There’s something you don’t know about that hidden rating: it’s me
May 23 '03
The Bottom Line Whether you’re brand new or an old-timer, there’s a lot to consider here about whether to reveal your ratings or not, and the implications of either decision.
Revealing your ratings? What’s that about?? Well, as you discover about Epinions on your very first day, you can rate each review as either Very Helpful, Helpful, Somewhat Helpful, or Not Helpful (or Off-Topic, a subheading of Not Helpful). (I know this is basic stuff for many Epinionators, but hang with me!) What you might not know is that you can choose to conceal any of those designations, so that when you select a rating which you have chosen to keep anonymous, the only result of your rating that people will see is:
[hidden]........Not Helpful........May 23, 㢧
(or whatever rating and date it is for that review). The question remains, which ratings should you choose, if at all, to keep hidden?
First Things First
How do you hide your ratings (or, conversely, reveal them)? Epinions used to have a handy little link right below the set of rating buttons on each review, allowing you the option to hide your ratings. Now, though, you have to click a rating button before it gives you a link to the Site Settings page, which kind of defeats the purpose of hiding your rating. To get to the page yourself where you can change your anonymity preferences, you have to do a little digging. Simply click on your member profile link (the link up in the upper right hand corner that says ______’s Profile); then look in the green column “Account Options” and search for the link called “Site Settings.” This will take you to a page where you can not only select which ratings of yours you want people to see (for instance, only your Very Helpful and Helpful ratings to be visible), but also which overall-rated articles you want to be able to see (for instance, whether you want Somewhat Helpful or Not Helpful articles to be visible to you). It also allows you to determine whether you see blocked members. All in all, a useful page to know how to get to. I would give a link, but it is content-specific to each member’s profile. However, you can cut and paste this link and replace (member name) with your own Epinions handle:
http://www.epinions.com/user-(member name)/show_~Site_Settings
Now what do I do??
Now that you know how to get there, which ratings should you choose to reveal? And why is this topic important to begin with? Hold your horses! We’ll get there. :) First I want to establish that when I say “your ratings,” I mean the rating button you select on the reviews you read by other people. (As opposed to the ratings other people give to your own reviews.)
As you’ll see if you scan the rating list of many reviews here, the most common practice at Epinions is to keep all your ratings open, and for good reason – this is a site about helping both the consumers and the members, and you do that by providing information on how helpful the product is (as a writer) and how helpful the review is (as a rater). The most productive way to do this is to acknowledge who wrote/rated what and how; i.e. to “sign your name” to the different elements you’re involved with on Epinions. Without this key element, there would be so much concealment at Epinions that we couldn’t make informed decisions about products and reviews, or improve in our own writing. Obviously you can’t conceal that you are the writer of a review, since your member name is on each one; but you *do* have control over whether the ratings you choose bear your member name or not.
There are pros and cons to hiding and concealing your name, so here’s the scoop:
Why I recommend revealing ALL your ratings
If you have any aspirations at all at Epinions, you should probably keep all your ratings open. Why? Because it’s common courtesy here. Fair or not, hiding your ratings implies you have something to hide, and unless you have a good reason to hide them, there really is no reason to do it. Yes, nobody will know it was you (unless you’re dense enough to leave a comment), but what’s the point?
For the other side, there are PLENTY of reasons to reveal your ratings. First of all, it is nearly indispensable if you want to become an Advisor (someone who fairly rates and comments on reviews in a certain category). That’s an Advisor’s job, so it’s pretty obvious why it’s important for them to be open. Secondly, your rating will have tremendously more impact if you “sign your name” with it. I have seen reviews that are unrated except for a hidden rating, and they are listed in the Epinions file as unrated. In other words, that hidden rating counted for nothing. Without your name attached to it, none of the things that give a rating any weight (such as how big your Web of Trust is, any titles you have, etc.) apply any more, so your rating will have little effectiveness.
Another compelling factor in this issue is that of rating reviews by notorious revenge raters, or epinions that are controversial. My recommendation – don’t rate at all in these cases if you don’t feel comfortable enough to attach your name to it. The truth is, it’s better either to give your honest opinion or not even make the decision if you are too iffy about it. There are plenty of reviews that I simply leave without rating because I don’t feel at ease with any rating I could give. However, if I clearly feel a review is Somewhat Helpful or Not Helpful, I’m not afraid to say so, even though I know there is a slight possibility the person could retaliate. Truthfully, this occurrence is so infrequent that it’s usually not a big problem.
When is it a good idea to hide your ratings?
There are a couple instances where I *do* advocate concealing the ratings you choose:
1.When you have a revenge rater on your butt. This is probably the number one reason why people do hide ratings – because they’re afraid that the author of the review will come after them because of the SH or NH they gave. Sadly, there are some Epinionators who do this sort of thing and do it openly – if you rate a review of theirs Helpful, Somewhat Helpful, or Not Helpful, they will turn around and do the exact same to you, regardless of the quality of your reviews. If this is happening to you and is hurting the ratings of your own reviews (especially if you’re somewhat new or unknown and don’t have many hits), it might be a good idea to conceal your ratings when you are rating that person’s reviews. However, as I mentioned above, the better policy might be to not rate their epinions at all.
2. When you’re rating a family member/friend and it might hurt the relationship. Not an extremely common occurrence, but there are a number of Epinionators who know people in real life at this site or who have made very close friends with others here. If this is the case and you have good reason to believe that a less than VH rating will damage the relationship between you and a friend, but still want to give an honest rating, then it’s time to put your anonymity into action. Then again, if this kind of honesty is such an issue, it might be time to have a heart-to-heart!
3. When you regret rating a review at all. I have only had this happen to me a few times, but when it did I wish this option had occurred to me. There are certain reviews on Epinions that are a wee bit controversial or are hard to categorize in terms of helpfulness, and that sometimes you rate without thinking. Yes, you can change your rating, but you can’t *remove* your name from the ratings list! And sometimes I wish I could, when I just don’t feel at peace about ANY rating I could give to that epinion. What you might do in this case is go to the settings page, select anonymity for that particular rating you gave, go BACK to the review and rerate it, and then once you’ve finished just go back to your old settings. This may sound sneaky but if you are uncomfortable having rated that review at all for whatever reason, it’s a way to back out until the day (if ever) that Epinions gives us that option themselves of de-rating a review.
These are really the only cases where I think it’s beneficial to hide behind the ratings you give. For nearly every other epinion on the site, I believe the best policy is openness and friendly but frank rating. Yes, it might earn you some nasty turns, but honestly, won’t that one person’s NH rating slapped onto the bottom of your review’s list of names look pretty stupid if the rest are VHs or Hs? (Assuming of course that it’s a revenge rate and not an honest objection or citing of abuse.) And in the long run, that very small handful of negative ratings from other people will not matter a bit to your overall standing if you are a genuine, hard-working, and open-minded member of this community. Combined with the many positive reasons to rate openly, you now have no excuse not to reveal your ratings! :)
(One quick note about my title: As you can infer from this epinion, any hidden ratings you might have on a review are NOT me, since I almost never rate anonymously, but the point I was making is that it COULD be anyone, and that there are things you should know about concealing your ratings)
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Epinions.com ID:
Greatpilgrim
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Victoria
Location: FL
Reviews written: 272
Trusted by: 704 members
About Me:
April 25: My computer has now officially been broken for 10 days. WAHHHH!
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