In a way, Epinions was (for me, anyway) the forerunner of the blogging world: we created a tiny, electronic tribe of like-minded souls tapping away about Things Arcane and Mainstream, e-mailing and commenting back & forth. It was lovely. And then the dot-com floor fell and all electronic hell broke loose. The mainstream do-bees took over the joint and the downwardly-mobile art-trash who made the place charming and habitable took off for sunnier climes (culturedose, various movie sites, etc.).

Most of my compatriots have pulled their reviews, to post elsewhere, or not, in disgust. I'm perverse, and refuse. It's especially icky there since the shopping.com buyout, but dammit, every 12 months or so, those crazy reviews get me a whompin' $10 check. Plus it's fun to see how many more people have randomly searched for "cover songs" (a mild obsession of mine) and fallen into my tiny Epinions web.

Oh, and there are also fascinating (if marginally useful) reviews on coffeemakers, baby wipes and nose-hair trimmers. But they're charming and, quite often, amusing. And if you sign up for Epinions before you rank them, you net me a coupla video rentals per annum.

xxx
c

UPDATE 2/9/2011: If Epinions is even still around when you read this, O Person of the Future, do not bother. I sent in for my last check and will close my account as soon as it clears. Excelsior!