Epinions - Reviews

Reviews

To add reviews, contributors register for free and begin writing their own personal views, including personal satisfactions or dissatisfactions. The website's aim is to give future customers a preview of what they can expect should they decide to buy a certain product, use a certain company or watch certain television shows or movies. There is no maximum opinion length, but the minimum opinion length has changed several times. There are two types of reviews: Express Reviews which are 20-199 words long and Regular reviews which are 200 words or more. The company has stated that this allows shoppers to quickly research multiple viewpoints and then read detailed information as they narrow their buying choices.

Although Express and Regular reviews serve different purposes, there is no standard format to structuring the information contained in a review.

Epinions members can write reviews of consumer products ranging from automobiles to thumb tacks, media (including music, books and movies), to children's toys. Epinions pioneered this format in 1999 and has since been copied by other consumer review sites in the same vein, such as ReviewCentre, Ciao.com and Dooyoo. There is also a section called the Writer's Corner where contributors may write about almost anything. To post a review, members first rate the product or service on a rating scale from 1 to 5 stars. For several years now, all opinions also come with brief Pro and Con sections, and a summary called "The Bottom Line".

In 2004, Epinions installed message boards for community members to discuss specific categories of product or ask general questions or express feelings of Epinions as a site. To further bring the community of writers together and to keep management "in touch" with their needs Epinions has established "Meet and Greets" where a team of the Epinions staff travel to many different regions of the US to spend time with members in an informal atmosphere.

Epinions.com originally had both an Eroyalties plan and an Income Share Plan. The Eroyalties plan paid writers per read of their opinion. The payment per read has steadily decreased and finally was discontinued.

Epinions still pays Income Share, which rewards reviewers for how much help they've given users in deciding to purchase products. Epinions even claims that you are also rewarded for helping visitors that do not purchase an item. It is not possible to verify either claim, as the Income Share Formula is secret.

Another income aspect, which ended in 2001 was referrals, where users were paid for getting people to sign up. Since the end of the dot-com era, payment dwindled and then plateaued to a level that is much lower than the earlier days and non-existent for many users. Certain categories, such as electronics, pay better than other categories, such as movies.

In 2003 Epinions began offering bonuses and gifts or running special Sweepstakes for their active members during the December Holiday seasons. Since January '04 Epinions also implemented a monthly Sweepstakes with prizes of eRoyalties credits (Cash that can be withdrawn from a members account) and/or gift certificates going to the month's top winners.

All members can rate opinions by others as Very Helpful (VH), Helpful (H), Somewhat Helpful (SH), Not Helpful, (NH) or Off Topic (OT). Express Opinions are rated Show (S) or Don't Show (DS).

Members can also decide to "trust" or "block" (formerly known as "distrust") each other. All the trust and block relationships interact and form a hierarchy known as the Web of Trust. This Web of Trust (WOT) combines with rating to determine in what order opinions are shown to readers. The order members see depends on their own ratings and their own trust and block choices. The order a visitor sees is determined by a default list of reviews ordered by the number and strength of user rates applied to each review. Reviews by Top Reviewers, TR, and Category Leads (see below) are given preferential placement at or near the top of each review list. The WOT formula is secret.

Some members have titles that designate certain roles, status, privileges or benefits. These roles, the titles and the way members are selected for these have changed more than once. Since 2002 the main titles are Advisor, Top Reviewer and Category Lead. The Advisors have greater rating weight in their categories and access to an additional rating, Most Helpful (MH). The Top Reviewers have their reviews given an improved placement.

The most powerful title is that of Category Lead: a Category Lead enjoys all the Advisor and Top Reviewer benefits, and chooses the Advisors and Top Reviewers for a category. A Category Lead can even add new products and services to the epinions.com database for others to review. Category Leads get a stipend from Epinions.com for the extra duties and responsibilities.