Epinions Message Boards

1. Where are the Message Boards located?

2. What Boards are available?

3. What is Epinions intent for the use of the Boards?

4. Is there an official set of rules to be followed?

5. Is there an unofficial set of rules to be followed?

6. How do the rules, official or unofficial, get enforced?

7. What is a Moderator?

8. Who are the Moderators?

    

1. Where are the Message Boards located?

   Links to the message boards can be found in the Member Center (it is the first link found under "Resources"), and also within the list of links found at the bottom of every Epinions page. The Message Boards are located at http://www.epinions.com/msg/

    

2. What Boards are available?

   Right now, there is a main board with some General forums, and there are Boards for nearly every product category, with some discussion forums in each of these Boards.

    

3. What is Epinion's intent for the use of these boards?

   To quote Epinions itself:

    

   Epinions members wanted a place to talk outside the context of reviews, ratings and comments and Message Boards is one of our most requested features. We hope that Message Boards will be a great place to hang out. (The) Boards (are) a place to discuss best practices for the site. There (are) advice areas about writing reviews, boards to talk about new products and forums to communicate with the Epinions staff. Message Boards...also serve as a place to talk with other members about experiences on Epinions.

    

4. Is there an official set of rules to be followed?

   Yes. You can find the entire text (and it's not very extensive) in the Message Boards Code of Conduct. In brief:

    

   • Have fun.
   • Engage in meaningful conversation
   • Think before you type.
   • Don't spam.
   • Don't infringe copyright.
   • Don't engage in personal attacks and flame wars.

    

    

5. Is there an unofficial set of rules to be followed?

   Yes. There are a few unofficial rules at this point:

    

   • Don't link to any Epinions reviews or comment sections. Linking to profiles is acceptable when done to point to a member in a positive context. Do not link to profiles if the context of the message is negative - this is considered a personal attack.
   • No review pimping - doesn't matter if it's done directly or indirectly.
   • And just because it bears repeating - no personal attacks.

    

    

6. How do the rules, official or unofficial, get enforced?

   Epinions has appointed a group of members to be Category and General Moderators; the Moderators monitor the Boards and enforce the Boards' rules. When a Moderator sees that a rule has been violated, or anticipates that a thread is moving in a direction that can lead to a violation, the Moderator will step in and make a comment to addresses the situation. The Moderators also have the ability to lock and delete threads if they feel it is necessary.

    

7. What is a Moderator?

   See the entries regarding Moderators in the Hat Structure section.

    

8. Who are the Moderators?

   The list of moderators is maintained in the Message Boards.