Orton MUST turn heel at this point to get back his heat. Also…
Interviewer: Uh…I meant predictions about epinions and your future here...
Patty: Oh…Uh…I plan to stick around and write reviews and act as “normal” as possible around a sea of intelligent, articulate people and do the best I can. I don’t see me rising to the top or anything but hope I will garner people’s trust and that I will help consumers to make good choices based on my experiences and the information I provide. Other than that, no predictions, unless you want to ask me about what I think will happen to the nearly defunct WWE women’s division…
Interviewer: NO!! I don’t want to know any of that. Shaddup and go back to your little wrestling world and talk about that. Here, you must be a grown up and act as normal as you can possibly muster.
Patty: Gotcha. I hope this helped people get to know me a little better.
Interviewer: Too much so.
Patty: I got two words for ya….
See ya!
Thanks to Ulfson for hosting this write off.
Copyright Patty Therre 2005
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