What does Epinions expect of Advisors? Yes, the responsibilities are listed, but that format doesn't give one a feel for what one actually should be doing as an Advisor. Should one rate /every/ book review, Express or otherwise, that floats through the category? 50% of the reviews?


The other question relates to what the /members/ expect of the Advisors. What /do/ they expect? That we rate and comment on almost every review? /Most/ reviews? I know there are behind-the-scenes discussions of which Advisors do what, and how much they're working, and whether they deserve their positions, and all that stuff, ad nauseam. Some of this is motivated by jealousy, surely, but that doesn't negate the truth that some Advisors don't do /all/ that much to keep their positions.


I know /I/ haven't been keeping up with rating recently, and I /certainly/ don't feel that I've been performing my duties adequately. Therefore I intend to resign my Advisorship as of, oh, right about now. Someone with more time and inclination could better use the additional rating power.


Any and all thoughts are welcome, of course.


Cheers!


Simon

We have some excellent CLs in books, and while they must sometimes bow to the quantitative facts, I think they also make a point of considering the qualitative. One rate from a quality rater like quasar is worth 100 rates from a rater like . . . well, no names need be named. (And to be honest I'm speaking without any particular person in mind.) In fact, one quasar rate was worth at least ten of my rates when I was an advisor. Still is.

Some people become advisors because they have the numbers. Others because the wisdom and intelligence they display in rating and handling new members demands that they be advisors.

Also, the CLs are aware that sometimes people just need a break from eeps. So if they see someone's numbers slip for a little while they may be willing to wait to see if they pick back up.

I abdicated advisorship once in the past. But I've come to think that, hats notwithstanding, a person should just be and do what they want here. If who they are and what they do merits a hat, then they should have a hat. If not, then they shouldn't. There's certainly not enough money involved to warrant anyone changing their behavior for the sake of a hat. In other words, I don't concern myself with whether I'm worthy of a hat. I leave that to the CLs.

Of course, this is all coming from a guy who can't even meet his bare minimum goal of one review per month. Add salt to taste.

Hey Simon,

I do trust the books CLs to pick people, in general, who are good for books and good for writers in the books sections.

I was an advisor for a long time, but my reading and rating slacked off egregiously and I lost the position. That is really fair and reasonable, in my opinion. I wasn't "earning" the position any longer.

I expect advisors to comment, especially if they give a bad rating to a review, and even more especially if it's a newbie review. And I expect those comments to be as gentle as possible, given whatever constraints the advisor is operating under.

Reading every review is doable (I've tried and failed but not because it's impossible) but not necessary, in my opinion.

I hope someday to get back into reading and rating every day. I really love it. I shake my fist angrily at time, for passing so quickly!

Julie

simon--

I think you have been and continue to be an asset to the Epinions community. I would be sorry to see you go as an advisor--you may not rate everything that comes through the site, but when you do rate it is always fair. You often catch problems with the way a review is written that others have missed or intentionally overlooked. And when you leave comments they are astute and to the point.

I'm not bothered by the fact that many (most?) of the Advisors don't read/rate all the new reviews. I do (for now anyway) because I can--I'm at home all day. But as was mentioned earlier in this thread, one rate by a well respected, established Advisor can more meaningful than 50 rates from someone without the same history.

I agree that Advisors need to be rating 'regularly' but I'm not sure I would want to try to quantify what that means. I think it's far far more important that Advisors in particular rate fairly and consistently.

Good luck with whatever you decide--I feel certain that you will continue to be a big part of this community whether or not you have a hat.

Amy

Hey there...

I figure a CL might as well chime in here. :)

We had this discussion on the Books board a long time ago.
http://bb.bbboy.net/epinionsbooks-viewthread?forum=6&thread=15


As you know, we aren't allowed to give people the numbers that a person should achieve to make their way past the hatbot selection.

Few people agree what makes a great Advisor. So rather than trying to find a group of people who each do everything exactly the way that we want, we try to find a group of people who together demonstrate the best qualities as much as possible and who complement each other. The result is a team of Advisors who together do all the things that need to be done.

We don't expect any Advisor to rate every single review. In fact, I'm rather suspicious of people who do rate nearly every single review. I know how long it takes me to read a page of reviews, and I don't think I'm all that slow of a reader. Yet some people seem to have no problem reading pages and pages of reviews four hours on end.

The same goes with comments. A cut/paste/minor edit comment on 100 different reviews isn't going to impress as much as a comment that targets exactly what is wrong with a particular review.

We do try to take into account what is going on with Advisors if they talk to us in advance. I'd much rather give a good Advisor a break than see the Advisor spiral into nasty comments. We tend to give really good raters (those who rate reviews of "big names" with the same discerning eye that they use with a newbie review) more breaks than we do those that aren't so selective, mainly because there aren't all that many on the people on the site willing to step up and take over that particular niche on the team.

I'm sure that the community does have vastly different expectations than what Epinions has said that it wants and needs. Too many members seem to think that everything should be based on numbers alone.

Ladies and Gents,

Thanks for all your thoughts on this, and for the e-mails some of you sent me. I have given it a good bit of thought, and am of the opinion that I still don't feel that I can give Eps the time that, as an Advisor, I should. Hence the decision to resign still stands.

Whether my hat disappears now or at the next selection round I'm not sure. There's the odd chance that, just be keeping abreast (mostly) of my alerts that I'll rate enough to be selected as an Advisor by the hatbot, but don't think so. I just don't think it's fair to the community to retain my title when have neither the time nor the inclination to continue rating and commenting so much.

It's been fun, though, folks. I'll say a special thank you to our illustrious CLs for their kindness and understanding on this issue. I'm not quite disappearing, though--I'll still fight for my TR spot, should time permit. See you all on the flip side...

Cheers!

Simon