I am not sneaky!
Dec 14 '00
Over the months, many people have asked why I hide my WOT. Speculation has gone from "Gosh, that broad is sneaky!" to "What an idiot! She’s missing a great marketing opportunity!" Well, I am a broad. Sometimes, I am an idiot. But I know for a fact that I’m not sneaky.
So, for posterity (and to get my obligatory fluff piece for the month of December out of the way), I figured I would once and for all explain why I have bucked the trend and hidden my WOT. (I was going to save this for review 100, but since someone pointedly asked me this question recently, I was afraid that it would be rude to postpone answering for two weeks, when I would more likely hit that number.)
Before I get into the reasons though, I want you to understand one thing. I am talking about the Web of Trust here. I take that word "trust" literally. For me, the WOT isn’t a reading list. I have my notifications for that, and I use that list liberally. However, "trust" is something that grows and that means something very special.
So, without further ado, here are my reasons for hiding my WOT:
I want to earn trust through my words and actions, and not because I trusted you first
There is a certain species of animal running around Epinions that is commonly termed a "trust slut". It’s an ugly term, to be sure. But these animals are quite plentiful on Epinions. The term applies to someone who adds others to his or her WOT in hopes of being trusted back. In many cases, once that "trust" is received, that person drops the new truster from his or her WOT. The end result is that the trust slut receives more trust and more power (since one’s rating power is largely determined by the number of trusters).
I guess I could say that I am the antithesis of that. Some of the people that I trust rarely read anything that I write. One almost never reads anything that I write. I’m perfectly fine with that, because someday, something that I say might catch that person’s attention. Something that I do might impress that person. If that happens and that person adds me to their WOT, I will know that it’s because I earned it, and NOT because they felt like they owed me something.
I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings
In "real life", I am very cautious about those whom I decide to trust. I doubt that I could name more than 50 people that I’ve met that I completely trust. I have used the same caution in developing my WOT. On average, I add about two new members per month. (The only reason why there aren’t 24 members is because I was horribly wrong about 4 of my selections.) Unfortunately, because the list is so small, it means that some people who might feel that they deserve to be on the list aren’t. I respect lots of people that aren’t on my WOT, but I doubt that everyone will understand that. By hiding my WOT, I have avoided hurting peoples' feelings.
In addition, hiding my WOT makes it easier for me to make changes as I feel that they are needed. I know lots of people for whom making WOT changes has been a major ordeal. A person is dropped, and that person gets upset. I know other people who have been afraid to remove highly trusted individuals because they feared that the rating power of that individual could be turned against them. I don’t have to worry about that. In the cases where I found that I was wrong about my selections, I removed the individuals and went on with my Epinions life. Never once did I fear making changes.
I’m not here to make your decisions for you
I know whom I trust and why I trust them. My list is very personal to me. My WOT contains the names of 20 people who have impressed me with their talent and generosity of spirit. I can look at each and every name on my WOT and tell you multiple things that they have done that showed class and intelligence. After so much time, I know these people well.
However, anyone looking at my WOT wouldn’t know those reasons. Yet, some would take my trust of an individual as being a reason to read or trust that individual as well. I just don’t think that’s a good idea. Frankly, I didn’t take someone else’s trust of these people into account when I decided to trust them. I don’t think anyone else should either.
What it takes to get on my WOT
I honestly cannot tell you what it takes for me to really trust someone. Sometimes, I find that I watch people from afar until one morning when I wake up and realize that I should have added the person ages before. In many cases, the stimulus is a particularly classy comment, a kind deed, or some other evidence of character that is revealed either on Epinions or in of the related off-site Epinions communities. For the most part, it just takes time... time for me to get to know you and your character.
Some assurances
I’m sure that there are still some who are really curious as to the members who have made my WOT. Well, sorry… I’m not telling you. I won’t even tell my best friends. I will give you some assurances, though:
All of the members have written several reviews.
I trust my husband in real life, but even he isn’t on my WOT. (Sorry, dear!) It wouldn’t be fair to grant a person who hasn’t written a review more power when rating the reviews of others, and by having him on my WOT, I would be doing that.
The members share similar ethics but not necessarily similar ideology.
The members of my WOT abhor plagiarism, review padding, off-topic reviews, and reading and rating circles. They report flagrant abusers. Yet they attempt to be fair and try hard to be patient.
This doesn’t mean that they always agree with me. Sometimes, their ratings are slightly different from my own. However, they don’t mind discussing their ratings or explaining why they rated as they did. They also don’t mind asking me about my ratings. Many of them have totally different views on things like content filters, advisors, etc. These differences don’t bother me, because these people have explained their reasons. They also don’t belittle me for disagreeing with them.
They are all great writers.
Everyone who has been added to my WOT was first added to my reading notification list. The group covers a diverse range of writing styles. Some make me laugh. Some make me cry. Some give me "just the facts ma’am". But 99% of the time, I know that I will receive useful information from the reviews that they write. (I’ll forgive them for the occasional fluff piece. No one is exempt from that!)
Final thoughts
The only other thing that I have to say is that it is my WOT. If I saw any logic in revealing it, I would. However, the only reason that I can think of is that it would allow me to gain more trusters. For some, that may be sufficient reason to reveal the WOT. That’s their choice, and I wish them all luck. But I would hope that people would judge me for the things that I do and say (and not on those with whom I associate).
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Epinions.com ID:
gracef
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: Lost in Texas
Reviews written: 206
Trusted by: 313 members
About Me:
Well, bless your heart!
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