Rantings, Ravings, and Miscellaneous Musings
Apr 13 '00 (Updated Apr 23 '00)
Several previous epinions have exceeded 1000 words (Monopoly being the longest at about 1100), but be warned that this is going to be my longest review yet. Still reading? Okay, I warned you…
Ratings
One of my other epinions gives an overview of a few topics that I’m including, but I wanted to go more in-depth and Epinions will not permit me to delete that review. Consequently, here is an updated version of my rating scheme:
Good Writers and Bad Writers
I have seen people point out that Epinions is supposed to be a place where you write your opinion in order to help others make good purchasing decisions, and not a literary magazine. While this is true, I feel that good writing helps buyers more by conveying the author’s points succinctly. This said, “imperfect” writing does not preclude a “Highly Recommended.” I follow a certain set of guidelines when I rate, but a well-written opinion that should be “Recommended” because of its content may well get a “Highly Recommended” because of the writer’s clarity and style.
Unofficial Guidelines
Highly Recommended: Since I generally focus my attentions on the Highly Recommended (HR) reviews in any given category (who wants to read SRs?), I give this rating out 50-75% of the time. Don’t think that I don’t have standards, though. The review should be informative, objective, clear and fluent, well-thought, and should help me make a decision. Not much to ask, is it? Like I said, good writing helps, but is not in itself a prerequisite.
Recommended: I give this rating 15-30% of the time. Your review came close, but lacked something. I didn’t feel that I had heard all sides of the story or that your argument was completely presented. This review is reasonably informative, pretty objective, not as well-thought but still good, and is pretty clear, but it doesn’t help me enough in my decision on what product to use.
Somewhat Recommended: I give this out 8-15% of the time. You didn’t do a good job at all. Your opinion didn’t outline the necessary points and didn’t help me make a decision. The problems with your review are likely to be found as one of these: not informative, gap in logic, ludicrous proposal, very biased, short (to the point of handicapping the review), ambiguous, and/or rushed. My point is this: if I think your opinion is horrid, it will be SR. I feel that is the lowest I can rate an on-topic non-abusive opinion.
Not Recommended: I almost never give this out, probably only 2-5% of the time. If you get an NR, there is a 97% chance that you have been reported to abuse@epinions-inc.com or possibly even the Category Manager (like in the attacks against Jannie0). Your review is off topic, contains useless filler, is vulgar, attacks another member, is plagiarized, or recommends dangerous things (hey kids—go blow yourselves up!). All NRs earn themselves a place on my WOD.
Anonymous Ratings
I almost never rate anonymously unless there is a very strong concern about revenge ratings. Anonymous rating doesn’t get your name out to the community and doesn’t help develop your Epinions personality.
Comments
I rarely leave comments. The key reason is this: a comment can’t be removed. If you feel that I have rated your review inappropriately, please email me. I will always answer your email. If you leave a comment on your own review, I will almost certainly never see it.
I have been known before, in extreme circumstances, to leave a comment on someone’s opinion that is unrelated to that opinion. If you NR one of my opinions and leave no comment, don’t give your contact information, and seem to be a legitimate (non-abusive) epinioneer, then it is possible that I will comment on your latest opinion inquiring as to your reasons for rating my opinion such. This is probably not good, but some circumstances warrant it.
My Web of Trust (WOT)
I am an extremely selective truster. I have adopted sgentile’s guidelines for trusting: I must associate your Epinions ID with consistently good writing, fair ratings, and selective trust. Currently I have about 65 people on my WOT, while I have been honored by 185 people who have deigned to trust me. I may not always stick to this 1:3 ratio, but I do always plan to be selective. If I haven’t noticed you reading or rating in awhile, I will likely remove you. I prune my WOT frequently out of respect for those kind users who trust me, and therefore trust those whom I trust.
So how do you get on my WOT? The first thing is: get noticed. How can I add you to my WOT if I don’t know who you are? One sure way to get noticed is to add me to your alerts and then rate opinions of mine as I post them (this isn’t a solicitation, only a suggestion to use with any member whom you like or want to get noticed by). Just go to my profile page and look in the left-hand column under those people who trust me and click “Send me email alerts on opinions by lovdbyGod7.” This will allow you to keep up with my writing. Always rate my opinions when you read them, otherwise how can I know that you were there and if you liked them? So here is the first step to getting on my WOT: get noticed. I often cruise the Most Recent Opinions section, so if I see you (writing or rating) frequently, I’ll start to recognize your name.
Once I recognize your name from your ratings of mine and others opinions, I’ll take a look at your most recent opinions. If I can HR at least three of them, then I will most likely add you to my WOT. But sometimes it takes time before I can recognize you as a great epinionater. This is true of anyone. Be patient and don’t think you won’t be succesful if I don’t add you right away. After all, there are lots of bigger fish than me. Lots of much bigger fish.
My Web of Trustees
I offer a special thanks to those people kind enough to lend an ear to my opinions and add me to their Web of Trust. I am truly honored by your support. I do have a little problem, though:
My Web of Trustees isn’t very sticky!
A number of people tend to come and go frequently. I have heard people say that if the members they trust don’t immediately read and rate everything they write henceforward they will drop them. Please don’t do this. You mean a lot to me. I used to take care of most of my reading from about 7:30-9:30 in the Most Recent section. Doing this allowed me to meet some great reviewers and also catch at least 50% of the new opinions by my trustees. Unfortunately, time has been restrictive the past couple of weeks, so I knew that I would have to find some way to read my trustees’ opinions.
From now on, retroactive several weeks (about 40 trustees back), I will add each new trustee to my email alerts, thereby allowing me to stay on top of their reviews. I hope this new system works, and I recommend it to many of you out there who are trying to find a way to stay in touch with your trustees without clicking every single name.
Once again, a special thank you to those who trust me. I don’t deserve your kindness.
Getting Known (and Trusted)
Name recognition. Every politician needs it. Every company needs it. Without name recognition, you are another small fish in a huge sea of epinioneers. But the question is: how do I get it?
Write Good Reviews
This is likely the easiest thing. Don’t try to write a certain number of opinions in a certain amount of time, just write when you feel you need to, and be thorough. Three sloppy opinions a day doesn’t do you much good, but three T-pinions every couple of weeks will allow you to focus your writing and be exhaustive (hi Tipu!).
Be thorough. Be focused. Research. Take your time. Be objective.
Be a Good Rater
This doesn’t mean that you must follow my system. Make up your own, but be fair. Epinions gives these general guidelines for ratings:
Not Recommended: off-topic, inaccurate, offensive, OR plagiarized
Somewhat Recommended: poorly presented or somewhat inaccurate
Recommended: accurate and well presented
Highly Recommended: exceptionally accurate and well presented
Don’t Trust Back!
Quid pro quo has no room at Epinions. Don’t trust sex_fiend just because he/she trusts you (Note: at the time this opinion was written, no member named sex_fiend existed. If in the future a member takes on that Member ID, this opinion is not to be construed as attacking him/her, the name was just used to emphasize the point that sex_fiend is likely to be a lower quality epinionater than one would wish to trust). Be selective and trust strong members. Never trust an abuser. If you don’t know which people have abuse/scandal associated with them, worry not: potential trustees will definitely let you know!
Becoming a Better Epinioneer
What makes a person a good epinioneer?
~Good reviews
~Strong WOT
~Good rater
What else?
Be Courteous--Don’t ever directly attack another member in a review. If you one day become the most trusted member on the site, still remember to be polite to less prolific and skilled writers than yourself.
Be Humble--Contrary to what you may think, the more people that read your reviews and trust you, the more humble you will feel. Who am I that so many people care about what I say?
Give and Take Constructive Criticism--No one wants to hear “This stinks!” Instead, give suggestions on improvement if you feel that an opinion is lacking something and that it is easily correctable (via comments or email). Never be offended by what a member says: if rude, brush them off, if constructive, take it as a compliment—they cared enough to try to help you.
Current Problems at Epinions
Here are some FAQs:
Why does my counter update at random intervals and not every 15 minutes?
Epinions has just instituted a new counting system to attempt to update eroyalties in real-time (or close thereto), and the system is quite unstable. However, I feel confident it will calm down. No page views are being lost.
Why aren’t my affiliate page views showing up?
Epinions has had numerous problems with this system, only updating affiliate royalties once a month or so. Lately they have updated several times, but are now apparently experiencing technical difficulties.
If I post a review on another website, such as ThemeStream (formerly OscarTech), will I get in trouble with Epinions even if I posted first to another site then posted to Epinions?
Yes. You may be ticketed for copyright infringement. The old user agreement, according to Epinions, prevented such previous posting then later posting on Epinions. The new user agreement is more clear. To check it out, go to:
http://www.epinions.com/help/user_agreement.html
Several recent opinions have attracted fewer members than/equal to/slightly more members than ratings. Why is this? Is Epinions not counting my member page views accurately? And why do I have so many non-member hits?
Hmm, this, I believe, needs a section devoted to it. The section that I am going to add to answer this question was written prior to the main body of this text. Consequently, some dates/hits/royalties/ratings will be different now than then.
Am I Being Cheated Out of Member Hits?
The review I posted yesterday [Nashville, TN] has had 20 member hits, 40 non-member hits, and 19 HR ratings according to Epinions, as of 4/6/00. You mean all but one member who visited my opinion rated it? Strange how the opinions I wrote before the new counting system came into effect had a member-hits-to-ratings ratio of 2.79:1, and non-member-hits-to-member-hits ratio of 5:4. In other words, if I saw that one of my opinions had 35 ratings, I would assume it had received about 100 member hits (that was how I estimated my hits until the actual totals would update). The total hits would be about 120, meaning 100/120 hits were member hits. The other twenty were non-member hits. Now Epinions expects me to believe that my opinions are suddenly generating a 1.09:1 member-hit-to-ratings ratio? That's strange!
Customer Care tried to explain that under the new counting system, the first time a member visits an opinion, the visit is shown as a member hit. Each subsequent time he/she refers to my opinion the visit is counted as one non-member hit. Okay. So I should believe that in one day the 20 members who hit my opinion on Nashville actually referred back to my opinion 40 TIMES?
Special Thanks
Kristin, one of the Kids and Family Category Managers, responded very promptly when she was informed that a certain unnamed member was actively taking part in horrific slander/libel against Jannie0. She immediately informed the head of Abuse, Alexis.
Alexis promptly suspended this member’s account and is working with Yahoo! Geocities to remove the offensive content from his website. Thanks on behalf of my dear friend Jannie!
Finally
In case anyone was wondering (thanks to those in my Comments section), Epinions now allows you to edit Community Center reviews. Just go to your member profile, click "Edit Your Account" and look under your page view totals in the upper-left corner. Click "Edit My Opinions." Thanks for reading!
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2100 words. Wow!
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Epinions.com ID:
lovdbyGod7
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Member: David Dinkins
Location: Rolla, Missouri
Reviews written: 139
Trusted by: 307 members
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