My 200th Epinion: Wishes for 2008Feb 09 '08 Write an essay on this topic.
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After seven years of Epinionating, the moment has finally arrived – I have reached my 200th Epinion. Now, this is slightly humiliating, as most of my fellow members have reached this number by their seventh week or seventh month or whatever ridiculously quick amount of time it took to write 200 reviews. Considering the circumstances, I’m okay with my numbers. I made a decision to concentrate on finishing college early and getting into grad school with a minimum of distractions along the way, and I enjoyed the time I spent away from Epinions in music and academia. It’s really, REALLY good to be back though! It’s nice to be missed and welcomed back with enthusiasm, and even nicer to reconnect with everyone I remember from before and meet new faces joining the Epinions community. Thanks to the people who have left comments and greetings – I always read every new comment with eager anticipation (and the old ones make me smile to read them again). Note to self…must reply to comments more often! The Way We Were Oh, how the site has changed over the years! Particularly in the last few months with the 10-4-10 deal and the huge influx of reviews. Ironically, my renewed interest in Epinions began not with a crazed rush to begin reviewing again but rather a look back at my history of writings and compare it to my approach today and the different attitudes then and now that were held by the Epinions community. Yeah, it makes me cringe to go back and read some of my old reviews. Not that all of them were bad – most, after the initial learning curve of “this is an Epinion” and “this is a plot summary,” were actually pretty thorough – but my writing, och, it was painful. It’s made me realize, though, how formative Epinions was in developing my vocabulary, powers of observation, and overall style. It kept me writing daily at a time in my education where I was reading like crazy but didn’t have much confidence in my own writing. It helped me to cultivate clarity of thought and descriptive accuracy, introducing me to the joys of finding just the right turn of phrase to capture the spirit of whatever I was reviewing. And it gave me a creative outlet where people really seemed to appreciate what I had to say. What other reviewing site can say the same? But I’m not sure if my sense of nostalgia and philosophy on what this site provides is outdated. You see, what sets Epinions above the other shopping sites in my mind is that it produces great reviews from writers who put time and thought into crafting their articles. Most of the Epinions I read are things I will never buy or need, but a good Epinion rewards the time I spend reading it by sharing personal insights, creative use of language, humorous or unique observations; it lets me see the way the author sees things for a short time, the way a tightly written story does, and experience the product with them so that I know if I want to duplicate that experience. And now…? Call me snobbish or whatever you’d like, but I’m a bit disappointed with the direction the site is headed. Let me clarify. I think the 10-4-10 deal is absolutely brilliant if Epinions can swing the financial aspect of it. The income share on my reviews had dwindled to zero – even though I was still getting a lot of hits on certain ones and similar numbers from previous months had at least earned me a few cents. Writing reviews was for the pure fun of it, but the IS aspect was a little frustrating. So it’s great that The Powers That Be found a way to reward good writers and encourage more Epinions to be written…I think… I’m just wondering, Does 10-4-10 really reward good writing? Now that Very Helpful reviews receive twice as much income as lower rated ones do, the balance has tipped closer to a fair system. (Before, it really got under my skin that a few words slapped together in a matter of seconds would earn as much as a detailed critique that was carefully worded and shaped to reflect a complete look at the product.) Yet…yet… I miss the witty Epinions of terrific members here who are so focused on the prize of $200 a month that the quality of each review has dwindled to the bare minimum of VH. I miss looking forward to hearing what some of my favorite reviewers had to say, knowing now that the little details of commentary and pizzazz – the things that made reading these Epinions so fun in the first place – might be missing and a less creative abstract left in its wake. Top Reviewers, Advisors, long-time experienced members – so many are succumbing to this temptation. I’m not blaming people, truly I’m not trying to criticize those who are shooting for a certain number of reviews. I myself am trying for one a day, which I think is reasonable for me. BUT…I’m trying not to let it affect my writing. I want to strive for as much assiduousness in my descriptions and perspectives as the community has expected from me in the past. Years from now, I don’t want people to look back at my reviews from this period and be able to tell, “Oh yeah, that was written during the 10-4-10 deal. Man, what a low-expectation time that was for Epinions!” As much as I feel embarrassed over my old reviews and being able to tell how mature I was when I wrote them, I think I’d feel more embarrassed for myself, as a writer, if I let the prospect of a few bucks seriously affect the quality I expect of myself. Okay, don’t get me wrong. I am in awe of those writers who can succinctly express their thoughts so that every word is put to good use and no lack of detail or lingual articulation compromises the insights they bring to the forum. I look forward to these reviews with almost Pavlovian anticipation and envy the skill needed for such adroit brevity. Sadly, for every excellent Laconic Epinionator, there seem to be ten others whose economy of description is inspired not by a desire to stuff every word with intimation but from a viewpoint that “this will do the trick” or “why bother putting much energy into this, I’ve got 20 more to write today!” It’s that attitude that makes me a little sad these days when I’m reading epinions. And how does this affect rating and commenting? Well, for the most part I’m trying to stick to my guns and rate as fairly and thoughtfully as possible, keeping in mind that people still come here expecting a more in-depth evaluation of products than other sites provide and knowing that my rating expresses to the community how well I think a review will serve this purpose. If my rating differs from others’ dramatically, I try to leave a comment explaining why I diverted from the norm and how I might suggest the review be improved. (If no such comment is forthcoming, feel free to email me with your username and link to your review and ask me to explain my rating). Comments are an interesting thing these days. With the 10-4-10 deal still applying to Somewhat Helpful reviews, do people still care what rating they get? Half the time I feel like my suggestions for how to improve one’s rating are wasted energy – not because I think the person is a poor writer, but because they might be satisfied with a SH rating (and its accompanying $1, of course) and not care about the additions that could render their review more helpful to consumers. And then there are those who prove me totally wrong…those instances where people solicit feedback and truly want to hone their writing to an excellent level of craftsmanship. I am really, really impressed by you guys – you inspire me to demand a higher expectation for my own writing and to continue lending a hand where it might be welcome. One weird phenomenon I’ve noticed is the imbalance between reading and publishing new Epinions. It seems everyone wants to write reviews and nobody wants to read them! (And by “them” I’m not passive-aggressively referring to my own reviews ;-) What I mean is that there a lot of reviews sitting in the Just In with one or no ratings for long stretches of time. If I want people to read my Epinions, I think it’s reasonable to take a look at what’s being published in the Just In occasionally, if only to rate in my favorite categories or scan for interesting titles :D. I know reading reviews doesn’t pay anything, but that makes it even more necessary to the Epinions experience if we want to sustain an active, inspired community of writers who feel that their work is appreciated and heard. The two tools that really help me keep up with this are the Just In and the “New review alert” link found in the left-hand corner of each member’s profile. I depend on both of these ways to read my favorites and find new faves! My wishes for 2008 I would love to see a return of the Most Helpful button accessible to everyone. Even if the stripped-down Very Helpful review is the new wave of Epinions, I still think we need some way to distinguish or reward those who go beyond the lowest common denominator and pour their creative energies into a review…not for money or hits or rankings (at least, not JUST for that!), but because they enjoy writing interesting, intelligent Epinions. I would love to see a surge in thoughtful reviews, consistently Very Helpful opinions from Hatted and Non-Hatted (and Mad-Hatted!) members. Not like we have to write Great American Novels every time. Just, you know, put a little piece of our personality into each review. I would love to see a more cohesive search engine and database of products so that there aren’t five dozen listings of the same product, and when you click on a product that has been reviewed, you actually are able to read the review. It’s so frustrating to know that half of one’s creative efforts are not visible to the general public! In 2007 journalists (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/books/02revi.html) and bloggers (http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2007/05/us_are_newspaper_book_reviews_still_wort.php) made much of the fact that many newspapers are cutting their book review columns, thanks to the explosion of blogs and CONSUMER sites that give insightful critiques from an average reader’s perspective. Epinions is in a prime place to become a frontrunner of not just above-average but excellent reviews. Overall I’m really happy Epinions is on the radar as a huge shopping/review database of products that are now actually getting reviews…what good after all is an database of empty listings?... but I also want to ensure that this remains a fun place for people to stay and read and write for the sake of hanging out and reading and writing. Let’s see how far we can leap and bound in 2008! Obligatory disclaimer: No offense, insinuation, or implication was intended by this article. My intent is not to disparage or criticize anyone but to praise and encourage further authorial merit and development, especially as the most prominent members of the community lead the way in the quality of Epinions’ content. Truth be told, I’m more than a little nervous about posting this, but I hope that my heart and love for the community is apparent in what I say and do, and my sincerest wish is for it to succeed.  |
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