disillusioned
Mar 15 '00
I was very excited about joining epinions.com.
I discovered it at the end of February -- a chance link from one of my favourite websites -- and became quickly enamoured with the idea. I've always been a very opinionated person, you see -- and I love to write. Epinions took both of those things and made something that I could feel passionate about.
I started reviewing right away.
I know that everybody & their mother says that it's important to do some wandering around, get some feel for the territory -- but I'd already surfed the site quite a bit and was ready to start. I wrote one, then another, and another. It was addicting. I loved the idea that I could say what I thought about something, and actually have people care and be interested in it.
It was a love affair - a honeymoon of sorts - those first few weeks & reviews. I was enjoying myself; I was proudly proclaiming the joy of epinions to everyone I correspond with (on the net), and I felt good about this place and about what we were all doing here.
And then the politics started.
I was surfing sites when I (somehow) would up in a tangled, sticky web of disgruntled people. Folks who talked about revenge rating and plagairism; the appending of extra nonsensical characters on the end of reviews to force the review up to 100 words.
It shocked me that people actually did those things. It shocked me that people actually only wanted money out of this wonderful great thing we call epinions.
[Yes, I suppose that I'm a bit naive and idealistic. I like to think that people come here and write here because they believe in the idea, not because they want to earn hundreds of dollars. I have done many affiliate programs and the only one that ever made me a reasonable amount of money was amazon, during the holiday season. I signed up for epinions with no monetary expectations. And I (stupidly, innocently) thought that other people did too]
As a result of all that I've seen since last night, I sit here feeling disillusioned and a little sad. I really like this place. I like having a voice. I like being able to write what I think. It troubles me that other people can't appreciate how wonderful that is. It troubles me that people take advantage of the system like that.
This is a great idea. Let's not let the rotten apples spoil the whole barrel.
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Epinions.com ID:
tesserae
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Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 46 members
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