Why Epinions Rots and Gather Feels Like Home . . .

   When Epinions first started up, I loved it.  I wrote hundreds of reviews, and made over $300 that first year.  As a stay at home mom, that was fabulous!  People were relatively helpful and friendly for the most part, and rated your work honestly, leaving a comment if they chose to leave a lower rating on something.  For the past two years, though, Epinions has definitely been more of a thorn in my side. 

   I still have a small amount of money trickling in from there, but I find that petty nitpicking and repetitive low ratings from the same individuals knock down the little I am earning to nearly nothing!  Lower ratings = less payout.  For example, on my two most recent reviews, one was rated "Not Helpful" because it apparently did not contain "enough" information, and the next one was rated "NH" because it contained "too much" detail about the plot.  And this has happened before, with other people yo-yo-ing on their ratings and the reasoning behind them.  Both reviews did well enough on Gather and stimulated good conversation in the comments.

   What I find happening, for me at least, is that I am prone to throwing the majority of my efforts into posting high quality content on Gather, where I make not only "money" (in the form of gc's), but more importantly online friends and acquaintances who make it enjoyable to log in and explore the site every day.  The names I am used to seeing on my screen here every day are not folks who are looking for any tiny reason to hand out a low rating.  You may not think my work is always the hottest thing going, but most folks here are at the very least civil, if not very kind and don't tear me down with disparaging or cold remarks.  I think some (not all) of the frequent Epinions users have forgotten there is a real person on the other end of that modem line . . . . It's sort of like being back in high school over there.

   Anyway, sorry for the late night rant but it seems that every time I bother with my Epinions account, something someone has left me, either a rating or a comment, gets my dander up and it's unnecessary nonsense.  I just don't have time in my life for petty people who have nothing better to do than bash someone else to get their kicks.  I am worth so much more than that!