The blue wall

A couple nights ago, my husband called me into our home office and said, "Hey! Look at your review!"

I looked at it, but didn't see anything that looked wrong with it. Finally, I gave up. "Ok... I give. What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing's wrong with it," he said. "It's just, look at this wall of blue!"

Lined up, like a pile of blue bricks, the ratings on the review showed a long list of "Editor" ratings. I was pleased. I mean, it's really wonderful when someone wants to read my review. But it's even better when I feel that someone actually liked what I had to say. And the fact that so many editors rated it was just icing on the cake.

Ever the one to poke a hole in my over-inflated ego, my hubby said, "Well, it's nice for you. But what does it say to anyone else who wants to write a review in that category?"

Now, my husband isn't an active member of Epinions. He reads (and criticizes, thank you very much) my reviews. He reads a few reviews of some other people that he has "discovered". He occasionally uses Epinions as a consumer resource. But I doubt he will ever actually write a review.

But looking at it from his perspective, I can kind of see his point. If a consumer comes into a category and finds a review with a bunch of mongo Editor "thumb's up" ratings, it's a good thing. But as a new, insecure writer who thinks that maybe... just maybe... there might be something more to say, that blue wall could be really intimidating.

Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe people need to be discouraged from writing the 170th review on the latest trendy object.

Then again, maybe it isn't. I thought I had read every conceivable variation of 'Goodnight Moon' review, and I honestly believed that everything that could be said had been said. Then Cindy wrote one that blew my socks off. I wonder if she would have done it if she had been faced with a huge wall of blue on existing reviews.

I guess I wish they would have selected something a little less ostentatious to signify "important" ratings. I think just having the user name of an editor in boldface or a different color would have been enough. Or even a tiny star. But that wall of blue?

As my husband said later... Why not just use a bull's eye?

[jenninca]

Grace, that sounds like something my boyfriend would say!

I'm thinking back to when I first started at Epinions a year and a half ago. They had experts. When an expert rated your review, it showed up as "Rated _____ by an expert" on the list of all opinions. Ones rated VH by an expert always showed up higher than those that weren't.

I remember that being more frustrating than intimidating when I was a newbie. It was like I couldn't "succeed" unless experts read me, but I couldn't seem to attract their attention. I kept reading their opinions in hope that they would read me back, but only a few ever did. I could imagine that some newbies could feel the same way now....

Cindy

[jenninca]

BTW, I didn't mean that last sentence to be directed to anyone at all!!!

[amykhar]

All anyone can do is make a personal effort to try to read and encourage newbies. The blue wall is there to try to draw some of the newbies to read the EDITOR'S reviews. This is supposed to be a reward for putting extra effort into the site.

At this point, please don't argue that many editors don't deserve it. That is definitely true, and we have to work to fix that. There are definitely some duds out there. However, the editors (and I am NOT one) who are out there doing what they should DESERVE this little perk.

Amy

[hadassahchana[$]]

Grace, thanks for the compliment.

However, if there had already been a review with 'the blue wall' or one covered in gold and framed on the books page, I would still have written mine. I'm just stubborn enough that if I have something to say, you all better plug your ears.

As for newbies being discouraged, I honestly don't think that's the case. If an editor is doing his/her job, the newbies will get rated by the editor reading from the Just In board. If the newbie is good, most editors will tell everyone else, or at least return over and over again. It all seems to work out.

And Cindy, I agree about how discouraging it is to keep trying to get noticed by 'the big guys', but it can still happen. I try to keep that in mind when reaidng, so if I find a wonderful new talent, I can go and tell the 'big guys', some of whom actually listen to me!

Cindy

[amykhar]

Grace, in addition the "blue wall" is incentive for newbies to work at it and get a spiffy keen label of their own. Remember how we felt when we first started out? Remember how you worked at getting noticed and earning your funny hat?

I think that Blue Wall will serve as incentive to good writers, and not as a deterrant.

Amy

Argh.

Resisting the temptation to start my post with 'hmmm...'

Resisting...

Resisting...

Hmmmm...



Well geeze, personally I am mostly resigned to just being read by people that are my regular readers and that is basically who I am writing for right now. The editor wall basically edges me out of getting much exposure otherwise (except for people that read a whole ton of reviews in the category). Like on my other review, the person suggested that I might get more hits if I moved it...

Well...

Probably not. I seem to get <i>maybe</i> half a dozen hits from people that haven't arrived at my review through direct means...

Really not a terribly great incentive to write on the site.

On the other hand, I have seen people rating a lot more since they did the editor thing... People that I hadn't ever seen really rating anything are rating now.

Ander