Not sure if this fits here please move if needed

[washman]

I just got email from Epinions that in effect, by March, they are shutting down.
Below is part of what I just received

As of February 25, 2014, we will begin to disable the Epinions community features.

Here's what it means for the Epinions community:

• No new content will be added to the Epinions website as of February 25, 2014.

• The ability to write a review, comment, and rate will be disabled on February 25, 2014.

• The last Income Share payment will be issued on March 6, 2014 via PayPal.

• The option to export all of your Epinions reviews will be made available to you.

• You will still be able to login to your Epinions account to check your balance and use the Epinions message boards until March 25, 2014.

After March 25, 2014, all Epinions community features will be removed and/or disabled from the Epinions website.

I've been writing reviews on there since 2001 and as of today earned about $300 in royalties. I'm thankful that my last two reviews are for Speed Queen products.

Wasn't sure if anyone used/browsed epinions so this is merely FYI.

 

[retropia]

I experimented with Epinions when they first started, but became disillusioned with them after awhile. It seemed that there was this community of reviewers that all had to "like" each others reviews, and if you weren't a part of the in-crowd, and didn't participate in liking the reviews of others, your reviews were "disliked."

At first I didn't understand why it was set up that way, and then I came to the conclusion that the number of likes had something to do with getting paid for your reviews. I wasn't posting reviews to get paid for them, so I stopped posting.

It may be that I misunderstood the system, but that is how it appeared to operate.

 

[ovrphil]

used Epinions

I didn't always buy what was said, but I definitely did find some of the reviews helpful. Thanks for mentioning,
washman.

 

[whirlcool]

I wrote quite a number of reviews for eopinions.com I probably made about $150.00 over the years from them. If you write a review that is good and concise they'll usually rate you "very good". I wrote a quick review one time take made it OK, but I had a few comments about how I should have added more info.

I used to look at eopinions.com a lot. You can't get better reviews about things than from the people that have the products. But I noticed a few years ago you can search for a review on an item and the item doesn't come up, but a lot of links to other similar items did. Why didn't they just say "Not Found" when you are searching for something? I found that wasted a lot of my time.

Does anyone know exactly why they are shutting down?

 

[alr2903]

Epinions  has probably just run it course.  Most folks tune in to  Youtube  for horror stories and some good reviews.  There are a lot of discontented consumers out there on about any topic.  I think we have gotten to the point that we are happy with mediocrity and elated with "good".

 

[ovrphil]

we are happy with mediocrity and elated with "good"

same thoughts here