The New Intimacy

Ways to fix eden

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Contributor: FieryRed FieryRed
Quote:
Originally posted by snowminx
I'm just letting you know that this same person told another user to "GO DIE" in another thread. I'm glad to see your value her support so much.

Why exactly are we fixing the problems the management should have done long ago? ... more
This, exactly.
06/22/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Quote:
Originally posted by Ansley
In one of the meetings Fred mentioned something about having a "Points Store" where items are put up for sale in a special section where you can use points for them, and I'll quote "cash/credit would not be accepted as ... more
I like this idea as well!
06/22/2013
Contributor: Aishiteru Aishiteru
Quote:
Originally posted by snowminx
Would this "points store" also have higher end things also or just things they normally put on sale that no one buys unless it's 40% off and then still sometimes just sits there?

I would agree with this idea if this isn't all ... more
When I heard about, that's what I imagined; it being like the clearance sales.
06/22/2013
Contributor: Aishiteru Aishiteru
Quote:
Originally posted by Ansley
Oh and this is an idea originally from Gary...

He suggested having tiers on the forum. I don't remember the specific layout he suggested but what if it went something like this?

- Trial Members would only have access to the ... more
I don't in particularly like the sound of tiers since I've been here for quite a while, and haven't done things to build up my rank. If I just have to post a few quality reviews, I wouldn't mind. As things are now, EF doesn't have much to offer, especially now that most of my favorite people of the community have been banned or left.
06/22/2013
Contributor: UrNaughtyaAngel UrNaughtyaAngel
Quote:
Originally posted by Ansley
Also, I would be alright with the "Points Store" thing IF my current points don't have an expiration. I have a lot and waiting around for things I want to go up on the sale might take a very long time.

Very valid point!
"Also, I would be alright with the "Points Store" thing IF my current points don't have an expiration. I have a lot and waiting around for things I want to go up on the sale might take a very long time."

Very valid point!

Yes I was waiting for a costly item to come back in stock and it did now that I can only use 15% of my points.


"point store" will be ok IF:
1. The merchandise is not cheap soon to be expire stuff
2. The merchandise is not over price stuff(ex: $7 lip balm instead of $2)
3. Expiration on points
4. Have some some products from high end vendors.
06/22/2013
Contributor: UrNaughtyaAngel UrNaughtyaAngel
Quote:
Originally posted by SaucyxGirl
I actually like this idea!

I also think that there needs to be some distancing between the actual retail side and the community. While I love the community it really only takes a few people posting hateful things here to drive potential ... more
No what will drive potential customers away are

1. Dishonesty
2. Deceptions
3. Bad Customer Service
4. Used/broken Merchandise
5. Cost of product %and shipping
6. Promptness of having customer service reply to a ticket/question
7. How long it takes to receive product after purchasing

Obviously any new customer to here or anywhere else is going to want to make sure the company is worth spending money and time on.

Like there say where there is smoke there is fire. So instead of worrying about deleting or banning those that are being honest about their experiences with EF just make sure there is no smoke to begin with.
06/22/2013
Contributor: UrNaughtyaAngel UrNaughtyaAngel
Quote:
Originally posted by Ansley
Oh and this is an idea originally from Gary...

He suggested having tiers on the forum. I don't remember the specific layout he suggested but what if it went something like this?

- Trial Members would only have access to the ... more
Horrible idea. This is the total opposite of Community and "family" this only proves what I was told before about EF that their was favoritism.

Didn't you read in the other thread that there were a lot of members who though they didn't participate in posting or reviewing they consider themselves active members. This tier thing will push them away.
06/22/2013
Contributor: Fred Petrenko Fred Petrenko
(EdenFantasys)
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and some even leave a feel of a review written without actual product testing, or even blatant plagiarism.
I would agree with Alan & Michele who suggested going back to basics when we were sending a toy to selected contributors. There were no points back then too. I think, some modifications of the description review program would do this. I am also considering letting in reviews only for the products that the contributor actually purchased or received from the company.

1.2. Excessive number of reviews.
We have products being reviewed hundreds of times. It is excessive and a total waste of your time and visitor’s. Even if many of these reviews are quality ones, this is spam. This situation was obviously created because of the points. This needs to be fixed.

1.3. Review templates.
Reviews, good ones, are as big as stories. Many of them run over 1,000 words. Unfortunately, the efforts the contributor made to create the piece does not pay off because customer does not like being presented with such massive chunk of information. I think a new simplified template, that can be written faster and display better on mobile platforms, is the way to go.

1.4 Editing.
Editing reviews is necessary but cumbersome. Even though we have a system in place, it requires management, support, and programming. I am considering bringing this function in-house and having an editor on staff. Again, the way it was done when we first started the program.

Thoughts?
06/22/2013
Contributor: Ansley Ansley
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
1.4 Editing:

I was thinking about this very thing this afternoon as I believe all reviews should be pushed through editors. One thing that might take a while to implement but worth looking into is creating a simple grammar test that is part of the EdenTasks dashboard. You must score over a certain amount to be approved as an editor and your rotation is permanent.

Not everyone is on at the same time and there would be a larger pool of reviews to edit as well as help keep things like plagiarism and spam down to a minimum if the tasks are transferred to an admin and then canceled.

This is a long-term solution but an in-house editor is also an excellent idea as there will be less second-guessing if something is publishable or not, as only one or two persons will have the list of what's acceptable and what isn't.

For the others, I will brainstorm some ideas between now and Monday.
06/22/2013
Contributor: SaucyxGirl SaucyxGirl
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
Quite frankly I didn't like the templates that they have here. Normally I am not that bad of a writer yet I felt like I was posting crap when it came to reviews. I think a lot of my issue was with the required stuff in the template. While I understand the need to have certain things mentioned within a review it broke up the flow of how I normally write. And as a result my reviews were highly stilted and in my opinion awful.

That said perhaps doing away with the current templates and maybe sticking to a simple one.

An in house editor would be a great idea. It also helps to keep the quality uniform.

Another option might be having potential reviewers put together a portfolio of sorts and actually having to submit it before they can be considered for being on the review team. While having someone have to read over the submissions would be a pain in the ass it would also weed out those who are in it just for free toys and points as those people would be less likely to actually work on a portfolio.
06/22/2013
Contributor: UrNaughtyaAngel UrNaughtyaAngel
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
"Thoughs"


Oh you there there are lot of thought going around.

My #1 - #100 is to let everyone use 100% of their currents points till June 30. After that you can make what ever changes you wish but
be a MAN and Prove that you are a Man of Honor and let everyone use their full points.

By doing this you will be calling a truce. And you need a truce. You lost great reviewers and members and will loose more and will loose on having potential members and customers.
06/22/2013
Contributor: sexyscreenname sexyscreenname
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
I think super detailed reviews still have appeal to shoppers. I am not sure if you noticed but on youtube for example, there are extremely detailed reviews of even relatively simple products that can be 20 to 30 minutes in length and receive amazing feedback and support from consumers.

I think you can manage the attention of the shoppers who don't want to read that much through your new product view. The shoppers who like the extra detail won't mind the extra clicks while other shoppers will appreciate the concise and shortened display of information being delivered immediately.
06/22/2013
Contributor: Aishiteru Aishiteru
Quote:
Originally posted by SaucyxGirl
Quite frankly I didn't like the templates that they have here. Normally I am not that bad of a writer yet I felt like I was posting crap when it came to reviews. I think a lot of my issue was with the required stuff in the template. While I ... more
I get tired of reading the same things over and over again in reviews, especially when there's already a detailed review on the product page. I think a review should only mention the specifications of a toy, such as size if the product page lists it wrong. All of the redundant stuff that people seem to enjoy criticizing people for not including, which is already in the detailed review, is what kept me from posting any reviews and enjoy writing reviews.
06/22/2013
Contributor: PeaceToTheMiddleEast PeaceToTheMiddleEast
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
I agree with a revamped review template, but I actually enjoy all the useful information in a review before I purchase something from anywhere. Even other places I will look for the longest review to read, maybe three of them and then will read about 3 short reviews, if it is not telling me anything I am not buying it.
06/22/2013
Contributor: Taylor Taylor
Quote:
Originally posted by Aishiteru
I get tired of reading the same things over and over again in reviews, especially when there's already a detailed review on the product page. I think a review should only mention the specifications of a toy, such as size if the product page lists ... more
Yeah I sometimes found myself only skimming over parts of reviews because it was information I already knew like the color and material. I think one thorough descriptive review on the product page is plenty, other than that I'm pretty much only interested in people's personal experience anyway. But if you leave out all of the information like size, care of material, etc. then the review gets downvoted.

I wish we could have 2 review categories, informational reviews(with all of the specifics about toy size care etc) and opinion/experience reviews and maybe limit the informational reviews to 2 or 3 on each particular product, and have the rest be experience reviews or fun stories about how they used it. I'm not sure if that's possible or even something people would like, but I know I would prefer that
06/22/2013
Contributor: No-nita No-nita
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
1.1 Come up with in-depth criteria for review editors to follow; if it doesn't touch on all subjects listed, don't approve it, etc etc. Only allowing reviews for stuff purchased from EF is a fair decision, go for it.

1.2 Limit the amount of reviews per product. After a product receives 25 or so reviews (or whatever number you like), no more can be accepted for that product. Bam, solved.

1.3 Speaking for myself, I used the standard template because when I write my reviews, I try to get them to flow naturally from one point to the next, rather than abruptly stopping and listing all the info by category as the extended template dictates... so they get to be "as big as stories" - however, literally every single review I have submitted, I had to go back and trim off at least 200 words worth of content because of that limitation. Increase your word count if you want story-length submissions. If not, I think the extended template is fine the way it is - it prompts you for all the relevant information. I'm not sure how much more it can be simplified.

1.4 Bringing that function in-house would probably be a good idea, considering that the status of compensation for editors (and everyone else contributing) is still up in the air.

As a side note, it is discouraging to see you posting on the forums but ignoring your PMs and support tickets.
06/22/2013
Contributor: No-nita No-nita
Quote:
Originally posted by Aishiteru
I get tired of reading the same things over and over again in reviews, especially when there's already a detailed review on the product page. I think a review should only mention the specifications of a toy, such as size if the product page lists ... more
I agree with this whole-heartedly. It frustrated me to see reviewers chastised for not including the exact size of the toy or an ingredients list when all that needed to be done in order to find that information was to literally click the back button on your browser. It eats up a lot of the word count to just repeat information that is already available to us on the main product page.
06/22/2013
Contributor: Aishiteru Aishiteru
Quote:
Originally posted by Taylor
Yeah I sometimes found myself only skimming over parts of reviews because it was information I already knew like the color and material. I think one thorough descriptive review on the product page is plenty, other than that I'm pretty much only ... more
I would definitely like that better.
06/22/2013
Contributor: No-nita No-nita
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
Another thought regarding 1.1 - when you say that "most publications are poor", what do you mean, exactly? Are you insinuating that the many reviews that people vote as being useful and extremely useful are empty/meaningless votes? Who is the arbiter of what is a good review if not the community who votes on that? Everyone got the same amount of points whether they voted a review useful or not, so it's not as though anyone was being bribed (so to speak) to vote useful on reviews that were poorly written. Whenever I've seen a poorly written review, people have let that person know that it wasn't helpful.

I am really curious about your thinking here because it looks to me like this, when taken in tandem with your previous comment about maybe possibly considering looking over people's work on a case-by-case basis and deciding if they were deserving of being allowed to use the points they earned... this is a little concerning, and looks to me like the framework for backing out of that by dismissing everyone's work as being low quality. That is... a little insulting, because you know the people in these threads going back and forth with you are not the ones who submitted "this vibrator is so cute and feels good teeheehee" reviews; those people did not invest their time or effort into what they posted, so I can't see them sticking around to fight about your decision.

I would love to suspend my suspicion but until a concrete decision is made about how to handle the points fiasco, I can't. As of right now it seems that there is a lot of stalling going on by avoiding the issue and talking about the future instead of remedying the situation at hand.
06/22/2013
Contributor: Aishiteru Aishiteru
Quote:
Originally posted by No-nita
Another thought regarding 1.1 - when you say that "most publications are poor", what do you mean, exactly? Are you insinuating that the many reviews that people vote as being useful and extremely useful are empty/meaningless votes? Who is ... more
I agree with this. I've read hundreds of reviews and I don't consider most of them low quality, nor do I think the longest ones are the best.
06/22/2013
Contributor: KatPawz2003 KatPawz2003
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
The problem I see with limiting the reviews o item bought on the site is that you have people who are new to the site but not new to writing reviews or toys in general. I have reviewed toys which I used on a daily basis with my ex but I was not the one who bought them, and I honestly do not even know where he got them. If it was limited to toys that I got from this site, I would be down to 50% of the toys I can write about. Also If a husband/friend buys something from a wishlist here or even something they know that will be enjoyed without looking at a wishlist, it would effect that ability of the recipient to be able to review it.

While I like and use the template, it breaks up the flow of the reviews and makes this feel a bit stilted when reading. If more people used the free write block, it would allow things to flow better and be easier to read and limit repeating yourself in a review. There could be a couple of sections to guide the format and allow for more structure of content, like Use/material/design/si ze/controls and care/packaging. Any personal experience would go under the use section and comments would be optional,
06/22/2013
Contributor: PeaceToTheMiddleEast PeaceToTheMiddleEast
Quote:
Originally posted by No-nita
Another thought regarding 1.1 - when you say that "most publications are poor", what do you mean, exactly? Are you insinuating that the many reviews that people vote as being useful and extremely useful are empty/meaningless votes? Who is ... more
I also agree with what you said here. I had to read what he said twice before it finally registered I would like to know what he meant by this as well.
06/22/2013
Contributor: UrNaughtyaAngel UrNaughtyaAngel
Quote:
Originally posted by No-nita
Another thought regarding 1.1 - when you say that "most publications are poor", what do you mean, exactly? Are you insinuating that the many reviews that people vote as being useful and extremely useful are empty/meaningless votes? Who is ... more
Well said said. and I totally agree with the last paragraph.


I would love to suspend my suspicion but until a concrete decision is made about how to handle the points fiasco, I can't. As of right now it seems that there is a lot of stalling going on by avoiding the issue and talking about the future instead of remedying the situation at hand.
06/22/2013
Contributor: charmedtomeetyou charmedtomeetyou
(Review Program Mentor)
Quote:
Originally posted by Ansley
1.4 Editing:

I was thinking about this very thing this afternoon as I believe all reviews should be pushed through editors. One thing that might take a while to implement but worth looking into is creating a simple grammar test that is part of ... more
--I agree with this. SO many reviews that I've seen that aren't edited are nearly impossible to read. It reflects poorly on the site when people who can self edit are putting out reviews that aren't well written. I mentioned it earlier in this thread, but editors need to be able to comment on content as well, more like a an editor/mentor than a plain editor.

--I love the idea of new templates for reviews. I like information as much as the next gal, but I don't need a huge novel to get the info.

--I agree that some products have too many reviews, perhaps a cap is in order.
06/22/2013
Contributor: snowminx snowminx
Quote:
Originally posted by UrNaughtyaAngel
Well said said. and I totally agree with the last paragraph.


I would love to suspend my suspicion but until a concrete decision is made about how to handle the points fiasco, I can't. As of right now it seems that there is a lot of ... more
Yep, this sums Eden to a T.

Remember when they talked about having less duplicates and all the good stuff but they never got around to it but they had plenty of time to cut down the point system?

I don't want to hear what "may be" I want to hear what's happening NOW and what is being seriously considered. Not giving us 30 different things that "oh might happen...one day...maybe..." Do that in the boardroom and come back when you have just a few concrete ideas.

Oh also one more thing- please STOP insulting us Fred. Do they really have no manners in Russia? A good review is not a "rarity". Just because we're toy junkies does in no way mean we're less intelligent and can't figure out that you're talking bad about us. You also say that a "good review" is long but you want to change them to be more simple and shorter.

Take a good look in the mirror Fred, this is YOUR company. You did this to yourself. Stop lying and blaming all your problems on everybody else, exp the people that actually were supporting your failing company. Bad businesses start with the owner, not the costumer.
06/22/2013
Contributor: namelesschaos namelesschaos
You know what Eden reminds me of right now? I once knew a women who claimed everything she eat was homemade eventually we found out most night she eats McDonald's her response she heats it in the microwave at home therefore it is home made.

Now back to Eden there is currently a section labeled gift cards that has thing which are about as much gift-cards as McDonald's is homemade, a stack of 15% discount codes does not a gift card make any more then a microwaving makes something homemade food. As long Eden can even think that they can call what they are doing "gift-cards" I have no reasons to think your telling me the truth. If the above women told me she eats fruit everyday I'm going to with reasons wonder does she mean fruit or fruit roll ups. If Eden say "we never sell used toys" I'm going to wonder what their definition of "used" is, tell me this included a free dildo I'm going to wonder if by "dildo" they mean a cucumber.

Nothing Fred or Stormy says has any meaning to me because they can twist and turn anything to mean anything they want and have their one of kind only applies on Eden did not exist until they made it up and no where else definition of terms that retroactively too. McDonald's is homemade, 15% codes is honoring your gift-card, the piss on your leg is rain. Believe any of these and odds are your beyond help. One sad fact of life is that certain people just can't be helped till they hit rock bottom. (saidly it often takes a heart attack to change people like Miss Homemade McD's.)

So my honest recommendation for those hoping to "fix" Eden: let the place burn (pretend your Gordon Ramsay walking away from Amy's Bakery) only when it is in ashes then maybe you can rebuild but till then to extend the Kitchen Nightmares analogy your only helping someone find a new way to call frozen raviolis fresh.
06/22/2013
Contributor: eri86 eri86
Quote:
Originally posted by Ansley
Neither Fred, Rufina, Ilya, nor myself want to give up on the community. It's quite a lot of fun when the good times are rolling. We hope that we can all work together to start over and keep things going in a positive direction.

And thank ... more
In regards to distancing the community from retail, it would be as simple as removing all points rewarded for community tasks. When people stop getting points for creating discussions and polls, and for commenting and voting, a lot of forum spam will cease to exist.

Leaving behind the people who actually want to be involved in the community.
06/22/2013
Contributor: bratcat bratcat
Quote:
Originally posted by No-nita
Another thought regarding 1.1 - when you say that "most publications are poor", what do you mean, exactly? Are you insinuating that the many reviews that people vote as being useful and extremely useful are empty/meaningless votes? Who is ... more
I whole heartily agree, and am a little insulted as i also take this as suggesting reviews rated as U or EU are apparently not meaningful.
Though i am not an advanced reviewer and am fairly new to reviewing, i put anywhere from three days to a weeks worth of devotion into a single review being sure to cover all the basic info as well as my personal experiences and how i use/could use and enjoy the toy, and all but a couple of my reviews has received less than a EU ranking.
This makes me question what a "quality" review may be then.
06/23/2013
Contributor: deadhorse deadhorse
It's funny, how some people have their heads so far into the clouds that they think this place is going to be OK and come out on top. Bless your naive hearts, like children that believe in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy. Ya'll are so precious.

There is no way to "fix" Eden. Like the great Stormy herself said "you can't continue to beat a dead horse". This horse is now full of infection and starting the decomposition process. Wake up and smell the roadkill!
06/23/2013
Contributor: Rossie Rossie
Quote:
Originally posted by Fred Petrenko
I’ve seen a lot of constructive ideas so far.
Here are a few challenges you might help me with.

1. Reviews
Main problems:

1.1. Low Quality.
A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and ... more
"A well written, informative review is a rarity. Most of the publications are poor and some even leave a feel of a review written without actual product testing, or even blatant plagiarism."

Mr. Petrenko, I wish you can take that remark back. I agree that there are some not so useful reviews; however, there are also a lot of reviews that have earned plenty of "Extremely Useful" ratings. As reviewers, many of us take pride in our work, we don't just do it for the points. Maybe you shall write the perfect review and use it as an example, and we will follow your protocol.

and,

"I am also considering letting in reviews only for the products that the contributor actually purchased or received from the company."

I strongly agree, I think it's appropriate for reviewers to write reviews on products purchased from Eden only.
06/23/2013