We're dying over there. Literally. There are no outside hits and our old reviews are dead. Is this the only category with Top Reviewers and Advisors that feel like red-headed stepchildren (thanks to Patty for that term that pretty much sums it up!)?

I don't know what has been discussed at length on the boards, but are there any other categories that are dying? Is the Beauty/Wellness category being ignored? Or are we on our way out? Don't worry, we can take the news. We'd just like *some* news.

If anyone in Eps management sees this, can we get some insight?

All of the categories that were changed over on Black Tuesday in Home and Garden are messed up with either many fewer hits showing, no IS even with hits similar to before Black Tuesday, or hits not being fully counted on many of the reviews with the /review in the url. Starting in February it seems other categories, at least where I write, were being newly infected with the Black Tuesday virus. Starting in March it seems every new review has been infected, for me at least.

I have never seen a public acknowledgement by Epinions that, for many catgegories, hits are not being accurately counted and IS fairly distributed, but it sure seems that most members think that is the case.

Larry

Many K&F reviews (at least mine) are not getting any outside hits either... Your not alone...

Susan

The Sports/Outdoors category is suffering the same fate.

Thanks for all of the responses. I came back this morning wondering if I was going to see a bunch of members yelling at me for asking that question - but I should have known better! :) I appreciate all of the responses and I am glad to see that we are not alone over there. I do read the message boards a couple of times a week but I don't recall anything being discussed about this recently. I'm frustrated but am trying to hang in there. Thanks again!

I've written in Movies, Music, Pets, Restaurants and Musical Equipment this year, and with perhaps 2 or 3 exceptions, every single review has been limited to members hits only.

You are not the only one frustrated by a lack of outside hits.

It's not just you, most of the reviews in Pets are not getting outside hits either. On a side note, seems like all the newer Pet reviews have either /reviews/ or /review/ in the url.

Categories that seem dead to me: Pets, Office Supplies, Food, non-Chain Restaurants, some Sports reviews :(

Apparently, we have LOTS of red headed step children at Epinions!

However, I see no issues in the Online category except FINDING the sites to read reviews. But I have seen outside hits and garnered IS from that category. (Shameless plug. Heh.)

I was going to move some of my beauty reviews to new listings but they, too, have /review(s)/ in the URL so I just left them where they were. I am hoping this isn't a forever thing. I just wrote an extensive beauty review that will more than likely never be seen and it's on a hot product that I know people care about. Bummer.

I guess the only thing to do is to hang in there and hope they are working furiously behind the scenes to fix the bugs.

PT

Like the rest of you, my outside hits have collapsed. However, I don't think the hit counts are wrong. Oh no, I think it's considerably more serious than that. The hit counts are accurate. Our reviews have become invisible to visitors.

As non-members find less and less relevant content here, they'll likely come back less often. Would you do otherwise?

I wrote my first review here because this is where I found reviews that convinced me to buy it. Had I never found the item on Epinions there would not have been a first review written.

Rudi

I have been looking over my reviews written in 2008 so far to try to determine what is going on. As has been indicated in this and previous threads there are a lot of site problems that can conspire to make us unhappy in the apparent reception of even our VH reviews.

The first review was on a book. When I put the listing title into Eps search I find the book and the review. When I enter just the one word title of the book I get a lot of hits, but when I isolate to Books it shows as the second listing with the review and rating stars showing. On Google the first link is second on the second page and gets us to the review. The next Google listing is a link to the SdC product listing. There I find a link to my review. The word "review" does not appear in the url of the listing on Eps. I am getting what seems like normal hits and IS for this type of review. Hits from mid-January to end of April are 62/121 and IS through March is $0.78, If all of my reviews were like this one, which was the norm before Black Tuesday, I would be very happy.

The next is in Home and Garden. It shows as cutlery and is a SAP add. It shows It has 46/51 hits since early February and IS is $0.00. It has "review" in the url and is typical of those not getting accurate hits and not getting IS because it is in one of the orphan categories created on Black Tuesday. It also does not add the hits to my overall in H&G.

The next one is in Computer Hardware and is performing like the first one.

The next one is in Tools and Accessories and is mimicking the one in Cutlery. This is one I have factual proof that is not counting hits that it is getting.

The next two, in Books, have review in the url. They can not be found any way I have tried, using the Eps search engine. They can not be moved to another listing (there are three) using the Move function. They are showing no outside hits. They don't appear on the first ten pages of Google, I assume because they are not getting any page hits.

The next one, a Book, is like the first one, but is getting few outside hits, probably because it is an old novel.

The final one, in Restaurants and Gourmet, does not have "review" in the url. It can not be found with Epinions search and is on page eleven on Google. I don't expect it to do well, either.

This is typical of my entire inventory of reviews. Since nearly two-thirds of them have "review" in the url, I am down to less than a fourth of daily hits compared to October last year. My IS is well below equivalent months last year. My MPA position is falling because the few hits that are being recorded are not being counted in H&G. what about this would motivate me to write more reviews?

Larry

Toys....I can't imagine some of them NOT getting hits but none are. NONE! All have /review in the links. Ok I lied one has made 1 penny and had 3 outside hits I think. But that is it! This includes the BOOKS that come up under toys!

this gi-normous file somewhere, filled with the numbers for the outside hits and one day - everything will magically get updated. Cause to think that they aren't even tracking these hits - well - devastating.

Kristina, who goes back to hiding in her hole.

The travel reviews I did have gotten hits too even ones I didn't suspect would being in such a far away in a cornfield place! BUT the kinds of hits you guys are speaking of (hundreds), I have never seen. I am happy with 50 hits a month on anything!

I tried to do new candies on the market or slightly unusual ones that I have tried....there are many people who do order online now and get their groceries dropped off...what is that site? peapod? I don't know.

This is a large reason why I'm not wasting my time writing reviews anymore.

My old reviews are pretty much dead. Reviews that used to get 210 outside hits a month are barely averaging 30. Reviews that would get 40 are down to a couple and it's been this way since October. It's amazing to look at the consistent numbers for a year, then watch them drop like a rock in one month.

I might write some just to make the $20 for 10 reviews but it is a systemic problem that needs to be addressed or Epinions' will lose out big time in the long run.

I am so frustrated with beauty/wellness.. I went from almost 500 to not even in the top 1000. Now I am in the top 1000 at like, 929 and some of my diet reviews are in the top 20-30. Not only that, I don't know if SAP is working because I've asked for several new products weeks ago and I never got any response. Usually I get one in a couple of days max.

10-4-20 is making up for this somehow.. I guess.

But, I am still really frustrated. Will this ever get fixed?

Hmmm maybe if peapod or whatever that service is called was linked to epinions as a shopping portal...it would make a difference. I know that service is not available in all areas but the areas where they are located have huge populations!

Out of curiosity I just peeked at my public profile page to see if my Angel perfume review was still listed as one of my top ten reviews..its gone, completely gone...It's been listed for a few years now.....hmmm, all you gals who write in beauty, now I understand your frustrations ...

I wonder why nobody from epinions has written a message on the board to update any progress..

RE: SAP's... it is finally working again, keeping in mind that a huge backlog was created due to the downtime and all the contest frenzy over the last several months. The process also changed for us so we are still figuring it all out as well. I also have a lot of older SAPs due to the wait time we previously experienced for brands to be added. We don't have to do that any longer but, all the ones that were waiting are also in the mix of the pile up from the downtime. Obviously this means my inbox folder of SAPs is quite large.... my goal is to soon have it empty!

Melissa and I really try to get them out as quickly as we can but both of us also went from being home full time to working full time. So that will obviously have an effect on our previously lightening-fast turnaround time. It's a good thing SAP's are not a required duty for CL's :) We will get them out as soon as we can.

As for the other issues (fluctuating stats, reviews not showing up, etc).... those are questions I don't have an answer for so I hope bug reports are being filed when these problems come up!

Shantel :)

Although I'd be lying horribly if I said I never choose my review topics with no consideration of how many outside hits I get, I tend to write about whatever it is I write about more or less randomly. The only exception is when I actually buy something new and want to write about it right away or if, for instance, something that I already have coincides with the release of something new, like a new Indiana Jones or Star Trek movie.

That having been said, I am extremely disappointed by my hits counts on reviews that I wrote recently without purposely thinking, Aha! This review is bound to get a zillion hits but nevertheless figured they'd get some traction because they are about popular products. One in particular has that "review" word tacked on to the URL and is getting no outside hits. More worrisome, in the product listing where it says how many Eps reviews have been written the figure is given as 17, yet if I click on Read Reviews, only four writers' Epinions show up. Four. And yes, they all have the /review/ bit embedded in the tagline.

I'm also not getting any outside hits on K&F reviews. True, that's not a category where I have any hat whatsoever, but it is one of my favorite places to write in, and while I'll continue writing reviews there, I'm beginning to think that it's rather a pointless exercise, since all I'm earning there is the one-time-only $10-4-10 bonus.

I just keep telling myself that when it is fixed I will have a huge potential to gain outside hits whether the "lost" hits are factored back in or not.

Down the Road Mark

But........if your review got that many hits one month, it IS being seen by the world. Did it have the /review in it then too?

Movie folks -

If you have a review that has the /review/ tag in it and know that there are others of the same movie that do not, send me an email. There may be a way we can move them. It depends entirely on the title and the hoops seem to be a little different for each one, but I was able to successfully move four reviews away from the /review/ listing and onto the one without the tag and three of the four have begun counting outside hits. Not impressive hits, but more than zero.

Of course this only works if such a listing exists, but I'm happy to help anyone that wants to try.

Sue

With all the "fixes" does anyone have an answer to why our Beauty and Wellness MH's are not making it to the front page?

Thanks :) Kimm

bump...

I don't use a lot of beauty products, but I do like to read the new product reviews. :)

I feel your pain.
The POTATO category is, has been , and always will be nonexistent.
It's a crying shame.

spudman, crying his eyes out

The epi staff is working on these items, and on getting rid of ads for cheap knock off sneaker companies.

Is there a website where you can report counterfit items being sold online? Im pretty sure there is... Ill have to go and look now. lol. ; ) If you cant kill the spam, maybe kill the site the spam is directed at? :) yeeheeaaaw!!!