Research before crying foul!
Jun 01 '00 (Updated Jun 03 '00)
I am feeling really crabby right now.
It all started about a month and a half ago when a friend of mine joined epinions. He is a friend from another internet circle, and I have always been a fan of his writing and of his character. Having him on epinions was a really great thing, and I was certain he would be a benefit to this community.
In his overzealousness (as so many of us are when we first join), he posted about 15 of his movie reviews on the same day. These were movie reviews that he had written at his personal website over the past year, and they were all very well written.
Another member found his reviews, agreed that they were well-written, did a search, and discovered that they had been "plagiarised" from another website. This member then proceeded to go through my friend's reviews and label him an abuser, while listing links to the web site in question.
What this member didn't know (and didn't bother to check by e-mailing my friend) was that the reviews were from my friend's -own- website! He was accused of plagiarising -himself-.
Unfortunately, this got out on one of the boards that I frequent and within minutes, several people were over NR'ing and adding comments about "how disgusted" they were at my friend, and within a few minutes, epinions had removed his reviews and ticketed him.
At the time, my friend had done something wrong. He hadn't put the disclaimer on the bottom of his web site stating that "these reviews are also listed on epinions, please go see my user-profile there." That was his mistake. He admitted it -- he skimmed the user agreement, he said (didn't we all?). That -was- his error, but the (over) reaction by the community was ours.
I was disillusioned and angry about this when it happened, and I nearly lost my head today when I saw that it had happened again.
It wasn't with a friend this time; it was with somebody who (over enthused and eager) posted several of his (already written) reviews within a short time and all in one day.
The cries of abuser went up, and other people joined in, and soon the fellow was black listed.
As far as I'm concerned, this kind of mistake is not okay
Reputation is everything here on epinions. You jump into these waters and get labelled "abuser," it's hard to find the sand again. People are all too wiling to jump on bandwagons and cry abuse.
I appreciate the fact that people want abusers to stop. I also appreciate that members are trying to preserve what little dignity epinions has left. But it's really not okay, and just as abusive to post comments about someone regarding them being abusers when you have nothing to back up your suspicions and no way to delete your comments.
What should we do when we suspect abuse?
I have some ideas, based on these experiences.
1) Try to contact the person personally
If there's an e-mail address, use it. Write the member and ask them why they're posting so many reviews in one day. If they're an enthusiastic newbie, they might reply with an "I'm excited!" or "this is fun!" This leads to an open door that you can use to break them in gently, tell them that this looks suspicious and they might be better off tempering their posts.
2) Search alltheweb.com
See if you can find where the material has been plagairised from. If you find that it has, look at the web page, then check the user's profile and make sure that the email address (domain name) doesn't match the web page. If they -do- match, it means they're most likely the same person and they're not plaigairing anyone but themselves. This is what happened with my friend, and a step that another member overlooked. (You also may want to write the person at the website and ask them if they know their work is being plaigairised. They might reply with, "but that's me on epinions, too!")
3) Take it to abuse at epinions
If you have a valid complaint, write the epinions staff and let them know.
4) Remember that comments can't be edited
Try and be civil when you leave a comment about a suspected abuser. Keep in mind that others will read your comment, and react to what you've written. Try and think of how you will feel if you are wrong.
5) If you -are- wrong and you've written a comment, go back and reply to your own comment with an apology
Chances are that months from now somebody will read that review where your comment was placed, see that this person was an abuser, and add them to their WOD or NR without further inspection. If you've placed an apology underneath (or nearby) your original comment, this will help to prevent that from happening.
I'd like to see this happen less and less
I said above that I appreciate the effort that people are putting into the site to keep abusers tagged. I think it shows the strength of the people who care about epinions, and I think it shows that many people are taking epinions seriously.
At the same time, in my -own- personal opinion, I would much rather "miss" a plagiarisist than label an innocent person an abuser.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tesserae
|
|
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 46 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.