I'm a luxury car fanatic; my favorite brand is Cadillac. I enjoy astronomy and have a business degree (hopefully this will soon lead to a career). While in school I took a few writing classes and I am here to both use what I learned to write reviews and learn from other reviewers how to improve my writing.

So how do I rate? Basically I start each review off with a very helpful in mind as I believe that most reviewers on Epinions genuinely are trying to be very helpful. If a review lacks information, is too short, or has an abundance of grammatical or spelling errors (we have a spell checker) then I will start to down grade. To keep a VH rating, a review must tell me basically everything I would want to know about a product. If a review can satisfactorily answer questions I develop in my head while reading it or even goes beyond that with information, it will likely get a VH.

Reviews with frequent and obvious grammatical problems, lots of mispelled or misused words tend to put me off a bit. I am not demanding perfection here, as this is a consumer (not expert) based site, but a general flow of well communicated information is what I like to see. Reviews with some problems, but still including information I think could help a potential purchaser, will generally get a helpful rating.

Somewhat helpful ratings from me mean that there is just not enough information in the review. One to two paragraphs is rarely, if ever enough information to cover a product. An SH review is one where the reviewer did not spend much time or effort in putting down their thoughts and perhaps they should have considered shortening to an express review.

Maybe its the quality of the writing on here, but so far I have yet to find a review not helpful. There is at least some helpfulness in reviews that address the product they are reviewing. If I rate your review off topic, I will explain why in a comment on the review and try to offer help where I can. Lastly, I like to focus on new members to see who might be the newest talented author on Epinions but I make an effort to rate longer term members as well; even if I disagree with your opinion, I rate based on its usefulness, not my agreeableness (is that a word?)with it.

If I have added you to my WOT then congratulations, I find your reviews to be consistently helpful and your account to meet the criteria I will outline below. If you have added me to your WOT then THANK YOU! It is nice to be trusted.

I look for several things when considering adding a member to my WOT. The first is that your reviews are rated very helpful at least 95% of the time and that you have helpful ratings besides them. Secondly, I will read through some of your most recent reviews and rate them, If I like your writing style and feel that you have very helpful reviews I will add you to my WOT if... Thirdly, you also have at least 20 reviews under your belt to use as a base. Reviews considered Most Helpful on your list are a definite plus, as well as top reviewer or advisor status. Lastly, if a large number of members already trust you, and I beleive they are justified in doing so, that will also increase the likelihood that I will add you to my WOT.

Unlike some other members on here, I do not look so harshly upon periods of inactivity with your reviews. If you only write once every two months but that one review is excellent, then I still trust you. If you are gone for a long time and come back with poor quality reviews, then I may remove you from my WOT. I trust based on what you have done on this site, not how often you do it. I will not add you to my WOT just because you added me, I will consider it and add if you meet the above outlined criteria.

For anyone interested in contacting me, my email is adamwineke@charter.net (didn't put it above, I fear spamming!) Thanks for reading and rating!