Old timers, help us newbies
Jan 04 '01
Introduction:
Let me state up front, I am very new to Epinions as an author. I have, however, used it for quite a long time as a consumer. I have chosen to write this epinion in the hopes of helping fellow newbies. It might also give a different perspective to some people who have been around for awhile as to what kinds of things a consumer looks at–or at least what this one did! It is written with sincere hopes that some of you who are Epinion old-timers will add comments to the review to help answer some of the questions that are posed in this editorial. I have been here only a week, but wanted to write this with the perspective of someone who is new. I would think that other new members would have many of the same questions that I have.
Comments from a Non-member:
As a consumer, I regularly used Epinions to help with some of my purchase decisions. In fact, I have been using Epinions for well over a year. I never had intended to actually contribute any epinions myself. I thought some of you might want the perspective of someone who actually used this site without worrying about getting money from it.
The thing I liked most about Epinions was that I could get several different opinions about any given product. I found it amusing at times that 200 people would all write about the same little toy, but I would read a few different opinions. I also use Consumer Reports, but I like the fact that the Epinion users used the products in real life, rather than in just a test scenario.
One thing I always would do as a consumer is to scroll down the page to read a review that gave a different number of stars than all the rest. Once I had read two detailed reviews both rating a product with 5 starts, it hardly seemed worth my time to read any additional reviews. I would read the differing opinions, however, even if they were very far down the list. For example, one item that I have not yet purchased is the Ronco Showtime BBQ. As an admitted junkie to buying these infomercial touted products, I know that if I spend any more money on something that ends up in my cupboard never to be seen again, I will never hear the end of it from my husband. So although there were literally hundreds of glowing positive reviews, I have not bought it due to those handful of people who gave it a poor rating. I learned from them that when they tried to roast large pieces of meat, the machine produced a product that was burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. Since I have a family of six, this might not be for me.
This leads me to my next comment, and that is one of ratings. Now that I am a member, I have read quite a bit of commentary on how people rate other reviews. I have read that some people, and this seems to be the majority, rate mainly on the content of the review. Others, might mark an NR on a review that they feel is incorrect. If the author for example gave the product 5 stars, and they feel that it is a piece of junk and the author was wrong, they would give the opinion an NR. Their view is that by giving the report an HR means that they agree with the review and might mislead the consumer. As a consumer, I feel that this is entirely the wrong approach. I would much rather a person that disagrees with the original writer, write their own review rating the product as one star. That way, I would see the review and read it.
As a consumer, the only rating I would look at is the overall rating that the site gave the product. I don’t even remember looking at who wrote what, or how many people ranked a product. Frankly, I can’t even remember if this information was available. I also don’t remember looking at any comments. Therefore, what I needed was clearly written pieces telling me what was good or not so good about the product. I feel that the rest of it, is more used by members.
As I said earlier, I always looked down the entire list in the review to see if someone rated it poorly. I believe that when I used to use this list, the NR and SR comments were available to the consumer. I strongly feel that these still should be. Many times the NR reviews have information that is useful to the consumer, albeit in a very poorly written review. I remember one time seeing a product only rated one star and not recommended but what the author talked about was their experience in buying it from a particular store. They did not describe the product etc., thus the NR rating, but the information to me in it was very valuable since that is where I had planned on buying the product. It was also useful to me that they didn’t have a gripe about the product per se. I remember thinking at the time, why did they rate this as Not Recommended. As a consumer, I had no idea who did the ratings or how they were performed.
The most amusing thing to me about the site was some of the levels of reviews. I would show some of the reviews at my mom’s group and we would crack up over some of the reviews of the toys. It was amazing to us how anyone could write pages of information about a $10 toy. Now that I am on the site, it does seem that people write far more details about toys than other products. I find it rather ironic, that toys require so much detail to get an HR rating, whereas, cars or computers require much less. I think that if some of the cars were rated by advisors in the toy area, they would not get an HR unless the ashtray itself was described in full detail describing how it could be used for multiple purposes. As a consumer, I would much rather make a mistake and buy the wrong toy, than the wrong car. Having said all this, you can find my dissertation about a toy that is basically 5 colored rings on a stick ; ) I am not saying that all the information is not helpful, I just wonder about the consistency across the site. It does not seem to me to be in any way comparable.
As a consumer, the other thing that meant the most to me was not the detailed description of the physical product, although some of that is obviously very helpful, it was whether or not you actually use it. If the product was a toy, for example, knowing all of the design features and educational benefits was great, but what I really wanted to know was does your child play with the darn thing!
What I Have Learned or Things a Newbie Might Want to Know:
In order to be ensured good rating in your reviews, your reviews should be as complete as possible. A thorough description of the product should be included. How often and how the product is used is also very important. By viewing ratings, I have also noticed that advisors, on average, tend to be the toughest graders. I have also noticed that the people who grade the Just Ins, tend to be far more lenient. My impression is that many people grade these based on length, rather than content. It is simply not possible to have read some reviews as quickly as people do and rate them almost as quickly as I hit the send key to post them.
Thorough means different things to different people. I thought I was quite thorough in my reviews, until I read the works of Dr Steph. I don’t know who she is, but read her review of the Cosco Alpha Omega car seat from 11/12/00. If you want an example of a very thorough and well written review, this is one to look at. I was embarrassed when I read it to remember that all I based my car seat decisions on was whether they rated well in safety and could I fit three of them in the backseat of my car!
Although, I am sure there are many wonderful writers on here, the people that I have found so far who I think are exceptional in their literary style are: PTIEMAN, GROUCH, MR.EYORE, and BONIES7. When you read these, you will get a better perspective on what really great reviews should be like.
For an example of humorous, thorough, and sometimes thought provoking commentary read CLEANSHAVEN. The picture on the profile page, isn’t hard on the eyes either. I wonder if it’s really him. For those of you with children, however, be careful when you search for him. I was talking with my kids paying absolutely no attention to what I was doing and for some reason went to my space to type in a website and wrote http://www.cleanshaven.com instead of doing the search from within Epinions. Well let’s just say, you have never seen a mom hit the back key so fast in your life.
For thorough well-written reviews of toys, BONNIESAYERS, IRISHMA4, and JUBRISMOM should all be read to give you good examples on how to structure your reviews. For everyone, BONNIESAYERS has some wonderful pieces on Special Needs Children. She also wins my vote for being the most helpful person to new people!
How to Find Great Epinionators:
With so many authors out there, it is hard to find some really good ones. If your main objective is just to make money, I would suggest you just read tons of peoples articles and maybe some will reciprocate. If you want to find, however, examples of what I would consider really good material, look at people’s profiles. Look at their WOT and look at who trusts them. Some people build their WOT by simply putting many people in it in hopes that some might reciprocate. But you will find that some are very discriminating. Look for those authors that have been around for a long time who have a very long list of people who trust them and a limited list of who they trust, and then look at who they trust. I can almost guarantee that whatever you read from those people, will be of top quality. A good example of this is PTIEMAN. He has about 2600 people who trust him, and yet he trusts only 41. My guess is that you will find some great material to read by following those profiles.
How to increase your WOT:
Oh please, I’m new with a very small WOT, how would I know! But there is a really good article by JJARRELS that is entitled "FAQ…’How do you generate so much traffic?’" that is really good for a newbie like myself to read.
What can you old timers do for me:
I know that most of you that have been around for awhile are probably extremely busy reading and writing reviews, but your comments are so helpful. Tell us what you like or didn’t like about a review. That is what really helps us to improve. If someone gives me an NR and tells me what I wrote is a "piece of junk", well it is just not particularly helpful.
Even if you aren’t one of the advisors, I love to get comments. I think it has something to do with memories of school or something. Maybe it’s since I became a stay at home mom, I just don’t get enough feedback on things, but for some reason I just love to get comments. I also love to write them. Just ask FLOWRCHILD, I think I wrote a novel in one of her reviews about children and violence. I would also suggest you read one of her reviews from 12/31/00 entitled "The Rise of the Implanted Doll" if you are not a fan of Britney Spears and could use a little chuckle.
I would like to understand better how things are ranked for others to view the pieces. I know that when I look at a particular topic, I see things ranked in terms of their overall ratings with your WOT and then other advisors listed first. But within any particular category, what order is used for the listing. For example, if 10 people were all to get Highly Recommended by an Advisor, what order would these be seen by a consumer, not necessarily a member. Would the member’s view be any different?
I admit that I have no experience with web pages. I worked with computers for years, but unfortunately ended my career just as the web took off in popularity. Where can I go to learn how to spice up my profile page? Where can I go to learn how to spice up my epinions with bold and italics?
Would someone please let me know the reason behind allowing anonymous reviews? I have received them for both NR ratings and for HR ratings. I would like to reciprocate and read people who read me, but this isn’t possible for the anonymous ones. I really don’t mind people leaving me an NR, as long as they give me a reason why they did so, but I get really annoyed when I receive one from an anonymous person. Why not just tell me why you didn’t like whatever I wrote for heaven’s sake. I realize I have written on a few controversial topics, (homeschooling and abortion), but if you disagree with me just make your case. There is no need to hide behind an NR. If I didn’t want disagreement, I would never have written the epinions. I really don’t think anonymous ratings should be allowed. If someone wants their vote to count, then I think they need to own up to it.
In Summary:
I have had a lot of fun joining this little community. I hope that some of the information in here, and especially in the comments will help some fellow newbies. I also hope some old timers might get some insight from the perspective as a non-member. I sincerely hope that the comments section will be filled up with advice for the rest of us.
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Epinions.com ID:
jajus100
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Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 12 members
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