Web of Trust Crash Course: an idiot's guide to WOT's going on
Jun 06 '01
The Bottom Line Questions about the Web of Trust? I’m here to help.
Intro: I published this essay a long time ago but I realized it was in the wrong category. Most of this talks about WOT basics, not building it. So I deleted the old epinion, added many more tidbits that I've learned since then, and reposted it in the right category. Hope it's helpful.
WARNING: This epinion is long and also has some fairly basic information. However, you may find out something you never knew before. That could be a good or a bad thing. In any case, you have been warned.
The Web of Trust is a complex and sometimes perplexing feature of Epinions. It is perhaps the most abused, most misunderstood, most complicated part of the site. Poor Web of Trust! It sounds like a perfect counseling case.
Before this article is done, you will find out what I’ve learned about the Web of Trust. Most of it relates to what IS the Web of Trust, not how to build it. I’ll present my findings on how to get more people to trust you later. But here I give you the most frequently asked questions about this subject. Some of the first questions may be elementary, so if you’re going to feel offended by this newbie advice, just skip down until you see the stars. *****
WHAT IS THE “WEB OF TRUST”?
It’s a feature that lets you say, “I think this person writes well, is a nice person, and is overall trustworthy.” It doesn’t mean you always agree with that person, but that you value their opinions and acknowledge that they’re able to present their case, even if you don’t agree with that case.
That’s the simple answer. The more complex answer is it’s a way to somehow, as Epinions vaguely puts it, “Bring order to the galaxy” and build a community of people who trust one another. There are three basic problems with the Web of Trust that I see, but I’ll deal with that later.
WHAT DOES “WOT” STAND FOR?
It stands for Web Of Trust. It’s an acronym, where the word is formed from the first letters of the words it stands for. See, you learn something every day.
WHAT DOES “WOD” STAND FOR?
It stands for Web Of Distrust. This is where you put people who abuse the system, are grossly offensive, or are really bad writers. For the record, I currently have 36 members on my WOD. That’s more than I have on my WOT. And none of the 36 are “really bad writers”; they’re plagiarists, “a a a a” writers, offensive writers, review padders, revenge raters, multiple accounts, and similarly rotten members.
HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN YOU PUT ON YOUR WOT?
As far as I know, there’s no limit to how many people you can trust. However, it’s best to start out with no more than 30, and then build up as you read and explore more.
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The sophisticated people can join the masses again.
WHAT DOES THE WOT SHOW?
Believe it or not, I can tell a lot about an epinionator by their WOT. If I see they trust 100 people, and are trusted by 20, that tells me the epinionator is probably doing too much reading and not enough writing. If I see they’ve written 100 epinions, and are trusted by 4 members, well, that tells me something too. It tells me there’s something that doesn’t quite measure up about this person’s writing style. Or perhaps they don’t have a lot of exposure.
If, on the other hand, they’ve written 20 epinions and are trusted by 40 people, that tells me there’s something extraordinarily good about this writer. And if they trust 10 people and are trusted by 400, I know that this is one popular person. (I also know that, if by some miracle this person puts me on their WOT, they won’t be doing it just so I will add them to my WOT.)
But these aren’t hard and fast rules. For instance, you may discover a huge amount of great writers that you’d like to trust, but you don’t have many people who trust you yet. That’s okay. I won’t respect you less for trusting whoever you’d like to trust. If you’re in the scenario I mentioned with 100 epinions and 4 trusters, I don’t want you to feel like you’re worthless as a writer, because you’re not. I just want you to understand the first impressions people have from looking at your WOT.
WHAT DOES THE WOT HAVE TO DO WITH REPUTATION?
Similar to the answer above, you can get a reputation around here from your WOT. Let’s take an example from my personal standards. If you trust several disreputable members, I’m going to connect you in my mind with them, even if you yourself are perfectly respectable. “Unfair!” you say…but that old proverb about you’ll be known by who your friends are applies to Epinions too. Take off any questionable members from your trust list, and if they are true abusers of the system, put them on your block list.
If you trust mediocre members, who are pretty good reviewers but nothing special, I might think twice about trusting you. By trusting these types of writers, you’re associating yourself with mediocrity. Members with higher standards will be less likely to consider you as a trustworthy writer.
But say you trust only the most brilliant writers at the site, people like Grouch, NFP, and Sloucho (I know I left some out, I just can’t go on and on about all the talented writers here!). You’re letting others know that you appreciate great writing and that these are the people who have the quality of writing you strive for. This can earn you a reputation for excellence and high standards, which is a great thing to have at Epinions.
Be careful with this last suggestion, though. You don’t want to be known as a snob who only trusts popular people. Trust whoever you feel is worthy of your trust. That includes superstars like ptiemann and littleknowns like…well, I don’t want to offend anyone. But there are exceptional writers of all levels of popularity at Epinions.
SHOULD I PUT VERY POPULAR PEOPLE ON MY WOT?
Depends on why you’re doing it. If you’re trusting them just to hitch yourself to the popularity wagon, then don’t. But there’s a reason why those people are popular, and if you are impressed by their writing style, then sure, go for it! By reading their stuff, you will also learn the kind of quality you should be shooting for, and improve your own writing by using the techniques they use.
When I first published this review, I didn’t care for trusting people with huge WOTs. I thought that because so many people were trusting them, they wouldn’t take the time to read a couple of my reviews, which is a courtesy I think should be extended to anybody who trusts another member. But now I’m looking at it from the opposite side; I have a fairly large circle of people who trust me, and my views have changed. Not just because a lot of people trust me, but because I think that trusting someone should have nothing to do with how many people trust them. I do admit that I stop to think it over really hard when I’m about to trust someone who has a small number of trustees. I simply wonder why they don’t have many trusters, but if their writing is fantastic and I feel good about it, I’ll trust them, no matter how popular or unpopular they are.
I’ve also discovered a number of wonderful writers that I overlooked in the past simply because they were very popular and I wanted to be “different,” not jumping on the popularity wagon. It seems dumb to me now that I was missing out on all they had to offer. The moral is – base your trust on the individual’s writing and merits, not on social issues.
WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE SO POPULAR?
There are two factors: 1) Quality of writing, and 2) Exposure. Most of the very popular writers around here have excellent reviews and are consistently helpful with what they write. Surprisingly, they also usually don’t rate every single review that comes into the Just-In. They don’t have to depend on the Just-In exposure to gain popularity; their writing does it for them.
However, you are probably not one of these 1000-trustees people, so you’re going to have to do a little legwork, fingerwork rather, to become more well known here. In my next article, on building your web of trust, I’ll tell you how to become popular.
But then you have the relatively new guys on the block, like me, who have a relatively enormous WOT for the time they’ve been here and the number of reviews they’ve written. What gives? It mostly comes down to exposure – how much they rate Just-In articles and how many people know about them. I’ve tried to rate as many Just-In reviews as I can without skimming, which is one of the worst things to do at Epinions, and this has helped me get my name out.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE WOT?
Well, as I said before, it brings a sense of community to an otherwise somewhat isolated website. It lets others know who your friends are, and also is a way of finding out about other people who are good writers. It’s a reminder to you to check up on those writers that you really like, and a means of showing you which epinions to read first, which are most likely to be well-written. Compared with the problems of the WOT, the benefits are rather flimsy, creating a good case for those who reject the idea of the WOT altogether.
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS WITH THE WOT?
I see three basic problems with the Web of Trust.
1. The “everybody is friends” syndrome. People who trust anybody and everybody who writes “This is a good product” have the “everybody is friends” syndrome. Commonly called “trust sluts.” These people just don’t get the concept of trusting people who are a notch above everybody else. They need to be more selective about who they put on their WOT, and spend some time weeding out their WOT once in a while. They also need to read at least 5 of someone’s opinion before trusting them. I’m appalled to see people trusting other people after reading ONE of their opinions. HELLO!
2. The “we’re us, you’re you, that’s that” syndrome. People who trust about 5 people who are mutual and exclude the rest of the world have this syndrome. These people need to lighten up, for goodness’ sake! There’s some really good writers out there who happen to not be one of the 5 “Council Members.” Avoid these little cliques and stick with people who are valid trusters/trustees. And if you’re in one of these little cliques, get out as fast as you can.
3. (This is the worst problem). Abuse of the WOT. A lot of people put others on their WOT for the sole purpose of getting trusted by the other person. This is just dumb. I’m sorry, but it’s dumb. Epinions did not create the Web of Trust so that it could be abused like this. They created it to be a ways of establishing a community, a circle of friends. In case that plea to nobility and a higher law doesn’t float your boat, I find that most of the people who add me to their web of trust aren’t the people I add to my web of trust. The people who add me are the people who’s reviews I’ve read. And guess what? I do the same! Most of the time I don’t put someone on my WOT simply because they trust me. I put them on my WOT because I read their writing on the Just-In column, or in products I’m looking up, or from someone else’s WOT.
So if you’re thinking of adding me to your WOT just because you want me to add you to my WOT…please don’t. I’d rather you not “trust” me and be honest than for you to “trust” me with selfish motives in mind. If your work is well-written, interesting, and informative, you will probably end up on my WOT whether you return the favor or not. And if my work is well-written, interesting, and informative, that would be the reason I would want to be put on your Web of Trust.
I will have nightmares tonight of half of my following suddenly dropping all connection with me and claiming, if asked, “I NEVER KNEW THAT PERSON!” Oh well, I’ll live.
ARE WE REALLY “TRUSTING” PEOPLE ON OUR WOT?
In other words, when we put someone on our trust list, does that mean we “trust” them? Would we leave our kids with them? Would we go to the mall with them? Of course not! All that the web of trust means is that you are very impressed with a member’s writing and feel that they are making responsible decisions about rating and writing at Epinions. I find it ridiculous that people “trust” other Epinionators like they would trust their best friend. There is no way to have full confidence in someone who is projecting their personality over a computer. You can be friends with them, you can trust the decisions that you see them making, but you can’t rely on their honesty, kindness, or moral trustworthiness without meeting them in person. And I don’t recommend doing that with a person you’ve met online.
Remember, the primary reason for placing someone on your Web of Trust is because you enjoy the way they write and feel they’re a valuable member of the Epinions community. Not because you’d leave your wallet with them.
HOW DOES THE WOT AFFECT RATINGS?
Picture this: you write an article that receives 9 Very Helpfuls and 2 Helpfuls. You go to your profile page – and find that the summary rating on the side says Helpful. WHY??!!!
Epinions says that this is because of your WOT. The people you trust are the people who are going to have more influence over your summary rating. However, this isn’t always true. Often advisors, that dreaded race of whom I am attempting to join, will have enormous weight with their ratings simply because they’re advisors. It’s really ludicrous to think that an advisor in electronics would have a more accurate rating of a gourmet cookbooks just because they’re good at computers. Is this making any sense? In any case, remember that the people you place on your WOT can affect your summary ratings more than ordinary Epinionators.
HOW DOES MY WOT AFFECT THE EPINIONS I RATE?
The more people trust you, the more Epinions will value the ratings you give to other reviews and any products you review. That may seem unfair, but it’s supposed to allow more trustworthy members to have more say-so in summary ratings. It really isn’t the best way to set things up, because someone can be a fabulous writer but simply have little exposure and so have a small circle of people who trust them. They certainly are more qualified to rate a review accurately than a mediocre writer who has lots of exposure and a large WOT.
So if you are trusted by 200 members and you rate a review or a product well, that rating will carry more weight than the rating of someone with 20 trusters. Of course, majority rules can have an impact as well, but advisors and very trusted people will probably the deciding factor in a summary rating.
CONCLUSION
I hope this editorial has explained some of the mysteries of the WOT. Watch for my next article on how to start building your WOT, and then we can really get down to business.
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Epinions.com ID:
Greatpilgrim
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Victoria
Location: FL
Reviews written: 272
Trusted by: 704 members
About Me:
April 25: My computer has now officially been broken for 10 days. WAHHHH!
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