Quote: joyfulgirl91

What if that's true (and I don't think it's true that nobody is working on it, but I have no trouble believing not much time is spent)? Could that not imply that these issues are not actually as important to the site's profitability as members think they are? Surely engineering hours are prioritized a certain way for a reason.

Quote: krus54

Here's my speculation: eBay and shopping.com are depending on the "community feel" and socializing within the boards and comment sections to get away having people contribute to eBay's billions of dollars and pay us a few pennies. There's a lot of people who "depend" on this site for socializing. I speculate that management will also feel that as long as there is a core group of people who have too much invested to leave, there's no hurry to get around to fixing all the bugs on the site (like the search engine).

Quote: MiDoyle

Welcome to the message boards fellow cynic/contrarian. Someone will be by shortly with some kool-ade. You'll feel so much better after drinking it.Cheers

Quote: krus54

Here's my speculation: eBay and shopping.com are depending on the "community feel" and socializing within the boards and comment sections to get away having people contribute to eBay's billions of dollars and pay us a few pennies. There's a lot of people who "depend" on this site for socializing. I speculate that management will also feel that as long as there is a core group of people who have too much invested to leave, there's no hurry to get around to fixing all the bugs on the site (like the search engine).

Quote: roheblius

I'm glad that you said you were speculating.

Quote: krus54

What other issues? How many years has it been that the search feature hasn't worked? A whole new rebuilding effort was done and there are still reviews of mine that cannot be found via the search (a hotel review as one example). I think after years of having this problem, not fixing it is inexcusable.

Now some people earn a lot of money on this site. They are in the minority. Most of the members spend time writing for what is basically free and eBay makes good money from Epinions.com members because of this. Members (and especially the ones with tons of reviews) are getting cheated out of some big IS as well. Yet you don't see anyone from shopping.com making any big strides to correct the problems.

Here's my speculation: eBay and shopping.com are depending on the "community feel" and socializing within the boards and comment sections to get away having people contribute to eBay's billions of dollars and pay us a few pennies. There's a lot of people who "depend" on this site for socializing. I speculate that management will also feel that as long as there is a core group of people who have too much invested to leave, there's no hurry to get around to fixing all the bugs on the site (like the search engine).

I'm guessing also with the departure of Garrett and Andy that the staff is down to even more of a pretty minimal level so there will be other problems and issues cropping up which will take a while to resolve.

I also wonder whether the 10-4-10 is a way to attract back people who have left or who are thinking of leaving to write for AC or Viewpoints or other sites which are competing for our content.

Again, as I mentioned above, all this is speculation. I'm not stating fact.

Dave

Quote: krus54

I always try to make sure I say "speculate" or "my perception is..."

Quote: antastic

Excellent points! Here's my take: I see employees leaving, I see people complaining about fewer outside hits, I see a 10 for 10 promotion. That does not look like a very good business model. There are fewer employees to take care of problems that crop up; more money is paid out because of the 10 for 10 promotion; less revenue is being made because of fewer outside hits. As a result, more employees need to be let go, more problems crop up due to the labor shortage which leads to even fewer outside hits, and more writers leaving and so on and so on.

Quote: antastic

Does Ebay care? That depends on how you define caring. Ebay acquires businesses that are complementary or competitive with Ebay. Their first priority is always going to be what's good for Ebay. The whole idea of acquiring a competitive business is to take it out of the running, not to help it kick Ebay's a**. Epinions has reviews, Ebay has reviews. Hmmmm...I wonder which reviews we will find first when we search?

Quote: sageandsavory

We don't know that less revenue is being made or less IS is being paid.

Quote: trailhound

I have quite a few reviews that used to pay IS on a regular basis and now pay zero. Perhaps the products are now ''outdated'' or something, but my IS has dropped. -Dave

Quote: roheblius

Total overall IS hasn't changed. As I've said, it's all the other problems with the catalog that is causing IS distribution to look differently. But the overall amount hasn't changed.

Quote: scmrak

Amount-wise, mine's pretty much unchanged from this time last year. Some reviews that were earning well then aren't getting squat now, but then reviews that were pulling in pennies are now pulling in dimes.

I can see where people tend to review very heavily in certain categories might be seeing a decrease: I'm lucky that older reviews in Books haven't been affected by a fall-off in IS (though "How could you tell?" comes to mind).

Quote: trailhound

I have quite a few reviews that used to pay IS on a regular basis and now pay zero. Perhaps the products are now ''outdated'' or something, but my IS has dropped. -Dave

Quote: sageandsavory

There are so many factors to look at:

6. It is likely that some read numbers may be down due to a bug, but according to Epinions those are not the numbers IS is based on and some members have said that their IS is doing okay for the time of the year. From reading these boards, I haven't gotten the impression that the bugs have infected the IS system so at least that is some good news.

Quote: gamblin_man

. IS distribution is definitely broken and Epinions has said the same publicly.

Larry

Quote: gamblin_man

I don't know if the IS calculation uses hits directly, but hits are an indicator of IS amounts. I have been correlating that for several years successfully now and am satisfied that if a review shows no hits it will get no IS. That is, I believe, a fact.

Reviews in the "catalog-free" database (those with /review/ in the url) have been afflicted with bugs that do affect IS payment since Black Tuesday. The situation worsened in December, in January, and in February. Since mid-April I have no reviews in the new database showing hits. There are nearly two hundred of those reviews with no data for May at all. I fully expect no IS on those when it is posted mid-June. I know at least some of them are being read but the hits not counted.

IS is still being parsed, but those reviews that are still getting hit counts are getting the lion's share of that IS. IS distribution is definitely broken and Epinions has said the same publicly.

Larry

Quote: gamblin_man

IS distribution is definitely broken and Epinions has said the same publicly.

Larry

Quote: roheblius

I'm not sure who said, but I don't believe it's correct. If I've said that in the past, I misspoke. The process and the way it distributes IS isn't broken, as far as what I know today. There are bugs that are causing the distribution to be wacky.

Quote: sageandsavory

There are so many factors to look at:

1. This is sort of off season except for grills, childrens' swimming pools and other summer items.

2. Products become outdated and replaced and if fewer or no Epinions merchants carry the product any longer then little or no IS will be produced.

3. How many more new reviews have been posted that now share in whatever income the product's reviews are earning?

4. Epinions has repeatedly said that income share is not paid based on outside hits but instead on whether your review was included in the chain of reviews that resulted in a click through and purchase. I think Epinions must have a separate set of numbers for determining income share.

5. The economy also is not doing so well so I bet more people are researching products but buying fewer products. I would also speculate that consumers purchase different sorts of items when the economy is bad.

6. It is likely that some read numbers may be down due to a bug, but according to Epinions those are not the numbers IS is based on and some members have said that their IS is doing okay for the time of the year. From reading these boards, I haven't gotten the impression that the bugs have infected the IS system so at least that is some good news.

Quote: gamblin_man

IS distribution is definitely broken and Epinions has said the same publicly. Larry