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Hiding Your 'Web of Trust' Listing - What does it really do?Nov 05 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Can hiding your WOT list actually back-fire on you?
It's a late Saturday night. The temperature outside is dropping rapidly, but that's nothing compared to the chill you just felt. Something seems wrong in the universe tonight. Something has changed. You can't explain what it is. It's just a feeling you've got. Something's just not right. Shaking off the feeling, you decide to take solace in some web surfing; a visit to Epinions to check up on your account a guaranteed visit. The glow from the monitor, the only source of light in your darkened room, does nothing to quell your chill which has returned again. The system has completed its boot cycle and you click the necessary icons to launch your browser and log on to the 'net. Another chill. Another sense that something's wrong. What could it be?!? You hit control-O to open up a dialogue box and quickly type in http://www.epinions.com. A moment later, the four colorful faces of the Epinions logo greet you. You scroll down to the bottom of the screen, click on the 'Member's Center' link to check out what's new. "Hmm. Nothing new other than the transcripts of a recent community chat session..." Maneuvering back to the main page, you click on the 'Your Account' link to check your stats. There it is again - that chill. Something now tells you that you're close to the answer, but you're not there yet. On your profile page, you check your member and non-member hits, you check your pennies (whoops - strike that, it is past Nov. 1st after all) and then you click the 'Web of Trust' link to see if anyone has added you to their WOT list. A moment passes as the necessary data is transferred. Then the data is displayed. ...is trusted by 67 members "67?" you think to yourself. 67?!? you repeat. Hey! I had 70 people trusting me yesterday! What gives? The source of that chill has reared its ugly head. And then you're off. Checking your spreadsheet where you keep track of all your WOT members and other pertinent stats, comparing the data there to the latest list on Epinions. After a few moments of check, re-checking, sorting and re-sorting the list, you come across 3 members who are no longer 'trusting' you. Dismayed. Confused. Saddened. A wealth of emotions floods through you until finally you reach 'Anger'. What did I do to lose their trust? you wonder. Determined to get to the bottom of this, you surf to each one of their profiles to see if any clues might be revealed there. Upon reaching the first one, you see nothing out of the ordinary. The profile's there, so the user wasn't banned. Then you look towards their WOT listing and see the phrase '...trusts 123 hidden members'. You quickly go to the next user - same thing. 'Hidden Members'. And the next 'Hidden Members'. What the? So, do they trust me or don't they? There's no way of telling. This little - ahem - fiction is meant to point out a glaring problem with the ability of hiding one's web of trust listing. When a member 'trusts' you and yet choose to hide their web of trust listing, you'll never know that they do, indeed, trust you. They'll know, Epinions will probably know, but you won't. And in these days of continuing dis-trust among members and the Epinions staff, it's getting harder and harder to know who to trust, who trusts you and whether anyone even cares. Now, on the surface, I completely understand why Epinions would give us the ability to hide our web of trust listing. This gives us the ability of protecting those users whom we trust - keeping it basically a secret from the general public. Trust is also a personal matter which some may not want to share, fearing retribution of one sort or another. All of that is fine and good, but don't you think it would be a good idea if the recipient of a member's trust be allowed to acknowledge the same? I can't speak for all at Epinions, but when I am trusted by someone, I will always add them to my 'watch' list so that I can read/rate their reviews and, eventually, add them to my WOT (if warranted). But for all those members who trust me and yet hide their lists, I'll simply never know that they do (unless I track my WOT listings before the member decides to hide their own list...) With the Block list, making that information unavailable to all members except the blocking member makes complete sense. No one knows how many members are blocking their works, and that's as it should be. But the same simply shouldn't be applied when trust is involved. This is an oversight that Epinions really should change. But since that's unlikely to happen (since it makes sense) - sorry, I'm being cynical - I propose that all those members who have chosen to hide their WOT listing actually let the people they trust know of this honor. Maybe it'll do little for the moral around here, maybe it'll do a lot. But being 'trusted' by another member is a positive side-affect of being a member here (one of the few these days...sorry - cynical again). So if you choose to hide your WOT - and there's nothing wrong with that decision - maybe take the time to let those members know. The end result can only be a positive one. Thanks for indulging me this little - fictional - essay.  |
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