Is there enough communication between site members and site management?

I have been wondering when hits will actually update to reviews as far back as October of 2007. I emailed GG and Andy about it and was assured that it was being addressed but that doesn't do much when I see 55 people have rated a review but it is only showing that 26 of the hits have actually registered.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Plagiarism amongst new and established members is out of control, MPA lists are so inaccurate that it's pointless to even look at them and some members are contemplating jumping ship because of other events at the site.

I don't care if it is going to take five months to get something fixed - leaving people in the dark forces them to think of the worst case scenario. A weekly or bi-weekly update on site issues would be really nice. Is this something that Epinions can do on a regular basis? I sure hope so because from what I have been getting in emails from other members, a lot of people are ready to leave the site. And then what will happen? The SH reviews will choke the life out of whatever is left.

While I can't imagine weekly communication (would love it) I think at least monthly communication is reasonable.

Lately I think a ton of us have been feeling a bit depressed about the state of things here. The 10 4 10 is nice but it's not what keeps me here. I love to write and I love it when I can share info about a product, destination, etc. Most of us are not professional writers so the ego-boo is a huge part of why we're here. When we see little or no outside hits, combined with no IS, it just doesn't give me the ego-boo that I am looking for. At this point only a few H&G reviews and my travel reviews are giving me that feeling.

Of course, having GG & Andy leave only adds to the depressed state of affairs. Yeah, they said it was to pursue new opportunities outside of Eps and I can certainly understand that. But it doesn't eliminate that feeling that they were jumping ship off a sinking ship.

No.

See:
http://www.epinions.com/msg/show_~threads/cat_id_~121/id_~20381/forum_id_~441

I'm very interested in hearing how we might have more formal communication with everyone - I recognize there are bugs, I recognize that the proximity of Andy and Garrett's departures don't look great to the outside world. Trust me that we're trying to fill those positions, fix the bugs, and continue to enhance the site.

While I agree that weekly is probably too often, maybe a monthly report would keep people better abreast on the progress we've made.

Look forward to people's thoughts...

(As for the 10 4 10, it has expanded our review count significantly - thus benefitting the shopper - and has not had an impact on quality. So from this perspective, it has been quite a successful program.)

Lots of good points and I'll try to address each of them as best I can. I'll quote you, Freak369, since you started the thread.

Since I am new and don't know who is at the top maybe my perception is off but....

is taking time to respond to message board posts helping in any way? What I mean is I keep thinking if the ONE person at the top is here reading posts and responding...who is running the ship and who is working on issues?

njchicaa is correct. I'm not one of the engineers. I wouldn't know linux from Linus unless someone told me (I'm kidding, I know who Linus is *wink*). But I do talk to the engineers daily so they know exactly what's going on. So until we fill our open positions, consider me and Pehr to be at your disposal for issues, questions, concerns, etc. As I mentioned earlier, we'll do our best to address each one as it arises.

Mona, I'm sure Pehr will see your post, but I wanted to let you know you bring up all great ideas. I'm actually putting together a plan (i.e. writing ideas as I think of them) of how to communicate more formally on a regular basis with everyone here. Not just the frequency of the communications, but the content and delivery of each one as well. I also wanted to add that at the Meet & Greet this past March, we included a "State of Epinions" as part of the event. From the feedback I received, this went over quite well. I was afraid of boring everyone with stats and engineering jargon, but in fact, those who attended wanted that and more. This is also planned for Chicago in June and I see no reason why we can't share the content of those discussions with everyone else after the M&G.

Again, great stuff, Mona. Thank you for your feedback.

-Almar

Thanks for responding, Sue. My turn to answer! =)

Awesome! Thanks for stopping by and updating us! This is exactly what I'm talking about and what we need to see and hear: that you are listening and care.

If you are doing a state of the union at the meet and greets with numbers and fun stuff, why can't you also post those at the site for everyone else?

Thanks,
-Brent

I don't think addressing important issues on these boards is enough.

If you look at who posts here, it seems that there is a core group of people and then some who come and go. I believe that all members should get an email or at least a post should be put up in the member center when the "state of the site" info comes out.

I read the boards every day but often miss things. I would rather there be a neutral place just for management to address the community and let us know what is happening, if anything.

This is not to say I don't love the message board communications because I do. But we have far more members that are in the dark because they either don't go to these boards or miss a post.

Making issues - and progress on those issues - easier to find would be a great help.

I won't even ask when beauty/wellness and outdoor/sports will be fixed, hits counted, reviews seen, MPA and MPR back, etc. I know it's being worked on. And I know no one can give me a timeline of when things will get better. But when something starts to happen, I sure want to know and would hate to miss a post about it.

Patty