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| joyfulgirl91 |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:06 am |
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Reviews written: 157 Member since: May 14 '05
 in Home & Garden, Pets |
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: chelledun
However, to me what is worse is having a consumer come into the website and see lots and lots of blank categories, or categories with very few reviews. If there are categories for black, white, purple, and pink widgets (not that there should be, but if there are), I would like to see them all filled with quality reviews so the consumer feels that Epinions has good database coverage. If this results in some folks hitting the IS jackpot, so be it. It doesn't really matter to me if someone went through and rewrote the whole thing or not if the information presented would be essentiallyt the same anyway. It seems silly to require rewriting beyond the 100 word rule just for the sake of rewriting.
Of course, the ideal situation would be to eliminate very similar widget categories, but in the meantime I vote for database coverage.
Michelle
I disagree with that. Take a stroll over to K&F and check out the listings for Boppy pillows. There are dozens of categories, some of them blank and some with not very many reviews in them. It is my fondest wish that everybody who wants to write a review of their Boppy pillow would just post it in the same place as the majority of the three or four hundred reviews that have already been written about the thing. That way they can be sorted according to their rating and the reviewer's weight and the best reviews will show up on top just like the site is designed to do (in theory) and the Hs will be on the bottom. It's boring to scroll around looking for the entry for your particular slipcover pattern when nobody cares about that. Slipcover patterns are discontinued and new ones are brought out all the time. It would bother me a lot more as a consumer to see so many individually listed reviews of patterns that are no longer available than to see them empty. I am perfectly happy to see the bumblebee alphabet pattern empty if that means all the reviews are in one place. Unfortunately, that item is full of entries for patterns that only one person reviewed with a marginal H contribution.
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| chelledun |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:13 am (Updated: Mar 08 '06, 8:17 am) |
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Reviews written: 1044 Member since: May 16 '03
in Hotels & Travel |
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: joyfulgirl91 I disagree with that. Take a stroll over to K&F and check out the listings for Boppy pillows. There are dozens of categories, some of them blank and some with not very many reviews in them. It is my fondest wish that everybody who wants to write a review of their Boppy pillow would just post it in the same place as the majority of the three or four hundred reviews that have already been written about the thing. That way they can be sorted according to their rating and the reviewer's weight and the best reviews will show up on top just like the site is designed to do (in theory) and the Hs will be on the bottom. It's boring to scroll around looking for the entry for your particular slipcover pattern when nobody cares about that. Slipcover patterns are discontinued and new ones are brought out all the time. It would bother me a lot more as a consumer to see so many individually listed reviews of patterns that are no longer available than to see them empty. I am perfectly happy to see the bumblebee alphabet pattern empty if that means all the reviews are in one place. Unfortunately, that item is full of entries for patterns that only one person reviewed with a marginal H contribution.
Wow, I went and looked. That is a lot of boppy! The problem is, a consumer might not understand the bumblebee boppy pillow IS exactly like the butterfly boppy pillow (or whatever). This is definitely a place where Epinions should just have one listing. In the meantime, though, I still think customers are goign to go to the listing of the pattern they are thinking of buying if they are all available. If Epinions isn't going to condense them, then they might as well all be reviewed.
Michelle
ETA: I have no idea what a boppy even is. I'll have to read some of those and brush up on it! |
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| joyfulgirl91 |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:17 am |
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Reviews written: 157 Member since: May 14 '05
in Home & Garden, Pets |
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: chelledun Wow, I went and looked. That is a lot of boppy! The problem is, a consumer might not understand the bumblebee boppy pillow IS exactly like the butterfly boppy pillow (or whatever). This is definitely a place where Epinions should just have one listing. In the meantime, though, I still think customers are goign to go to the listing of the pattern they are thinking of buying if they are all available. If Epinions isn't going to condense them, then they might as well all be reviewed.
Michelle
The problem is, eighty percent of the patterns listed are no longer available for love or money. But the reviews will always be there. I can't even find the newest Boppy colors in the listing. So if a consumer really would rather read a review of the pattern they want to buy, that's impossible. All they will find is a big mess. I'm sure this is true for other items like different colored electronics and different size bottles of beauty products. |
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| phungus |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:17 am |
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Reviews written: 2298 Member since: Aug 31 '99
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: gamblin_man 9. Can I post the same review more than once?
No. Each product or topic must have a unique review. Although many products may contain similarities (for example, among multiple sets of knives by a single manufacturer, the same text could apply to several sets of knives), there should be a minimum of 100 words of unique text in each review and should compare the two products.
1. 100 words unique text.
2. Compare the two products.
Got it...I'm just going to give this a try. If I get jumped on, I'll just delete the review. I think I can pull it off and keep them different enough. |
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| joyfulgirl91 |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:19 am |
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Reviews written: 157 Member since: May 14 '05
in Home & Garden, Pets |
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: phungus 1. 100 words unique text.
2. Compare the two products.
Got it...I'm just going to give this a try. If I get jumped on, I'll just delete the review. I think I can pull it off and keep them different enough.
Good grief. You're shameless. Good luck with your enterprise. I'm sure you'll do a fine job at it, but you should shower afterwards. |
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| pearannoyed |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:36 am (Updated: Mar 08 '06, 8:43 am) |
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Reviews written: 197 Member since: Oct 03 '03
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: chelledun ETA: I have no idea what a boppy even is. I'll have to read some of those and brush up on it!
Boppy is that horseshoe shaped pillow that can be used to prop infants in a variety of ways.
I think the boppy listings should be merged like the listings for iPod color. There's a reason to have separate listings for different colors. You want a given listing to connect to the corresponding shopping links so the site can make money. But in the case of iPod color, each color's seperate listing points to the same collection of reviews. Members can only post a review of one iPod color (of the same memory size), and shoppers get to see all the relevant reviews regardless of which color they're searching for.
Best of both worlds.
The same could work for different sizes of the same perfume, the print and audio editions of a book, etc. It allows for maximum coverge with minimum duplication and that's a good thing.
Amy |
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| ladyconsumer |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:38 am |
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Reviews written: 626 Member since: Jul 11 '05
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: joyfulgirl91 Take a stroll over to K&F and check out the listings for Boppy pillows.
ok - I decided to take a look, and see what the boppy hoopla was all about. And - I have to say - now I'm a bit torn. Looking at it from a consumer's point of view... I think the first thing I'd do is find the category just called "boppy pillow" and browse through the 300 or so reviews. But once I was sold on the pillow itself, if my exact pattern happens to be listed, and happens to have a review or two, I'd take a look - just in case someone's gonna tell me that the velvet is scratchy or the yellow in the sunshine pattern faded, or that the tigers pattern really hides stains, something like that might be useful.
However - what would REALLY be the best - would be to have one category called "boppy pillow - all covers", and have the epinions searching tool be - dare I say it - upgraded to include a search for a word inside the text. Wouldn't that be the best? So, I'm in the category for all boppies, and I can futher search for "butterfly". Then I'll find all the reviews that mention the butterfly covers.
Ahhhhhh........ that would be nice. ok - back to reality - the boppy situation as it stands today is a perplexing one, and I have no good answer.
Mona (Dreaming of word searches...)
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| joyfulgirl91 |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:51 am |
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Reviews written: 157 Member since: May 14 '05
in Home & Garden, Pets |
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: ladyconsumer But once I was sold on the pillow itself, if my exact pattern happens to be listed, and happens to have a review or two, I'd take a look - just in case someone's gonna tell me that the velvet is scratchy or the yellow in the sunshine pattern faded, or that the tigers pattern really hides stains, something like that might be useful.
The problem with Boppies (which are a silly pillow that nobody can really tell you you will like or not before you've tried it yourself anyway, but they are a good example for this problem) is that you don't get that much choice of color or pattern when you buy one. Boppy comes out with a few new slipcover patterns each season and the ones available previously are discontinued. I don't see any of the new colors from this season listed - in fact, all the colors seem to be at least a year old. You can't get most of these colors anymore. So while it actually is useful to know that the Alphabet Boppy is too dark to cover up with another slipcover, it doesn't matter because you can't buy the Alphabet Boppy anymore. The new Boppies are toile do juoy, and that pattern is nowhere to be found in our database. |
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| ladyconsumer |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 8:57 am |
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Reviews written: 626 Member since: Jul 11 '05
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: joyfulgirl91 So while it actually is useful to know that the Alphabet Boppy is too dark to cover up with another slipcover, it doesn't matter because you can't buy the Alphabet Boppy anymore. The new Boppies are toile do juoy, and that pattern is nowhere to be found in our database.
I see. So - if looking to buy a toile do juoy (good grief - is that really how they spell it!!) I guess, I'd browse the 300 reviews in the general category, then have to use my judgment on the pattern. But that's where my magic, word-search would be useful - in case some of those 300 reviews mentioned that exact pattern. |
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| joyfulgirl91 |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 9:03 am |
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Reviews written: 157 Member since: May 14 '05
in Home & Garden, Pets |
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RE: Advice please?
Definitely on board with you magic word search, but not holding my breath. |
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| joyfulgirl91 |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 9:04 am |
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Reviews written: 157 Member since: May 14 '05
in Home & Garden, Pets |
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: ladyconsumer toile do juoy (good grief - is that really how they spell it!!)
Probably not. |
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| sageandsavory |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 9:33 am |
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Reviews written: 1 Member since: Mar 10 '00
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: chelledun I find this to be the lesser of two evils situation. Ok, its probably annoying to a lot of people that some folks are "exploiting the system" to make money on similar reviews. This doesn't bother me that much because the categories I write in aren't really bringing in the big bucks anyway.
However, to me what is worse is having a consumer come into the website and see lots and lots of blank categories, or categories with very few reviews. If there are categories for black, white, purple, and pink widgets (not that there should be, but if there are), I would like to see them all filled with quality reviews so the consumer feels that Epinions has good database coverage. If this results in some folks hitting the IS jackpot, so be it. It doesn't really matter to me if someone went through and rewrote the whole thing or not if the information presented would be essentiallyt the same anyway. It seems silly to require rewriting beyond the 100 word rule just for the sake of rewriting.
Of course, the ideal situation would be to eliminate very similar widget categories, but in the meantime I vote for database coverage.
Michelle
While posting the same review with or without the cosmetic modification of 100 words might make overall coverage appear to be more extensive, to me it would look deceptive.
Epinions reviews are supposed to be written by people who have really used the exact products their reviews are listed under.
If Epinions claims to have lets say two million reviews and consumers find the same reviews posted under many different color listings then they will think Epinions is somewhat disingenuous with their claims. Doesn't or didn't Epinions claim to have x number of unique user reviews? It could also make consumers wonder what other claims Epinions is making that while technically correct are not exactly ethically correct.
Posting under all the colors opens a door that may have negative consequences for Epinions credibility. Members will use a product and then post the review under all the colors, when they only really have experience with the red product, have held the green product, and wrote on all the other colors because they are all the same anyways. How do you later rate someone elses review lower because they admit to not using a product, when everyone knows and has rated reviews by a member who wrote one review and posted it under all the colors. Then we can argue the fact that there is no way to prove the member didn't use all five of the various colors of the product. Members make higher numbers and more IS so everyone starts to post multiple reviews.
Next why can't you post the same review under the product model you used and then the next model up after all you think there isn't much difference and if you are wrong and someone calls you on it then just claim that you aren't an expert after all Epinions reviews are written by regular people not professionals.
Then what about the products that we think are exactly the same and made by the same manufacturers but sold under different names. We are pretty sure they are the same they look the same, of course we aren't exactly sure, but heck if they aren't and someone can prove they are not the same we can always delete or correct the review; of course the consumers who read the review before the corrections were provided with erroneous information.
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| mmcphee |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 9:45 am |
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Reviews written: 1121 Member since: Oct 14 '03
in Education |
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: pearannoyed
But in the case of iPod color, each color's seperate listing points to the same collection of reviews. Members can only post a review of one iPod color (of the same memory size), and shoppers get to see all the relevant reviews regardless of which color they're searching for.
Amy
I think more things should work that way. It would make it much clearer for the consumer.
ME |
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| phungus |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 10:10 am |
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Reviews written: 2298 Member since: Aug 31 '99
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: mmcphee I think more things should work that way. It would make it much clearer for the consumer.
ME
Right, in an earlier post, I suggest that Epinions add a simple drop-down box so that when the author writes the review, they can select which color they have. |
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| joyfulgirl91 |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 10:30 am |
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Reviews written: 157 Member since: May 14 '05
in Home & Garden, Pets |
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RE: Advice please?
The problem with Eps indicating a color at all is that most companies discontinue the old colors and add new ones all the time. That's why having all the colors filter into one heading is better for shopping. |
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| mmcphee |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 11:30 am |
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Reviews written: 1121 Member since: Oct 14 '03
in Education |
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: joyfulgirl91 The problem with Eps indicating a color at all is that most companies discontinue the old colors and add new ones all the time. That's why having all the colors filter into one heading is better for shopping.
But there is still some use for consumers to view reviews on specific patterns. Like if you want to know how the cow-moo-flage car seat cover washes before you buy it or if parents feel silly with it once the novelty wears off, you may want to read the "best" general reviews on the car seat but then want an easy way to find those specific to the color or pattern you are interested in.
I still think general entires are the best way to go, but it would be nice to still be able to check out the color options.
ME |
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| jkafer |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 12:28 pm (Updated: Mar 08 '06, 12:29 pm) |
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Reviews written: 313 Member since: Feb 07 '01
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: phungus Right, in an earlier post, I suggest that Epinions add a simple drop-down box so that when the author writes the review, they can select which color they have.
This would be a monumental task.
Keep in mind that Epinions gets their products from data feeds, and these feeds probably list the different colored items as individual products. So Epinions feed bots would have to be smart enough to recognize two products are really the same (even though they have different SKUs) and extract color/pattern information and then combine those into a single product entry.
I definitely would not want to be the engineer to write this code or the tester to make sure it is working properly with a minimum of bugs. |
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| ladyconsumer |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 12:31 pm (Updated: Mar 08 '06, 12:32 pm) |
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Reviews written: 626 Member since: Jul 11 '05
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: jkafer This would be a monumental task.
Keep in mind that Epinions gets their products from data feeds, and these feeds probably list the different colored items as individual products. So Epinions feed bots would have to be smart enough to recognize two products are really the same (even though they have different SKUs) and extract color/pattern information and then combine those into a single product entry.
I definitely would not want to be the engineer to write this code or the tester to make sure it is working properly with a minimum of bugs.
Does Eps get most of its products this way... or do they get manually added some other way? If they do come from data feeds, then why are so many missing, and have to be SAPped?
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| jkafer |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 12:41 pm |
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Reviews written: 313 Member since: Feb 07 '01
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RE: Advice please?
Quote: ladyconsumer Does Eps get most of its products this way... or do they get manually added some other way? If they do come from data feeds, then why are so many missing, and have to be SAPped?
OK, maybe my post made some assumptions.
When I was trying to build a search engine for my wife's coupon site, I would get datafeeds from each merchant. Of course each merchant had their own style and way of crafting the feeds that after a few months, I just gave up because they required so much hand-tooling, not unlike the Leads do with Epinions.
Perhaps Epinions has a better method of getting these feeds, but I would assume the premise is the same. They get the information from other sources and then they have to massage the data with SAP's bug reports, etc. But the fact that the task is automated to an extent explains why we have multiple listings of the same product. And to change the automation to be "smart" would require so much testing and would inject so many bugs into it, you would probably start to cry. |
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| underdawg |
Posted: Mar 08 '06, 1:01 pm (Updated: Mar 08 '06, 1:19 pm) |
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Reviews written: 228 Member since: Jul 23 '04
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RE: Advice please?
They are duplicate reviews in my opinion. If a person has two different colored iPods, they should review either just one, or write two different reviews from scratch.
The TOS says reviews must have 100 different words or something, but I don't think two reviews that are exactly the same except for 101 words should fly either. There is a difference between the letter of the law (100 word requirement) and the spirit (write unique reviews). A category lead did this once, and I stand by my conclusion that it is Not Helpful.
With all the talk about consumer helpfulness, one needs to keep in mind us, the writers as well. We write the reviews, and our sense that the system is being gamed, that IS is unfair, is important too. Maybe by having duplicate color reviews, we get a few more hits. What if it bothered people so much, they stopped writing often on the site or altogether? There's a lot of potential hits for epinions there that could evaporate.
While it may be quite drastic to assume that people would quit the site in protest, people are more likely to write reviews when they feel they are fairly compensated (i.e. we might not get a lot of IS, but we want it to be fair). People are more likely to tell their friends about this site if they think the system is fair. Honestly, I will probably be less compelled to join such a write-off (ones with prizes involved) in the future because of this.
And how different are black and white Nanos? Just the color! I think most consumers are intelligent enough to know that so if they don't find a review for a white nano, they'll read a review on a black one and just keep in mind "The one I want will be WHITE though" and find that review just as helpful. If we're really trying to just be helpful to consumers, just write a blurb "the white Nano is umm...white instead of black. It scratches easier" on the end of one of your reviews. I'm sure most consumers will find it if they try.
And the multiple posts being there doesn't make duplicate reviews alright. The system lets you post the same post over and over and over again in the message board or edit your post's contents to cover up something you said. Doesn't make it alright.
And it's not like there's a dearth of Nano reviews either.
If someone wants to get double the IS, they should do double the work. I'm not saying don't write reviews of something you own in different colors, I'm saying write two unique reviews. Get a little creative with it. I think that's fair. |
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