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Passions has been canceled, again. But I think I'll get over it; I've gained perspective.
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Activity Summary
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Reviews Written: 119
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Member Visits: 13,261
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Total Visits: 165,785
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About DavidK93
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I work for Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems in greater Baltimore, MD. I have quite recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, where I studied mechanical engineering. And I'm originally from Livingston, NJ. That's about all there is to say about me. Oh, wait, one more thing. I'mOOOOOO
GAY
OOOOOO
and I'm not afraid to say it. I am in fact openly gay, but that gets complicated. The whole point of being openly gay is that everyone knows it, and you don't have to go around telling people that you're gay. But then, do you have to make some public announcement that you're openly gay? Doesn't that defeat the whole point? I guess the best thing to do is make mention of your homosexuality in a public profile on some popular nationwide website. Thus far, I know of only one person outside of the Epinions community who actually learned of my sexual orientation through this website. Maybe I should take out a billboard, after all.
Anniversary Write-Offs
Every year on my Epinions anniversary (starting with the second one, which means twice so far) I like to host a write-off. The 2003 installment was the "Crazy Drunken Write-Off." Here are the participants:
daily-llama * DavidK93 * drdevience * iluvbirds * Nedipooh * tbthorn * xiphoid
The first one was "DavidK93's Second Anniversary Write-Off," or "D2K-93: The Widowmaker," held in 2002. Here are the participants and their reviews (I have pared down the list by removing those who RSVP'd but never submitted an entry. And please note that kurt_messick has left Epinions; his reviews can still be accessed, though, if you follow the instructions provided by mobiprof--sorry, I don't have the link to his essay on the subject.).
DavidK93 (1 2 3) * dedemw * kurt_messick * MrsNormanMaine * Officer * pmills1210 * sampo24
How I Write E-pinions
When I decide to write an e-pinion, first I think for a minute or so about what I want to say. Then, I start writing. If it's a book or movie, I'll give a brief setup for the story, being careful to avoid spoilers. For other items, I'll just sort of explain what they are. Then, I'll go into details of my experience with the item, and what I feel are its strong and weak points. And, finally, I'll attempt to actually analyze it, especially if it's a book or movie.
I didn't always do that, you know. Some of my earlier stuff was just pure crap. Today (11/3/01), I finally went back and deleted some of that junk, reveling in the ability that has been returned to us. I felt bad briefly, becuase I realized that I had actually deleted 24 reviews! But then I felt better when I noticed that all but two of them were written in the first four days that I was a member of Epinions. That's right, 22 reviews in four days! I'm sure you can imagine how little time I spent on each one.
The World War II Choctaw Indian Code
As you probably all know, epinons will not permit certain words to be used in reviews. I sometimes feel that this is unfair, especially because some of the banned words are gay slurs, which don't offend me, so I think I should be allowed to use them, but I couldn't think of a way to do it. Then, I remembered the Choctaw code. You see, during World War II, the Allies realized that the Germans had cracked all of their codes to date. Then, they learned that there was a Native American language known as Choctaw, spoken by the members of a very small tribe by the same name. This language was not related to other languages, and would function excellently as a code, as long as they had a Choctaw on each end of the telegraph. The only problem was that certain words did not exist in Choctaw. These were important words, like "missile," "airplane," and "submarine." So, they simply spelled these words out, using words starting with the corresponding letters. "Missile" would become "Mandrake Iguana Skunk Snake Island Leaf Elbow." Pretty neat trick, huh? So, anyway, if you see a reference to it in any of my epinions, you now know what I'm talking about. Of course, I have now learned how to evade the Objectionable Words Filter, but some of the older reviews still use this older technique.
E-pinions and QF
In some of my reviews, especially of books, movies, and music, you'll see a section at the end called QF. This is the item's Queerness Factor, i.e., it's relationship to homosexuality and the gay community. An explanation follows.
QF0: The item has nothing at all to do with homosexuality. In fact, if an item has QF0, I won't even include the QF in the e-pinion. My mother tells me that I often bring every conversation around to homosexuality, and that it alienates straight people. So, I figure, if the item has nothing at all to do with homosexuality, why should I even mention homosexuality in conjunction with it?
QF1: The piece has some small reference to homosexuality, or an acknowledgement thereof. The reference is probably unobtrusive, and you might not even have noticed it if I wasn't bringing it to your attention. Like in the case of singer Dar Williams, a bisexual; some of her songs with women characters are in fact about intimate relationships between women, but this is not really obvious.
QF2: Some small influence of homosexuality can definitely be felt in this item, but it is not central to it. For example, Dawson's Creek; Jack is gay, we all know it, but it only gets mentioned once a month. But, at those times, it usually comes to the forefront.
QF3: Homosexuality plays a big role in making this item what it is, and you couldn't state the premise of this piece without using the word "gay," yet still the item is not neccessarily considered a "gay" item. Like the movie Opposite of Sex. Although several major characters are gay, the movie is really about relationships and love in all its forms, and large portions of the movie do not even deal directly with the homosexual characters.
QF4: This item is definitely a "gay thing," but it can still be appreciated by heterosexuals. Take a movie like Edge of Seventeen. Yes, the main character is gay. Yes, it's all about him exploring gay culture. Yes, there are unexpectedly graphic sex scenes between men. But, the themes are still universal. It's still a coming of age movie. Anyone could enjoy this movie equally.
QF5: If you're not gay, then the only use this item could possibly have for you would be to teach you about gay people. It wouldn't make sense to you, or you wouldn't be able to figure out how to use it (for example, I don't think a straight guy would know what to do with a...well, never mind. I don't think you can review those on epinions.com). Even the movie Love, Valour, Compassion, is a QF4, and I'm pretty sure nobody but gay men ever appear on-screen. In fact, I can only think of one QF5 item, and that's the movie Lilies, which I think is pretty bad, and I therefore feel has appeal only to gay men who will enjoy the homoerotic imagery.
How to Get your E-pinions Visited by Me:
Just visit mine, that's all. Visit my epinions, and rate them. As of August 31, 2001, I have developed a great system: If you rate my review, I will go directly to your profile, and read/rate two of them. If they were really good, I might read some of your others, and consider putting you on my Web of Trust. It's as simple as that!
How I Rate E-pinions:
Basically, I am generally inclined towards handing out Very Helpful ratings. I'll give you one if I come away from your e-pinion knowing some important facts about the product, that I didn't know before. And even if I completely disagree with your opinion, it is still entirely possible for me to consider it Very Helpful, as long as you backed it up. My standards are a touch stricter when in comes to movies, since I was once an Editor in the subject, and the mentality has stuck. For a movie review to get a Very Helpful rating from me, it needs to be pretty thorough. I look for information about the plot, with spoiler warnings if appropriate, as well as character descriptions, plot analysis, and consideration of the soundtrack and the production values. I wish there were a Very Highly Recommended rating, because I would use that one for the ones that really go all-out and give exceptional details, and tell me something about you, too. But there isn't, so all the good, great, and incredibly wonderful e-pinions get lumped together.
I tend to give a Helpful rating to those e-pinions which don't provide the sort of information that I was looking for (or even that I think other users might be looking for), or provided only a few generalized points of information, without much useful data. In the Movies category, this would typically mean that the review is actually only a plot summary, without discussion of the other points I mentioned. Somewhat Helpful is for e-pinions that state general opinions without any support at all, and are essentially useless, but at least apply to the product. In a movie review, this means that there is little more than a few bare sentences about the story and maybe the names of some characters, with generalizations like "This is the funniest movie ever, go see it!" As far as Not Helpful goes, I am forced to occasionally slap that on an e-pinion that simply did not provide any useful information, or even an opinion, on the product in question, and perhaps was in fact off-topic, profane, or abusive (i.e., double-posted or plagiarized). A movie review can also earn this dubious distinction if it leaves me wondering if the reviewer really even saw the movie. But odds are I'd never even see an e-pinion like that (except by choice), because my Web of Trust would protect me.
Speaking of which, if you'd like to get on my Web of Trust all you have to do is drop me a line via e-mail, and tell me why you think you deserve my trust. If you demonstrate the value of your opinions, I'll be more than happy to add you to my web. And who knows, maybe you'll even add me to yours. Here's how I choose new members for my WOT, if left to my own devices: I will generally only add you to my WOT if either
1) Your reviews consistently blow me away, or
2) Your comments are insightful and helpful.
Of course, it's not an entirely objective process. Any of the following factors can increase your chances of becoming part of my WOT:
1) You and I have a friendly e-mail rapport,
2) You have a really nice profile page,
3) You are gay (Yeah, it's reverse-descrimination.),
4) Your profile pic makes me like you (Because I really am that shallow.),
5) I have sexual fantasies about you (You know who you are...).
On the other hand, the following factors, though they will certainly bring you to my attention, will not by any means guarantee that I will Trust you:
1) You read and rate a lot of my reviews,
2) You leave comments on lots of my reviews,
3) You Trust me,
4) You e-mail me.
In any event, as I try to abide by my own rules and maintain a manageable WOT, I am currently in the process of revising it. Unfortunately, some people are being dropped. This certainly is not a personal reflection upon those individuals, and does not even reflect a decline in the quality of their reviews. Instead, the problem is mine. I have allowed my WOT to get far larger than I can truly manage. I always subscribe to the new reviews of those who I trust, and the sheer number of reviews that I am called on to read these days has become overwhelming. I simply cannot be honest about reading and rating, nor can I be conscientious about comments, if I allow my WOT to stay as large as it is.
I have, in the past, had people remove me from their Webs of Trust, without so much as a word. I know that I was terribly offended, and I have vowed not to perpetrate that treachery upon any other Epinionator. That is why I have been individually e-mailing everyone that I have had to remove from my WOT, and I hope that they will bear me no ill will. In addition to subscribing to new reviews of those who I trust, I will on occasion subscribe to the new reviews of an epinionator in whom I see unrealised potential. Even if the reviews tend to be only of SH or H quality, I will read and rate lots of their newer reviews and leave plenty of comments, in the hopes of helping them improve their work.
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