Nomad Scry: The Darkside Dragon: Reviews

Ah well, I will simply link you to a few of my better Epinions with (perhaps) a few comments about why I feel they are better.

Nomad Scry's Epinions (user profile)

I certainly was never (and now, never will be) one of the most voracious writers on Epinions, but I did my utmost to be informative and entertaining in my epinions. I mean, I personally enjoy raving or ranting about these stupid apps I find. So, the money was like ice cream on my cake... A wonderful ice cream! And people seemed to find my reviews helpful and or entertaining (moreso towards the end as my writing skills improved drastically from the forced practice.)

But then Epinions went and fixed a bunch of "problems" with the site. It seems that search engines were having trouble finding all the stuff on Epinions via Epinions own search engine. So they implemented an upgrade to the search engine... an upgrade that involved restructuring the entire layout of the site. Before this I knew where most everything was, and was able to find new things by wandering around the links. After the upgrade... well, all the stuff that I had known was useless. Wandering around the site was worthless since the posted links on each page didn't link to all the subpages! The only way I was able to navigate the site was via the newly improved search engine.

I see that as a big problem. I don't always know where I want to go (let alone where it is that I am supposed to be going or even where it is that I actually am going...) Sometimes I'll sightsee (what's out there?) and searching just isn't the way to go for that activity.

The other really big thing that put me off and is actually what keeps me from Epinions now is that the link to add new products or product categories was removed. Now... I totally understand Epinions taking the link off of the public site. I assume they were being flooded with crap requests to add new products that had already been added or even more likely didn't even exist. However, at the time I was not only a member in good standing (having had direct contact with multiple members of the staff), but I was also one of their content area Experts (called Advisors later on, and I believe something else alltogether these days.)

Being a "Computers Expert" meant that my reviews were shown more predominantly, that my ratings of other writers reviews were given more weight, and that I was getting paid at a higher rate per view than the 'average' epinions user. You understand, there was already an established level of trust here. Frig! I had already signed an NDA with Epinions for an earlier project.

Sooooooo, could they have a special password protected area just for Experts to recommend new products or product categories? Nope. Why? Dunno. The person at Epinions that I had most contact with was believed to be pushing for the Experts (maybe just certain ones?) to be given access to the database so we could simply add them ourselves. Not recommend them, add them. (Mind you, that is at -least- second hand rumor. It could be false.)

Again, my little niche specialty was programs that were -new-. Very very few other people would have even heard of the things I wanted to review, so obviously that product would not yet be listed. My other niche (they cross over nicely) was free programs. This I can defend from Epinions point of view, even though I disagree with them. A free program is highly unlikely to be bringing in any ad revenue. Clickthru that could have gone to an ad buying competitor would be bypassed to check out the free app that I had reviewed. So... from EpEps POV, yeah, best to nix that. ARGH! Understanding does NOT make me any happier with them.

No wait, don't take me wrong. I am not mad or angry with Epinions. Disappointed, oh hell yeah. I wasn't one of the first folks on Epinions, but I did get there near the begining and we had a groovy sense of community going. I enjoyed not only my little pasttime, but the social interaction aspects of yakking with other reviewers about writing and ... well, everything. Epinions was a fairly large portion of my life for several months. My attention span does not typically run into the multiple month range. If I was having a frustrating day, I would go onto Epinions and search specifically for plagarists. (Don't ask. It was very tedious work) I got satisfaction not only out of outwitting (who am I kidding? You cannot out wit the witless) the plagarists but also out of knowing that I was helping Epinions and protecting my own financial best interests.

Anyhow, I've rambled enough on this topic for today. Epinions really is an -excellent- source of consumer information on how real people really deal with products. I used it a lot when I was researching for the drawing tablet I wanted to aquire. Don't let my frustration make you pass them by. [grins slowly] Besides, I still get residuals when people read my epinions.