Utilizing Your Web of Trust Reminds Me of High School
Mar 05 '00
Utilizing your Web of Trust. What does this mean, I first had to find out what "utilizing" meant cause I honestly didn’t know. Ahh, utilizing means using. Easy enough but how many people actually know what using the Web of Trust means..
Your Web of Trust is made of three parts, the members you trust, the members you do not trust, and the members that trust you. A concept so simple and easy that it has literally become the most confusing part of Epinions for some. Seriously it boggles the mind how easy it is to use this invaluable system, and yet I see so many people that obviously have
no idea. Maybe it’s that they really don’t care and this is just another money earning program, but maybe it’s that some just find it too easy to use and feel it must harder than it really is. Well, it’s not. For those that need that long comforting explanation of this I’ve tried to lay it out in the three categories.
Writer’s note: When writing this review I did not take into account those that abuse the system too much in this review as this was meant to help and not to complain.
The Members I Trust
My own Web of Trust is made up of many different kinds of people. The easiest way to get on my Web of Trust? Get me to trust your reviews and your ratings.. Ironic isn’t it. I intentionally keep my WOT small so that I can actually read the reviews of those I trust. At least once every two days I will go through my Web of Trust and read what they have to say.
That’s the whole point of this. That’s where people are messing up. Members are putting their trust in people only because they believe those people will give them fair ratings or because they will give them 3 pennies but I’d rather not go into this kind of person to much in this editorial.. While trusting they will give you fair ratings is a big part it is not the only part. I have people that trust my reviews and haven’t been back since they first added me. I find it fascinating that people put their trust in someone’s opinion but never actually read there reviews after the first few it took to earn that trust.
Remember in High School you sat with your friends and the friends of your friends. You would talk to that group and maybe a few other’s for the entire lunch period. They were your High School WOT they were the one’s you asked for advice on homework, sports, the opposite sex, and a few more less appropriate subject’s. The rest of the people in the
school you may have talked to during classes, afterschool, or between classes. They told you stories, some of which you believed, but you always went to your friends when you wanted the real scoop.
The Members I Don’t Trust
Plagiarism, repetitions, extremely offensive, multiple identical submissions, and obvious retaliatory ratings on myself or others are all reason’s you may get added to my WOD. I will not give a second look to someone who doesn’t make an attempt to help the Epinion’s community. The point of your WOD is to flag the reviews of those that you do not want to read, see a name you know is on your WOD and you’ll know to steer clear of it.
Think of these as the losers in High School. These are the ones who pulled the fire alarm, repainted the principal’s car (In some cases not a bad idea.), and usually only showed up for the first few weeks of school. Those that stayed longer, disrupted class, beat up anyone who made them look bad, and were just a plain embarrassment to the school. Sometimes they made funny jokes at the most inappropriate times and you laughed but would you ever take their advice on anything.
The Members Who Trust Me
You honestly don’t have to do anything with this. You did not ask for these people to trust you, they made the decision themselves. It’s up to you whether you choose to use this part of your WOT or not. How do I use it? At the moment I have over 100 people who trust my opinions. WOW. Why they are doing this is beyond me. Obviously they trust my opinions but geez! Maybe the had a few drinks just before they added me to their list. That’s the only explanation I can come up with. But if they say they trust my opinions, then I feel obligated to give it to them. I they trust the way I rate them, isn’t it only fair I go check out their work rate them fairly. I realize some have only added me because they think it will give them more hits. These are ones I try to ignore for the most part, visiting only occasionally, but those I feel genuinely trust my opinions because they like what I write receive regular, frequent visits from me. I will also include comments if I feel I can be of help or if I feel it was written well and informative.
These are your friends in High School, or just people who believe in you and would like to become your friend. These people trust your opinion and will come to you for advice, looking not only for a review of yours they can learn from but also advice on their own writing talents. Like I said in the beginning of this section. You honestly don’t have to do anything with this. You did not ask for these people to trust you, they made the decision themselves, but you won’t make new friends by shutting out those that you do not consider “perfect in everyway”. Give those that trust you a chance and go read a few of their reviews at least once a week.
In the case that you may be extremely popular and have hundreds, or almost a thousand people that trust you this may be hard and maybe you have decided to just give on those that are not in your own WOT. Give them another chance, make an attempt to go read at least one review of every person that trusts you. If you don’t your following may feel you don’t care about their voice, as big or little it may be, and then your following begin to dissipate. I have yet to find someone who has abuse their popularity in this way, but I know of many that feel like this has happened and I do feel that in the near future when reviewers begin to have a few thousand people who trust them this may start happening.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
sunstreeks
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Stephanie
Location: Western Washington
Reviews written: 161
Trusted by: 235 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.