Leads, Advisors and Top Reviewers

Ideally, this is what they are designed to so. I am not 100% sure it works this way in every case: Category Leads are people who work in a specific category sort of as an intermediary between Epimions management and staff and the members/writers on the site. They answer a lot of emails, add products as they are requested (if they are able) and help with the selection process for Top Reviewers and Advisors. Advisors are people chosen by Category Leads in each category as people who can be depended on to give fair ratings. Their rating carries more weight on people's reviews. Ideally, they are supposed to help people on the site write better reviews and leave helpful comments. Top Reviewers are people who are good writers in each category. They write good reviews and should write a certain number of reviews over a period of time. To become a Top Reviewer or Advisor, there's a bot that picks names out and makes a list for each category. This gets given to the Leads and they add or subtract names from the list as they see fit. These recommendations go to the epinions staff for the final process. To be a Category Lead, you have to be chosen by the staff. Like I said, in an ideal world it's a neutral process. I have seen people with six reviews and only two in a category get a Top Reviewer hat. I have seen people with no reviews in a category for more than three years retain a Top Reviewer hat. I have seen Advisors who leave nasty comments and go through old reviews specifically to target certain people get and keep Advisor hats. I have seen Category Leads be totally inactive visibly on the site for years and still keep their position (no responses to emails, no reviews, no rates). My personal opinion is that it's about 90% politics and brown-nosing. Site gossip plays a part too. If you get a lable stuck on you simply because you talk to people others don't like, then you're sunk. No one will email you and try to gain an understanding, they just assume the worst about you. Yet people who behave worse than what these other people are accusing you of behind your back get rewarded. And they are visible about it. You just have to have the attitude that you will write there and enjoy yourself unless you want to get immersed in the site politics. I quit playing that game a long time ago.

The Gum is right about brown nosing and politics coming into play. I love the site but there is something extremely wrong with the system when you have more reviews written in a section than the current top reviews COMBINED but don't have a TR title. I do love the site but just like in real life, there are always issues that creep up and cause trouble.