Can Yelp Be Considered As A Device For Blackmail?

Hey Writing for New Media Class Members, I don’t know how many of you read the article about the website Yelp but does this story really surprise you? This scam is like everything else in the world right now everyone is out for themselves and themselves alone. I bet all of you heard about mechanics that a person takes their car in for an oil change and the next thing you know the bill ends up being for new tires, shocks, muffler, excreta, or people looking at insurance statements after an operation and finding they have paid doctors they have never, ever heard of, why should the website world be different?

A review page that can be found on Yelp

Yelp sounds like a scam

Yelp wants to earn an extra buck like all of us in this day and age. Does that make it right? Not really, but the use of the word Mafia might be a little extreme but then again maybe not. For example, a person has a company that needs to get more business, so they advertise on what they think is a reputable website. Then they find the advertising is negative instead of positive and unless they buy more advertising it won’t be changed. I guess that could almost be blackmail.

An ad that can be found on an actual web page

What needs to be done about Yelp

Based on this observation that Yelp could potentially be a device for blackmail there definitely needs to be some guidelines for the Internet that all its users such as yourselves need to follow. Unfortunately, it all comes down to one person like Geoff Donaker, Chief Operating Officer of Yelp to ruin it for everyone else. He is quoted as saying “We wouldn’t be a business very long if we started duping customers.” Well it is my understanding that nine local businesses and a former employee are challenging his denials. I would say it is only a matter of time that his duping customers will be well known. Many say the best advertisement is word of mouth. If that is the case, if each of those ten people plus our class tells everyone we know, Mr. Donaker will be right in saying he won’t have a business.

Geoff Donaker, a New Media Criminal?

How credibility plays a part

As for our credibility I guess like good mechanics or good insurance companies those of us in our New Media Class need to start relying on word of mouth. If all of us learn to write what we believe is the truth and have backing to prove our findings based on what we have learned in our class, it will only take time until we have supporters that will believe and follow us. Credibility takes many years of hard work or in our case hours of writing blog posts or creating media in our own individual fields to prove we are credible in what we know and what we are saying. Based on this statement the best advice I can give all of you in our class do not give up and most importantly don’t lower yourself to Mr. Donaker’s standards. Hard work and truth will win out in the end or we have to hope so anyway.

Epinions.com: Making User Based Reviews More Professionali

Hello Writing for New Media Classmates, this week I want to introduce you to the Social Networking Review Site Epinions.com. For those of you who don't know Epinions is a site dedicated to encouraging Internet users such as yourselves to post what the creators behind site considers to be professional reviews of various products from video games to household vacuum cleaners. At first glance this idea of Epinions wanting its users to post professional reviews might cause some of you to turn away in fear, but in reality the site does a great job helping average Internet Joes like all of us add credibility to our product reviews through the use of features located in two key sections of the site that can make a review professional by at least the standards of the people behind Epinions.

The types of Consumer Products you will find reviews for on Epinions.com

Write A Review Section

This key section is able to make your reviews professional through the feature of asking you to give a one sentence pro and con about the product you are reviewing in order for the consumer to skim through several Epinions user reviews and get the point you are trying to make about a product without having to read a full blown article. Also with writing the one sentence pro and con you need to make sure that it is written in away that will draw the eyes of consumers visting Epinions.com because your review will be posted on a giant list with other user reviews and while looking at this list I found myself interested in reading the reviews that had the most attention grabbing pro or con.

A portion of the list of reviews that can be found on a product

After listing a pro and con you are asked to write your actual review on a product and the site helps make it professional through the feature of having writing rules to follow in order for your review to be posted. With that being said I can see how some of you in our New Media Class might find these rules as a limitation instead of a feature and a strong case can be made since the rules will not allow you post pictures, hyperlinks or videos in a review.

The list of rules Epinions requires you to follow when writing a review

However, the main goal Epinions has for its users is for you to get other people to read your reviews for the purpose of inspiring them to friend your profile which in turn raises your credibility as a reviewer on the site. Based on this statement the most popular users or the product reviews at the top of list are the ones that follow Epinions rules to the tee and include headings.

Profile Page

Unlike the write a review section, the profile page is not about making your reviews professional, it's about giving them credibility. For example the Epinions user Awoolcott who has a reputation for reviewing video games uses his profile to make other users aware of the fact that he is a staff writer for the professional video game review site Gaming Target by providing links to articles that he has written. Through Awoolcott being a paid reviewer of video games it make sense why he is listed as a top reviewer on Epinions because the fact that he reviews these products for a living makes his opinion extremely credible to consumers including those of you in our Class who have an interest in gaming. Although for us average Internet Joes in New Media Class we do not have the luxury of being able to say that we are professional product reviewers but the profile page contains several other features that can enhance your credibility as a reviewer on Epinions.

The profile page belonging to the Epinions user Awoolcott

About Me

This feature is what allows you to give general information about yourself such as where you live and your e-mail. However at the same time it helps enhance your credibility by asking you to give the addresses of three websites that you are interested in which helps because most of Epinions users list review sites that they based their own reviews on in order to prove to people like us that they put thought and effort into their work.

The About Me feature

Web of Trust

The component of this feature you need to focus on in terms of enhancing your credibility as a reviewer is not the number of people you have as friends or trust but the number of people that trust you because the more people you have, the more other Epinions users will take you seriously.

The Web of Trust feature

Rankings

This feature works in the same capacity as the Web of Trust based on the fact that the higher your ranking is, the more chance you have of being seen as a credible reviewer on Epinions.

The Rankings feature

Final Thoughts

Compared to the Social Networking site I reviewed for you last week entitled Fanpop, I honestly have to give Epinions.com a lot of credit for setting up the features on their site to make user product reviews more professional. Despite this the average Joes like all of us in our Writing for New Media Class, who can be classified as Citizen Journalists are still writing these reviews which means their credibility can only be taken so far, but the fact that Epinions' creators are trying to remove the amateurism behind the user-based writing on their site they might be at the forefront of the future for Social Networking.

Fanpop's Challenges With Organization

If any of you in our Writing for New Media Class were inspired to check out Fanpop after reading my previous post you might have noticed that the Social Networking site has some problems with organization. When I say problems with organization I'm not referring to the layout of the fan club pages or profiles dedicated to music artists, movies and TV shows nicely divided into sections instead I am referring to how the site encourages you to become a fan of your pop culture favorites. Based on this observation I figured the best way to discuss Fanpop's organization problems with all of you, the members of our Writing for New Media Class is by talking about the site's problems and then analyzing how they can be made better.

Fanpop's Problems with Organization
Fanpop's biggest problem with organization is that it does not encourage you to show personal fandom for your pop culture favorites by joining the fan club sites dedicated to music artists, movies, TV shows and more. Through the creators of Fanpop failing to do this all of you in our class checking out the site are forced to seek out these fan club sites through the use of a search engine.

Fanpop's Search Engine

This process of having to search for a fan club to add to your Fanpop profile makes the actual social network seem extremely overwhelming because you do not have an example of what types of fan clubs can be organized underneath the site's definition of pop culture. For instance I searched for something that was far away from being considered as pop culture like apples and sure enough there is a fan club for apples.

The fan club for Apples

The other problem with the search engine is when you search for a fan club for lets say Marvel Comics you will receive a result for a Marvel club but you will also receive results for fan clubs dedicated to Marvel Superheroines or individual Marvel Superheroes and it is hard to decide what club to join because there are so many options.

Some of the various results you will find when searching for the Marvel Comics fan club

The other problem with Fanpop's organization and some of you may consider this to be nitpicky is the Videos sections featured on the movie and TV show fan club pages. As I said before these fan club pages are nicely divided into sections but in the Videos section it is hard to tell the difference between what is a clip, trailer or homemade music video.

How Fanpop Can Fix Its Organizational Problems

Fanpop can fix its organizational problems by encouraging you as visitors to the site to join fan clubs dedicated to your pop culture favorites by placing a section on your profile that recommends fan clubs you might be interested in joining or maybe the site can require you to join a new fan club after logging in a certain number of times. Fanpop is all about getting as many people as possible to join the fan clubs featured on their network and these methods might be a great way to increase their numbers.

The Fanpop fan counter featured on every fan club page

As for the search engine, I would keep it, but instead of you searching Marvel Comics and getting results for fan clubs dedicated to Marvel Superheroines or individual Marvel Superheroes, I thought it would be better if these clubs were organized as sub fan clubs underneath the umbrella of an overall Marvel Comics fan club because it would make the number of clubs less intimidating for you to choose from. I feel the creators of Fanpop should also set parameters about what constitutes a fan club to fit under the organizational banner of pop culture because it would help visitors to the site which includes yourselves to get more direction on the types of fan clubs to search for making the network not seem so overwhelming. With the Videos section on the movie and TV show fan club pages I would suggest that the different types of featured videos to be divided into sub categories within their respective categories like in Fanpop's image sections.

Final Thoughts
In writing this post I hope you the members of our Writing for New Media Class as well as the people behind Fanpop will end up reading it because I believe Fanpop is a great place for different types of people to express their enjoyment for topics that suppossedly fit within the realm of pop culture using a variety of New Media formats. Based on this observation if the creators of the site consider my suggestions on solving their organizational problems they could make the experience of expressing your fandom even better.

Fanpop The Next Generation of Fan Club

Hey fellow Writing for New Media Class members do you remember the days of Fan Clubs? You know the Clubs dedicated to a kids Cartoon Show, Band or a Toy Line that you would fill out an application for and an official decoder ring would be sent back to you in the mail. Well, the Social Networking site that I am going to share with you entitled Fanpop is a website that is filled with fan clubs minus the decoder ring and the official aspect.

Comic Book Creator Stan Lee showing off the decoder rings for his Spider-Man fan club

What is Fanpop?

For those of you in our New Media Class who don't know Fanpop is a website featuring fan clubs dedicated to various avenues of pop culture including professional sports, TV, movies, music and individual celebrities. Based on this definition the object of Fanpop is different than let's say Facebook because it's not a social network all about adding friends that you can communicate with to your profile instead you are required to friend a profile or in Fanpop terms join a club dedicated to a form of pop culture like the TV show Supernatural and from there you can friend people by both of you sharing an interest in that show. However unlike the clubs of old, the people behind the clubs on Fanpop are not connected to the TV show or Music Artist like the employee hired to send out decoder rings, they are just like all of us in our Writing for New Media Class, average everyday Internet surfers. Due to this idea of fans creating online fan clubs, Fanpop at its heart is a social networking site dedicated to allowing its audience to express their enjoyment or dedication towards anything that exists within the realm of pop culture.

An example of a Fanpop personal profile

The Fanpop Profile or Fan Club Site

For all of you in our New Media Class to experience how Fanpop tailors to its audience I figured my best bet would be to go through each of the sections featured on every profile or fan club site like the upcoming example for the show Supernatural allows its audience to express their enjoyment or dedication towards an avenue of pop culture.

An example of a Fanpop fan club page

Videos and Images Section

The video section allows members of Fanpop's audience or those of you in our class who are not so much into writing express their enjoyment for a TV show on its fan club page by posting a self-made music video created by piecing together clips from various episodes or posting a full episode that you transferred on to the Computer. The video section on the movie fan club pages are similar to the TV pages by featuring homemade music videos dedicated to that particular movie but it differs in the fact that only trailers are posted not full length feature films. As for the music fan sites the video sections consists of an artists music videos and clips of them if they were a host on SNL. The image section contains images created by Fanpop's audience with the intention of allowing other audience members to use these images for showing their dedication to an avenue of pop culture on their desktop, cell phone background or Facebook profile picture.

Answers and Forum Sections

The answers and forum section in terms of the TV and movie fan club pages allows all of you in our Class along with the rest of Fanpop's audience enhance the viewing experience by allowing you to ask questions about something you missed when watching a movie or TV show episode and get an answer from a fellow fan. It also gives you the opportunity to ask what the name of a song was that might have been used in a certain scene. As for the music fan pages they are dedicated towards allowing you to ask questions about an artists' personal life or when their next CD is coming out. The other great thing about the forums is it allows you as Fanpop's audience to discuss the topic each fan club is focused on with thousands of users making it a great tool to hold yourself over until that movie, album or next episode comes.

Fan Picks Section

This section is similar to the answers and forum section in the sense that it allows you, as Fanpop's audience to ask a question pertaining to the fan club page that you are viewing such as what actor would you like to play Captain America, what was the best quote in a TV Show episode or which Taylor Swift music video is better? However unlike the forums section where you get an answer to these questions from individual Users, the Fan Picks section turns your question into a poll which lets Fanpop's audience to choose between different options allowing you to get an answer from several Users at once. Although, sometimes the polls have a tendency to get off topic for example on the Supernatural fan club page there is a poll that asks about the main characters who is hotter without a shirt on?

Links Section

This section allows Fanpop's audience which includes all of you in our Writing for New Media Class show their dedication towards their favorite TV show, movie or music artist by allowing you to stay updated on these topics with links to news articles featured on professional web sites and in the case of TV shows this section also contains links to full episodes in case you might have missed one during the week.

Articles Section

This section works like my own personal blog, Across The Airwaves in the sense that it allows you as Fanpop's audience to get up on a soapbox to discuss your favorite shows, movies and artists in a blog like format. However when looking at the articles section on the TV and movie based fan page I caution you to watch your step because this section exists as a minefield filled with spoilers.

The Bottom Line

Fanpop is a Social Networking site that is accessible to an audience of all Internet surfers including those of you in our Writing for New Media Class because everyone is a fan of something and if you want to show your devotion search something you enjoy in Fanpop's search engine and join its fan club. It should be there but if not I recommend you to create your own club.

A Video Tour Of Flixster

Hello Writing For New Class Members, this week I thought I could give you a tour of the Social Networking site known as Flixster. Originally I thought about giving the tour the traditional way with sections of text complimented by screencaps. However I figured that approach would be boring and you wouldn't get the full experience of the Flixster web site so I decided to create my own video tour. Check it out below...

Writing On Flixster

Alright Writing for New Media Classmates, now that you have watched my visual tour of the Social Networking site known as Flixster, I thought it might be interesting to have a discussion with you about the official and member-generated writing featured on this avenue of the web. On Flixster, there is no official writing created for the purpose of being on the Networking site's web page, instead they have a Movie News section filled with articles that Flixster users have borrowed from other websites. With that being said I want all of you to note that the reason why I refer to these articles as borrowed instead of stolen is that Flixster requires its users to give a link to the original place where the article was originally posted before posting it on their site.

An example of a News Story featured on Flixster

However as I investigated deeper into the Movie News section, I discovered that all of the articles were posted by the same user SexiVixxEN which means that she can very well be an employee hired by Flixster to assess what articles are worthy to be posted on their site and if the web pages they are coming from are legit a.k.a official. At the same time, despite the possibility of Flixster having a employee that decides what sources are official I advise all of you to take the Movie News that can be found on these web sites with a grain of salt. Although, that doesn't mean that all the articles found on Flixster are not legit, in fact one of the articles are linked to the web page for the popular magazine, People but the rest of the articles are linked to Movie News sites that pull their information out of the ether or at least appear that way because none of their articles come contain sources. Based on this perception the rule of thumb that I can give you, members of my Writing for New Media Class when it comes to Movie News is to think of it as rumor rather than fact unless it is found in a printed source.

An example of an article from People.com linked to a Flixster News Story

As for the member-generated writing on Flixster it exists in two places. The first place is the comments section on your Profile page where the typical lightly anally edited "hey, hows it going" message that exists on every Facebook can be found filled with Emoticons, LOL abbreviations and exclamation marks. However what makes the comments section on Flixster different than Facebook is that some of the comments are movie recommendations made by the people you have friended using your account. Each recommendation includes the users rating of the movie based on a five star scale and their own short review of the film.

The comments section featured on a Flixster User's profile page.

This leads to the other form of member-generated writing that can be found on Flixster, user based movie reviews which are located on a person's Profile page or on the website for a movie listed in the Flixster database. As for the actual writing behind the reviews it varies between users giving a lightly edited one sentence review on a movie or giving a well-considered tightly anally edited review complete with the actor's name in parentheses following the name of his or her character to educate the public on the art of film. Although, no matter which way these reviews appear on Flixster, I have to ask the question can I trust the people on a Social Network for an opinion on a movie as much as a close friend or a respected Critic like Roger Ebert? In my opinion, the answer is yes because if the majority of the comments on a Flixster page about a movie are favorable then I would probably watch it to see what all the buzz is about.

An example of a well-considered tightly anally edited review on a movie and a lightly edited review.

However, I don't feel like I can make this statement without peer support which is where you come in Writing for New Media Class Members. Basically what I want you all to do is answer the question can you trust the people on a Social Network for an opinion on a movie as much as a close friend or a respected Critic like Roger Ebert? Then I want you to place your answers in the comments section for this post. I look forward to hearing from you and don't worry I don't bite.