Oops! The Ps & Qs of the Epinions Community
Feb 20 '06 (Updated May 15 '08)
The Bottom Line Like it or not, Epinions is a political website and a large part of a user’s success "building a personality" depends on how he conducts himself.
As today is my fourth anniversary on Epinions, it seems appropriate to post an essay about the community. During my time here, my activity has been limited due to the fact that I have had a computer with so little RAM not even viruses would touch it. As the Epinions website grew and developed, it came to the point where it required more memory to do simple things like rate or post reviews. This forced me to seek other systems to do any rating or posting I could manage. However, I recently acquired a new Dell, so I can celebrate my anniversary here with more activity. Despite my personal trials, I survived. I was still able to observe how Epinions operates and even make some friends.
Every once in a while I run across activity on this website that makes me cringe for those who either ignore or are simply unaware of its netiquette. I’ve also been surprised that some who have ignored the site’s unofficial protocol are those who have been a member for quite a while. Granted, some of this community’s unwritten rules should be a user’s general behavior no matter where they are in the on-line world, but there are aspects that are Epinions specific as well. Like it or not, Epinions is a political website and a large part of a user’s success in "building a personality" depends on how he conducts himself. If members are offended or upset, they'll block others before they stand a chance. Although my status on the site is a humble one, I have overcome being blocked and I hate seeing others with good intentions being unfairly prosecuted. For those who are serious about their activity on Epinions, I offer my observations as advice.
As a principal, the management at Epinions takes little responsibility for what is posted. It is the membership who polices this website. Whether or not a review or a user is visible to non-members is determined by a consensus of the community. The only times I’ve been aware of Epi emps removing anything was when a member was in clear violation of Epinions’s Terms of Service (TOS), such copyright infringement or having more than one account. In those cases, the users’ accounts went with all of their reviews and those folks are never welcome to contribute to Epinions again.
Reviews with overall ratings of Very Helpful (VH), Helpful (H), Somewhat Helpful (SH), or Show are linked to the Google search engine and will appear in its users’ search results. Reviews with overall ratings less than those will be void to all but registered members, and some members have filters set up to block poorly-rated reviews as well.
Likewise with member trust and blocking. Each member on the site has her own criteria for choosing to trust another. Some look for common interests or values, quality writing, witty and thoughtful on-site participation, off-site relationships, or any combination thereof. The larger the Web of Trust (WOT) a member has, the more influence she has in the community. Blocking, on the other hand, takes it away and the types of on-site behavior that brings it about is something most members generally agree.
Epinions don’ts
Don’t be oversensitive. They're just reviews. The Epinions community takes pride in having some of the best consumer reviews in the on-line world. Many of them rival what a reader would find on professional websites or traditional publications. As such, it also has an atmosphere that is very much like a writer’s workshop. The most effective writers workshops I’ve been in are those that use a critique group format. When a writer learns to communicate weaknesses in another’s well, then that means he knows when he’s doing it in his own work. To put it succinctly, the best critiquers are usually the best writers. One of the first rules of a critique group is not to take constructive criticism personally. It’s about the writing, not the author. When a user responds to such criticism with comments that are whiny or insulting, many of his Epi colleagues will likely click the block button.
Don’t be insensitive. The invitation to offer constructive criticism is limited to the review being commented on. Personal comments about the writer are out of line. If she has been posting reviews for four years and still shows no improvement, saying so is a personal comment. Refrain from telling a writer that it sounds like he was drunk when he wrote a review. Constructive criticism should stay on topic and be tactful.
Don’t abuse rating privileges. When it’s obvious someone is "revenge rating," giving another member’s review a poor rating because he gave the rater one, people are going to block. Abuse becomes obvious when a review has like 30 VHs and 1 SH. Sometimes it’s clear by leaving a rude comment on the review. When someone rates against the consensus, leave a tactful comment explaining why. The opposite could also be true when the rater is trying to butter up to the writer.
Don’t deviate from the intent of Epinions. Epinions is a broker website. Its intent is to provide the on-line world first-hand reviews of products and services for consumers to make informed decisions, then give them leads to on-line merchants selling the products if they decide to purchase them. I once ran across an incident where one member posted someone else's review on her account. It wasn't plagiarism. She gave the true author due credit. Her arguments failed to persuade the community. Where the Epinions TOS states quoting resources with proper attribution, it is referring to excerpts from the publication or accompanied product documentation. Don't take liberties interpreting the TOS.
Don’t post reviews en masse. When writers post several reviews at a time, they become smoke signals for Epinions’s more experienced members. If the reviews are poor quality, then folks perusing the "Just In" sections see the user as a pest who is paying little attention to comments people are leaving him to improve his work. If the reviews are of higher quality, then those rating think plagiarism. Either way, it reflects poorly on the writer. Writers who are consistently rated VH sometimes spend several hours or days working on a review, so they tend to be suspicious when someone posts 15 reviews within a couple of hours.
Don't delete and repost reviews. When a review is poorly received, some writers have used the tactic of deleting it and reposting it for a better response. This is considered unacceptable and anyone who catches another reposting the same review will often either rate it NH or block the member. The community prefers that the writer revise the review that is already there, then contact those who rated it low and ask them to reconsider it. (Ratings can be changed.) However, keep in mind there are sometimes valid reasons for doing this, such as mistakenly posting a review under the wrong topic (movies, for instance, can be found either "In Theaters" or on DVD).
Don’t be a recluse. On Amazon, reviewer status is simply measured by the number of reviews posted and amount of helpful ratings received. Epinions is a little more like a party where people want to become better acquainted and feel slighted when their comments and reviews are constantly ignored. Success in the Epinions community depends if and how a member interacts with others.
Epinions dos
Do post reviews on a regular basis. Some members equate regular activity on Epinions with trust. This is one I don’t fully understand myself. If someone has contributed loads in past and been respected in the community, how does an absence make her less trustworthy? It might be one thing if she left after a flareup, but if she was just preoccupied by other matters in her life? Be that as it may, I have run across statements by other members who claim to remove others from their WOTs for inactivity.
Do read, rate and comment (RRC). This is a controversial point. Oldtimers would consider this "rating circles." Rating circles are when a clique forms an alliance to rate reviews as they please, never mind if it appropriately matches the quality of the review. I haven't noticed much of this myself, but I understand it was common during the early days. Since RRCing has been so difficult for me to do on my old home system, it stuns me if I ever garner more than 50 rates on a single review. It's easy to believe the reason my reviews garnered less attention is because I've been unable to give more to other members. Nobody has to RRC to be RRCed, but it's hard deny human nature. When a member sees a name constantly or receives a comment, they may become curious and read the other's work.
Do pace posting reviews. Members who have a large backlog of reviews need to have patience and post them only one or two a day. In addition, aside from arousing the suspicions of other members as previously mentioned, posting them in one big blob can lessen the visibility they can otherwise build. The peak of any review’s rating life on Epinions is usually the first 2–3 days it’s been posted. Afterward, any new ratings one receives is spotty and rarely more than one a day. A big blob rolls into obscurity after a few days. The activity of members rating changes day after day. Some days are busier than others. Posting a review on a slow day can mean fewer rates. Posting a big blob on a slow day can mean fewer rates on big blob of reviews. Posting one or two daily increases the odds more people on the site are seeing the writer’s name on a regular basis without being put off by a glut.
Do take care when posting reviews from other websites. This was where I had problems. At the time I joined Epinions, both its management and community was evolving. It still is to some extent. I had been contributing to Amazon for nearly two years. After browsing Epinions for like 10 minutes, I immediately liked that it had some of the features that Amazon missed and signed up. Wanting to plunge into it right away, I posted a few of the reviews I had there. Big mistake. Other members first accused me of plagiarism, then violating the TOS. At the time, Epinions’s TOS did not permit multiple electronic postings of reviews on other websites (traditional publishing was okay). I removed the questionable reviews, but was blocked nonetheless. I went back to Amazon and nursed my wounds for a while, but thanks to Gracef, the lure of the interaction at Epinions pulled me back and I began posting new reviews just for it. Since then, the policy has been modified (and I have removed all of my reviews from Amazon and placed them here). For reviews that have previously appeared elsewhere, it is a good idea to mention where.
Do go to meet & greets. If it is at all reasonable to attend an Epinions meet & greet, go. It certainly won’t count against members who are unable to make it, but it does strengthen relationship building with other users. It can even lead making good off-line friends.
The bottom line
There is more obvious on-site behavior that will prompt Epi users to hit their block buttons. Posting offensive reviews, essays, and comments is a risk that some have been willing to take. Harassing other members can also do it. Occasionally, a member who is seasoned in the community resorts to some of the tactics mentioned above, but no one really wants to be unpopular. Regardless, some are secure enough in their position not to worry about niceties. It’s all up the individual.
When Epinions’s unofficial decorum is breached, it can turn ugly. It helps to understand the community and its base before building a personality. In order to become successful on this site, take care not to needlessly rile up others. Some members have been blocked because they failed to know when to pick their fights and cut their losses. As long as a member is polite, honesty is always appreciated. Members who handle the opposition with tact and make their points well, could survive being blocked too.
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