- Where can I find the site rules?
Epinions' User Agreement and Site Rules are linked on the bottom of every page on Epinions.com. Be aware that both of the aforementioned pages are updated from time to time, often without any formal notification to the Epinions community.
- Can I participate on Epinions if I am under 18?
No. In the past, people over the age of 12 were permitted to use Epinions, but not allowed to accrue any earnings until the age of 18. Recently, Epinions changed its User Agreement and Privacy Policy to state the nobody under the age of 18 is to utilize Epinions. However, like some of the other rules on Epinions, this rule is not strictly enforced.
- I suspect that a member is abusive. What can I do?
The first step would be to block this member. To remove this member from your view, you may need to adjust your site settings (linked to from your account summary) so that it completely removes that blocked member from your view. Remember that the blocked member will still be able to see anything you say or do, unless they have blocked you. If you find this member so offensive/abusive to the point where they are violating Epinions' User Agreement and Site Rules, file an abuse report here with solid evidence. Epinions will then take whatever actions it believes are appropriate.
- How do I report abuse?
Abuse should be reported using one of the forms no this page:
http://www.epinions.com/feedback/?show=abuse_forms
The Epinions Message Boards are not the place to bring forward specific cases of perceived abuse, but they can be used for discussing abuse in general.
- Who do I contact regarding Message Board abuse?
The quickest and most effective way of dealing with abuse on the Epinions Message Boards is to contact (email) a Moderator that is responsible for the section in which the abuse is taking place. An unofficial list of Moderators is available here.
Failing that, clicking the "Report" button on the offending post(s) will notify staff at Epinions, but given the frequent accidental clicking of the "Report" button, this is typically not an effective way of dealing with abuse.
- What steps will Epinions take to deal with abuse?
If Epinions finds that a member is violating the User Agreement and Site Rules, they will typically issue a ticket to the member's account. In more severe cases of abuse, Epinions has been known to terminate a member's account. With small offenses with established members, Epinions has been known to discreetly send a warning email.
- What are 'tickets'?
Tickets are the main form of punishment for violating the Site Rules and User Agreement. Only Epinions staff can hand out tickets, and they do not hand them out without solid evidence.
- What do tickets do?
The impact of receiving a ticket varies depending on the ticket, but their purpose is always to notify the member that they are violating the Site Rules and User Agreement. Some tickets will hide all of a certain members reviews from view, while other tickets will only hide select reviews, and some tickets won't hide any reviews at all. "Hidden tickets" are also believed to exist by some members, which are tickets that don't even show up on a member's public profile.
- How do I remove a ticket?
If you are ticketed, instructions for removing the ticket as it applies to you are available from your private profile.
- What long-term effects will a ticket have?
Should you receive a ticket and later rectify the issue, your chances of receiving a hat or some other form of recognition are greatly reduced, but it does not necessarily rule it out. The long-term effect largely depends on the nature of the ticket and is purely case-by-case.
- Can I post my reviews on other websites?
Yes. As of September 13, 2006, Epinions has updated its User Agreement on this issue after much confusion over the wording of the previous User Agreement. For an official statement, see "Can I post my reviews to other web sites?" on the Epinions.com FAQ. Here are the important points about cross-posting reviews:
- Cross-posting is not a violation of the User Agreement. Subsequently, cross-posting should not be reported to Epinions as abuse, and cross-posted reviews should not be down-rated. However, you should notify Category Leads and/or Epinions about cross-posted reviews, as they play a role in hat selection.
- Cross-posting "substantially similar" content on other price comparison websites may disqualify the member from receiving recognition as an Advisor, Top Reviewer, Category Lead, and/or Moderator.
- To avoid posting "substantially similar" content, the review should have a different title and 1/3 of the content should be unique. Doing this will keep the member eligible for a hat.
- This only applies to cross-posting on price comparison websites (Amazon, Shopzilla, Ciao, etc...) in competition with Epinions.com and the Shopping.com Network. You do not need to make these changes when cross-posting on personal blogs and small enthusiast websites.
- These rules only apply to reviews published on Epinions on September 13, 2006 and onward. Reviews published on Epinions prior to that date are not affected, and do not disqualify a member from receiving a hat in the future.
This policy was created after a great deal of debate took place on the Epinions Message Boards, with the following threads being the most significant in shaping the current policy:
The Initial Policy: http://www.epinions.com/msg/show_~threads/cat_id_~121/id_~8150/forum_id_~441
The Wait: http://www.epinions.com/msg/show_~threads/cat_id_~121/id_~8206/forum_id_~441
The Revised Policy: http://www.epinions.com/msg/show_~threads/cat_id_~121/id_~8566/forum_id_~441
- My review has been plagiarized. What can I do?
If the plagiarized version is posted on Epinions, simply file an abuse report, and Epinions staff will determine if the offending review qualifies for a copyright infringement ticket.
If the plagiarized version appears off of Epinions, you can still file an abuse report, but Epinions prefers to stay out of these issues. Because you are the one that holds the copyright, it is mainly up to you to try and find a solution. The first step is to simply contact the webmaster of the offending website, which often leads to positive results. If the webmaster refuses to take down the plagiarzed content, do a WHOIS search on the domain to find out the ISP. After you have found out who the ISP is, look at its website for a place to report copyright infringement on websites it hosts. Potentially, this can lead to the offending website being taken offline. If that doesn't work and you are still adamant that the plagiarized content be removed, your best bet is to consult a lawyer and proceed from there.
- How do I detect plagiarism and copyright infringement?
Being able to detect plagiarism is a skill that takes time to build, with each person having their own way of doing it. Eventually some people can just tell by reading a review whether or not it is plagiarized. Typical hints at plagiarized content on Epinions are non-personal prose, inconsistent writing quality, frequent contradictions, and over-use of specifications. However, just because a review has one or more of the aforementioned characteristics does not gaurantee that the review has been plagiarized.
Once you find content you believe to be plagiarized, look for unique lines that have text that's unlikely to be commonly found on the internet. Once you have done that, input that line into a Google search and see if any results come up. If nothing comes up, try it again with a few different lines. If you never find any good results, chances are that the review isn't plagiarized and you should simply move on.
If you really want to be tough on plagiarism, some programs exist that'll scan through an entire review and compare it to various sources on the internet and some places that cannot be found through a Google search, and give you a summary of possible matches. However, these programs typically have small fees associated with them. If you are interested, one recommended program is called Eve.
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