What's Up with Epinions?

   Many of us here on Gather also publish product reviews on Epinions, a site that has been around for several years now.  What amazes me is that though Epinions has tenure, Gather certainly is a lot more fun, laid back and interactive.  The other thing is that earning on Epinions is very slow going, in spite of the recent "10 for 10" campaign, in which you can publish 10 reviews in a month's time in order to get paid $10.  Gather, on the other hand, tends to allow you to rack up points pretty quickly in comparison.

   What I find odd is that often I will publish a book review here on Gather's site, and get some good feedback, whether folks agree with my point of view or not.  Most of the time, they keep their remarks polite and don't attack me personally.  My biggest peeve at Epinions is that how high someone rates your work affects how much you get paid, and lately I get little more than a "Helpful" rating on my writing there.  Anyone else finding this to be true?

   And if I do get a comment there, which is rare, it is usually a criticism of some little detail (i.e., I didn't put my review under the exact edition of the book I was reviewing) or a very personal attack.  I think the last one said my thinking was muddled and typical.  Judging from what else the remarks stated, the person didn't even read my review past the first paragraph or two.

   I guess my point is that I'm finding that Epinions is less and less worth my time and even less worth my effort.  Just curious what others think on the subject.