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I Trust You, You Trust Me, We're a Happy Family... or at least in theoryJan 11 '02 (Updated Feb 11 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Why do I trust who I do? The secret is revealed... or at least partially
I know everybody is sick to death of reading these reviews. This information was on my profile page, and it was a little bit too lengthy to have there, and I wanted to add some more information to it, so I decided to write this review and simply link to it from my profile page. The purpose of this review is simply to tell interested members why I trust who I do, along with some more details I feel are relevant. Everybody seems to have a different philosophy on how the WoT should be used. Some people trust large numbers of people, others trust only a few (or none), and the rest are somewhere in between. How you choose to use your WoT is up to you. After all, it is your web of trust. I have my own reasons for putting my trust in people, which are explained below. First of all (and most importantly), you must consistently write good reviews. This doesn’t mean that you have written a grand total of three great reviews. In this case, I put you on review alert so I will receive an email when you write a new review so I can keep an eye on your progress, and to see if you are actually going to stick around. I never trust anyone with fewer than 10 reviews. Why? Because I like to read at least that many before trusting anybody. I want you to show me that you write well, consistently. It also shows me that you are serious about sticking around, at least for a little while! If your interests are similar to mine, that’s a bonus as well. What really puts the icing on the cake is if I agree with your views (if you like the same movies and books as me, for example), but that isn’t necessary. If I enjoy reading your reviews, regardless of subject matter, I will most likely trust you (or at the very least receive alerts when you write new reviews). One way to get on my WoT without writing in an area that interests me: be a generally exceptionally nice person, both on Epinions and/or off. Of course, you still have to write decent reviews :) Sometimes I don’t know why I put a certain person on my WoT, I just go with my gut and do it. So my reasons for trusting someone are as vague as the formula behind income share, sometimes even to myself. If I trust you, then you may have noticed that I receive alerts when you write a new review. That is because if you are on my WoT, I am interested in reading your reviews, and I want to know when you are writing new ones. You wouldn’t be there otherwise! That is why I would like to keep the number of people I trust fairly small, so that I can continue this practice. Right now I am having no problem keeping up so I have lots of room for more people to trust. I am always on the lookout for new people to trust, so if you have similar interests (mainly fantasy novels and movies), drop me an email with a link to your profile page and I will take a look (but don’t be too insulted if I don’t add you – it will likely be due more to dissimilar interests than your quality of writing). If you have added me to your WoT, thanks! I always enjoy seeing when a new member trusts me. It’s like a pat on the back :) You may have noticed that I put you on my WoT after you added me. That’s not simply because I wanted to trust you back, but because I never noticed you before or I would have placed you on my WoT. I always like to look at a few reviews of a member who trusts me, out of curiosity, as well as a sort of ‘thank you’. Currently, I receive alerts when anyone who trusts me writes a review. I will continue to do this for as long as it’s feasible - and that would have to be a pretty big jump in members who trust me, and I’m not expecting that number to reach 100 any time soon :) In the past, I have revised my web of trust. When I first started, I would trust someone just because they trusted me. When I realized that this was not the way I wanted to handle my WoT, I revised it. I am constantly revising my WoT, putting new people on, taking others off, all for different reasons. I removed one member who, if I recall correctly, was the first person who ever trusted me (and I in turn trusted them), and shortly after that member stopped trusting me, and later asked me why I took them off of my WoT. I told them not to take it personally, that I simply revised my WoT. This seemed strange to me because if I trusted someone, and they trusted me in return and later removed me, I wouldn’t stop trusting them just because they took me off of their trust list! When you trust someone, it shouldn’t be just to get them to trust you. It should have something to do with their reviews, or even the way they rate. And I realize that I am not the first person to have this problem. When you’re putting someone on your trust list, remember that it is easier to add them than to remove them. Trusting someone makes that person feel good about themselves. Removing trust, even if it isn’t for personal reasons, or any problem with that member, can make them feel like they did something to make you feel the need to remove them. So think about who you trust before you hit that button! If I notice that someone on my trust list has been inactive for a long period of time, I will probably remove them. I may send them an email inquiring as to whether or not they are still an active member, but I might not. If I have removed you from my WoT, and you want to know why, just send me an email and ask. I promise to be honest ;) As a final note, I have to admit to something; I exploit other people’s web of trust for my own gain. I’m constantly on the search for new members to trust. I will go to a person’s profile page (preferably one of high standing or someone I trust) and click on the number one person they trust. I check out that person’s profile, read a review or two if I’m interested, and go on to their number one trusted person. If I have already been to a members number one trusted person (shown by the color of the link), I go to the number two person (I know that the numbers don’t mean anything, it’s just the way I do it). If I get to a dead end (a person who trusts nobody), I press back and go to the next person on the list. I do this until I reach a member’s page where I have already been to the first five trusted people. Or I stop when it gets too late and there is no end to this game in sight. It’s a great way to find new people. And since these people are trusted by someone already, there is a good chance that they are at least a half-decent reviewer. As always, thanks for taking the time to read this :)  |
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