Griping & Suggestions : - }Mar 29 '06 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line LOVE IT! Addictive! Has lots of room for improvements! Well I've been here for a short while. I'm not the best writer nor as dedicated as some of you. I have found a number of products that I've tried from reading some excellent reviews on this site. I have also saved myself from purchasing a lot of the garbage that is sold out there. Thank you Epinions writers! Now that I have learned a few of the ropes (I'm far from really understanding Epinions). I would like to list some of my gripes that I've encountered since I've been here or some of my suggestions that I have for epinions and the community: 1. reviews are getting way too long. I've even seen myself in this category. It gets boring reading these long reviews. For example, who wants to read 3,000 words on cotton balls? (this was a joke, but then again there actually may be a review like this out there). The specifications are already out there on the "view details" button. Why must I read them in your opinions? If you must, put it on the bottom so I can read what I really came to read, your opinion on the product! 2. When I write a review, Epinions tells me of all the spelling mistakes that I may have made. Why doesn't Epinions give me the suggested correct spelling so I can easily edit the review in that screen with the yellow highlights? I may just be a newbie, but I don't think you can do this. It highlights the potential mistakes and I either have to memorize all the issues or print it out, look up the correct spelling, choose edit and make my edits. Not very user friendly is it? 3. Too many listings and far too many old products. My god just look for H&R Block and you'll see what I mean over 500 products. Instead of bringing up the newest product when searching for H&R Block it brings up old reviews of old products that most people wouldn't be purchasing in the current year. H&R Block software has changed so a consumer may read an old review that is completely incorrect on the current 2006 product. A big BAD in my opinion. Shouldn't the sort be based on newest products first for the consumer to read? Most likely a consumer wants to purchase current products not software or anything else for that matter from 2002! By the way what is the decision making process for what product comes up first? My suggestion for 'Home & Garden" would be most recent products first (all products manufactured within 2 years say) and then within that ones that have reviews written on them (I know some categories this may not work for but, why show products on the first view that are old? Is a new Epinions user going to page forward to find the current product and then the ones that have reviews on them? I think not! You're turning away a new user when they have to do too much work to find what they are looking for. 4. HTML. When I first was an Ebay seller, I hated HTML as well as most Ebayers and it was the reason many hired others to write their listings for them. In my early Ebay days, I at least was able to type up my listing in MS Word and copy it to Ebay but, in Epinions they only allow a small number of HTML options so it couldn't handle my MS Word opinion. Ebay listened and fixed it so a seller could easily type without having to know HTML. My oh my we are in the year 2006. I know very little HTML and I'm sure others are in the same boat as me. Can't Epinions allow simple toolbars so we won't have to memorize HTML? 5. Have edited reviews show up in the member center. How many people write a review and get suggestions on how to improve it? You work hard and make the review better but, unless you email everyone nobody rerates it? I for one have suggested to many newbies to let me know if they edit their reveiws. I would love to know if someone edited a review that I rated "somewhat helpful" so I can go back and change my ratings. At one time I did just that, I kept a list of reviews and how I rated them, but it became way too tedious to track and go back. I feel bad. Yeah I know, the review should have been VH from the beginning. Newbies deserve the chance. 6. Why can't I do drafts? Do you know how often I have an idea for a product review and can't finish it? I know I can type it in another software and save it for later to copy and paste it..... Is this user friendly? One stop shopping is what I always say. Make it easier and they will come.....and they will write! 7 I've saved my biggest gripe for the end. I as a consumer would love to be able to compare products in a simpler fashion. I would love to be able to go to a category and compare items by doing multiple tiered sorts. For example one major missing sort function is on age of the product, then my secondary sort would be by Epinions ratings but, I then want to sort based upon price. I can only do one so it is very frustrating when there are 100's to choose from and some of the products are very old (see gripe #3). Within this topic, I wish I could eliminate the reviews on a product that skew the overall rating. For example, if there are 10 reviews on a product and 1 person rates it extremely low or extremely high, I would like to drop those out of the overall score. Maybe instead of an overall average score, to give the mean score at my option? Thanks for reading the above. I know that I can add way more gripes and suggestions to this but, I have to get back to taxes....(see gripe #6) Any break at this point is needed.... My house has never been cleaner and you'll see I've written more reviews lately. Only 5 more tax returns to go :} If I'm wrong or you have opinions about any of the above please let me know. Thanks! Feel free to add more suggestions in the comments section!  |
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