Epinions: Difference between revisions
m bad spacing |
deleted the first paragraph of the criticism. Why? Well, it is not factual. This is a common "issue" brought up by people who really, honestly don't like the site. The second paragraph is good. |
||
| Line 15: | Line 15: | ||
'''Criticism of Epinions.com''' |
'''Criticism of Epinions.com''' |
||
Abuse of the site has always been a problem. There are so-called Rating Circles whose members "trust" and "rubberstamp" each other's reviews and are often aggressive towards members who dare to give them anything but the highest rating. They play these rating games to gain more rating power and skew the Income Share payments. These so-called "circle-raters" often "block" good members who do not play along with their gaming of the system. |
|||
Some feel that while a community spirit does exist, and those who become friends on the site do tend to read each others reviews, this does not negate the need to be very helpful. For example, they say that sometimes a grammatically incorrect review could contain a lot of useful information, while an eloquent work of art merely skims the surface. |
Some feel that while a community spirit does exist, and those who become friends on the site do tend to read each others reviews, this does not negate the need to be very helpful. For example, they say that sometimes a grammatically incorrect review could contain a lot of useful information, while an eloquent work of art merely skims the surface. |
||
Revision as of 13:14, 24 February 2006
Epinions.com is a website that was established in 1999. Epinions was acquired by Shopping.com (known as DealTime.com at the time of the acquisition) in 2003, which in turn was acquired by Ebay in 2005. At Epinions, visitors can read reviews about a variety of items to help them decide on a purchase. Contributors do not need to be webmasters to write at this website, although a password is required along with an online ID. Writers are encouraged to give their own personal views, and write about their personal satisfactions or dissatisfactions. This is the website's aim: To give future customers a preview of what they might expect should they decide to buy a certain product or use a certain company, or even watch certain television shows or movies. There is no maximum opinion length, but the minimum opinion length has changed several times. Currently, the minimum length is 20 words.
Epinions is a place where members can write reviews, as well as other kinds of opinions. To post a review, members must rate the product or service on a scale from 1 to 5 stars, one star being the worst rating, five stars being the best. For several years now, all opinions also comes with brief Pro and Con sections, and a "The Bottom Line".
Epinions.com originally had both an Eroyalties plan and an Income Share Plan. The Eroyalties plan paid writers per read of their opinion. The payment per read has steadily decreased and finally been unilaterally abolished, partly because this system was being gamed. Epinions still offers Income Share, which ostensibly rewards reviewers for how much help they've given users in deciding to purchase products. Epinions even claims that you are also rewarded for helping visitors not purchase an item. It is not possible to verify either claim, as the Income Share Formula is secret. Since the end of the dot-com era, payment dwindled and then plateaued to a level that is much lower then the earlier days and non-existent for many users.
All members can rate opinions by others as Off-Topic (OT), Not Helpful (NH), Somewhat Helpful (SH), Helpful (H), and Very Helpful (VH). Opinions shorter than 200 words are called Express Opinions and rated "Show" (S) or "Don't Show" (NS).
Members can also decide to "trust" or "block" (formerly known as "distrust") each other. All the trust and block relationships interact and form a hierarchy known as the Web of Trust. This Web of Trust (WOT) combines with rating to determine in what order opinions are shown. The order members see depends on their own ratings and their own trust and block choices. The order a visitor sees is determined by a default list of members a visitor supposedly trusts. The WOT formula is secret.
Some members have titles that designate certains roles, status, privileges or benefits. These roles, the titles and the way members are selected for these have changed more than once. Since 2002 the main titles are Advisor, Top Reviewer and Category Lead. The Advisors have greater rating weight and access to an additonal rating, Most Helpful (MH). The Top Reviewers have all their opinions shown above those of others, even if the others are higher-rated. The most powerful title is that of Category Lead, a Category Lead enjoys all the Advisor and Top Reviewer benefits, has even greater rating power and can choose the Advisors and Top Reviewers for a category. A Category Lead can even add new products and services to the epinions.com database for others to review. Category Leads are members that have become temporary epinions.com contractors; they sign a temp contract, receive an undisclosed fee, and enjoy access to privileged information after signing a non-disclosure agreement.
Criticism of Epinions.com
Some feel that while a community spirit does exist, and those who become friends on the site do tend to read each others reviews, this does not negate the need to be very helpful. For example, they say that sometimes a grammatically incorrect review could contain a lot of useful information, while an eloquent work of art merely skims the surface.