Please keep the communication even. The condescending communication styles aren't necessary.

First, why is it that some posters seem to be able to turn any thread from its original intent and tone and drag it into endless condescending and/or sarcastic, nit-picky, but oh-so-polite-and-cooperative, directions? We speedily got away from the original intent of this thread and into discussions of positive and negative and who is dissing whom and who is being sarcastic to whom and endless disections of other people's responses, all in the excessively polite name of civil discourse. And it's nearly automatic; when I see certain names, I just know what's going to happen.

Some people don't seem to know they're alive unless they are stirring up dissension or controversy. Ugh.

Secondly, to respond to the original intent of the thread, no, I don't think Epinions is going down the tubes. The problems cited here have existed, to one degree or another, since I first signed on in the last century.

Item: Search didn't work then and it doesn't work even worse now. Not new.

Item: IS went wonky as soon as they changed from a dynamic, constantly updating, tally to a once-a-day hit count and once-a-month earnings count. It's just worse now, not new.

Item: Duplicative listings in most categories cause enormous amounts of wasted time for searchers. Not new.

Item: Reviews get arbitrarily moved to odd places by the resident gunchpungles, and regardless of how many times they are moved back where they belong, if they ever are, they seem to migrate again. Worse now, but not new.

None of this is new. Neither is management's reluctance or inability to speak definitely about what causes them or what is being done to resolve them, and when they REASONABLY expect that to happen. These bugs are part of the fabric of the site, and it has thrived, despite the loss of most of its finest writers (IMHO,) for the almost nine years of its existence.

I don't think it's going to fail because the problems aren't getting fixed. We've all learned to live with them, by expressing our frustrations here and elsewhere, and I think most of us know, deep down, that This is Just the Way it Is.

But, having said that, I do believe that failing to acknowledge the work of our members by either monetary or reader-hit means is going to make the slide steeper. There has to be SOME reward for the work we do here, and if we get neither money nor acknowledgement, what is that reward? It isn't ego-boo, if we don't see that our words are being read.

THAT, in my opinion, is going to have a very serious and long-lasting negative effect on the site if it isn't fixed soon.

Margaret

I agree. A list of the good things will make us all feel better.

There have been some, of course, or I and some of my fellow dinos wouldn't still be here.

1. The database has expanded, not just in numbers but in categories. When I signed on, there was no Personal Care category - you couldn't review hair-dryers or razors. The Restaurants and Gourmet category didn't include any food categories.

2. The feeds by which items are added to some categories, like Music and Books, have improved; time was when the book reviewers were frothing and foaming over their inability to review what wasn't on the site, or even have it added.

3. The biggest change is the implementation of the CL position. Until then, Eps staff handled all the stuff, mostly SAPs, that the CLs now do. It was a constant job, in addition to whatever else they were doing, so designating CLs freed them up to pay attention to other things that outsiders can't do.

Margaret, wrapping herself in her shawl, hobbling back to her rocking chair, and sending the young 'uns off to write

What's old is new. Trolls have always been with us and always will be. Once you learn to recognize them, you can always tell who they are, even when they return under new names. Best thing to do is just ignore them - there's nothing a troll hates more than being ignored.

Margaret

Here we go again...

Margaret