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A Reviewer Looks at 300: Thoughts on Life, the Universe and EpinionsJun 09 '05 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line More Epi-folks deserve 5-star ratings and "Hall of Fame" nominations than I can give here. I am listing just a few who came to mind.
If you had told me two years ago that I would have contributed three hundred reviews to Epinions in just over two years, I would have politely asked you if you were on crack. Oh, I see those of you with 500 and 700+ reviews. Frankly, I don't know how you all do it. My hands get tired and my brain hurts just thinking about it. My Wish List is really just a listing of products that I have queued up to review at Epinions, but as I looked over the listing of items and scoured the web site and my mind for what I should put together for review #300, I came up empty. Then it hit me. I wanted to review my experience at Epinions. I knew that we had a Writer's Corner full of different topic areas, but I could not help myself. On a whim I typed "Epinions" into the item search box. Did you know that the only thing that comes up appears to be a malformed title for http://www.epinions.com/Honey_I_Shrunk_the_Audience_-_Disneyland? How about that? The Best Thing I Can "Review" At Epinions? The People. So for review #300 I decided to write about the people who keep me coming back to Epinions time and again. If you write a lot here at Epinions then you're likely familiar with the desire to post another review, but the dread of starting it, particularly if it's to be a long one. Feedback and encouragement from others keeps me writing, even when I feel ready to just stop typing. All of the usual standard disclaimers apply: This list of people is in no particular order, I value too many members at Epinions to list them all here, and I am sure I am going to forget to list someone who is very important to me here, for which I apologize in advance. Unlike Hillary Swank though, I will not forget to thank my husband for encouraging me in this strange little habit, Mr. J, also known as simply "Jay". You know, just in case you were wondering where the "Mrs. J" moniker came from. He doesn't actively participate here but he does read my reviews, read other reviews that I point him to, encourage me to write reviews for products that he particularly loves or hates, and believe it or not, he actually refers to a handful of you by your Eps usernames in everyday conversations. As for those who do participate here, these are the women and men who stick in my head as being helpful, forthright, decent and kind. Several of these people are Category Leads and Advisors and I'd like to note in advance that I'm not mentioning them to "suck up". Let's be clear on that; I want nothing more than what Epinions has already blessed me with. I mention these people because, as their titles might imply, they have gone above and beyond to inspire me and help me get reviews typed out and onto Epinions. Bruguru: I have unabashed admiration for Bruguru and I make no secret of it. John apparently lives in my old hometown and he strikes me as the kind of guy that I would love to go raise a frosty mug of beer in a toast with. I'll even deviate from my standard p***water and drink the good stuff in his company! I've always been a little confused about the roles that hops and malts play in beer and I'm sure Bruguru could straighten that out for me. Beyond that, he's always been so quick to respond to my e-mails, whether I'm writing him to request that a new restaurant be added to the database, or I'm writing him to question something about the site or a user. John's a class act. Pogomom: Mild-mannered by day, Epinions Superheroine by night, Pogomom has the most amazing success record for answering my SAP requests. She even sends me updates sometimes, just to let me know that while nothing's changed, she's still looking out for me. Where does she find the time to do that and write such funny reviews? We've had e-mail discussions back and forth, sometimes she just makes me laugh so much in e-mail I can't help but write her back, even though I know she's busy with other Epinions users' CL requests. Bops_Mom Bops_Mom is up there with Pogomom for being the most persistent CL in getting an item added to the Eps database for me. When I wrote Bops_Mom to ask about getting 3M Ultrathon mosquito repellent added, she told me that the brand wasn't even in the database, so it would be awhile and she didn't make any promises. Ten months later, my request was added to the database, thanks to her persistence, and my jaw dropped when she wrote me to let me know, just because I was so amazed that she hadn't simply forgotten all about it. Heck, I had. Those are the Category Leads that I seem to pester the most, but others like Joubert, Amykhar, Openroad, Shantel575, Mind-Full and Opinionated3 have also added items and answered questions for me. I get better responses from the Category Leads at Epinions than I do from full time customer service people at some of the companies I review. That's astounding, when you think that these people all have other lives that are full time jobs unto themselves. Then there's Disartain, the first Epinions user to contact me directly out of the blue in e-mail, inviting me to take part in my first write-off in the summer of 2001. I was so flattered! The Weber review that I wrote for that "Three Legged Write-Off" as Disartain's newbie partner is what got me noticed by a PR firm and filmed in a Weber commercial this summer. So really my husband owes a huge debt of gratitude to Diane for his new grill that we got from that commercial! Diane, I see by your profile you may live nearby. Drop me a line. We should have you over for a "thank you" cookout sometime. There are so many more... Popsrocks for his amazing travel reviews. We've printed them out and taken them with us on trips. My husband who hasn't even got an Epinions login refers to him as "Popsrocks" as in, "Should we go to that restaurant? What did Popsrocks say about it?" Bryan_Carey the beer drinking Libertarian activist whose political commentary and book reviews are intelligent, engaging and thoughtful. tombarnes and his words have often decided for me where I'll stay in some places I've visited. I don't think I've ever told him that, though. There are a lot of things I've never told a lot of Epinions people, that I'd like to tell them here. Lorace brightens my day with every comment she leaves and grandgram does too. I want to live my young years over again in the company of gwumpysmurf who is very wise beyond her years, yet still somehow vibrantly young, though I know if I had that wish, 'gwumpysmurf' would get all the hot guys in the bar. When I think of Javelina I always picture her in her wedding dress, on the beach looking out over the water. My husband and I are looking at Caribbean resorts now, thanks to her. Sleeper54 sometimes e-mails me words of encouragement and support, and has stood up on my behalf before at Epinions without even being asked to. He's got a good heart. And Toolshed1, if I were to ever meet you and find out that you did not have flippers and were not a marine mammal, I would be sorely disappointed. What's Next? I've actually decided during this writing spree that I've been on in the past month that I am going to endeavour to spend less time writing reviews and more time thoughtfully reading, rating and commenting on reviews in the coming months. My greatest contributions to Epinions have always been my own reviews, but honestly it's the people who read my reviews, regularly rate them, and take a few minutes to comment on them who give me the biggest boost when I come to the site. They're the ones who keep my fingers typing, and I'd like to try to return the favor to some of them, and to some neophyte Epinions members too over the next six months. It's not in the cards for me to ever be an Advisor on Epinions; that's a job that's pretty thankless and qualifying for it takes a lot of astounding effort I'm not cut out to give, but I still want to make people feel welcome, and inspire them to keep writing more because they know that each word is being read. I appreciate all of you with the "Advisor" tag who take the time to evaluate everyone's work fairly, and most especially those of you who are kind, decent and tactful, even when you have to deliver the tough message that a review may not be up to snuff. There are too few of you gems among the pool. And for folks like cntaur5, meleahk, vemartin, dlstewart, three_ster, daquan drdevience, theresaro, surferdude7, mrkstvns, bonniesayers,jo.com, ilovesephora, amyk49, melissasrn, serc, wsmunch, and pilarzmom... I just can't tell you how grateful I am that you've read, and rated, and often commented on so many of my reviews. I haven't responded to your comments as I should always, but I hope to start returning some of that wondrous, positive feedback that you have given me. And my resolution for the next several months is to return the favor for all of you, and for all the others that I've undoubtedly mistakenly left off. If I studiously listed every person at Epinions that I thought helped make this community a step above everywhere else on the Internet, this would quickly become a very long, nearly unreadable list of somewhat strange names. So There You Have It At the risk of being criticized for putting up an "ego" entry I just wanted to write an entry where I named some of the people who have made my first 299 reviews here an overwhelmingly positive experience. Garrett and those folks in Brisbane have put this place together, and put the technology in place to make it all happen, but my contributions to Epinions would have sputtered into nothingness without you all. Thanks everyone. Were Epinions to ever hold a Meet-&-Greet near Charlotte, I'd tell you guys the first beer's on me. (Quickly multiplying $4 x about 50 in my head... Yikes. I still mean it though! Hope income share's good that month. ;-) ) I owe you all a drink, a hug, and many thanks for being there for me for the past two years, and making me want to write. Until then, seeya in the ratings columns... at least for a little while until this case of writer's cramp goes away. All the best, warmest regards and the kindest wishes ~~~ mrs-j  |
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