-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Reputation capital is becoming increasingly important in the online community. A key problem facing new entrants to cyberspace, as well as the people who deal with them, is how much capital these new entrants can be said to posess. A typical solution proposed might be described as "Bayesian", whereby new entrants to the community are assigned a quantity of reputation capital that reflects the expectation value of their future reputation capital. This is unsatisfactory, because, like all Bayesian statistical methods, it ultimately relies on the very fallible judgment of the entities who make such assignments (or that of the implementors of the automated agents which make such assignments). It is clear that an effective measure of the initial reputation capital of new entrants to the online community is greatly to be desired. It is felt by the author that anti-Bayesian methods, methods that make no *a priori* assumptions about the reputations of new entrants, show great promise as means for achieving this result. The pioneering work of Parry et al. in the use of test messages to inspire rapid responses from a community's new entrants. This method, which Parry and his colleagues name in their typically colloquial style as "trolling for newbies", is described in detail in a review article by Suter (1994). In this article the author proposes the use of Parry test messages and the responses generated thereby as a means of rapidly establishing initial reputation capital for an online community's new entrants. By evaluating new entrants' responses to the test messages, messages which can be carefully designed to virtually guarantee that a useful response will be elicited. These responses can be reviewed by individuals or tabulated and evaluated by software agents to estimate the new entrants' most likely reputation capital without resorting to arbitrary assignment of an initial value. Established members of a community may use existing filtering agents to eliminate Parry test messages and the responses thereto from their own datastreams; or they may elect to allow these messages through and review the Parry tests and resulting responses themselves. There are indications in the literature that other researchers are at work on this technology. For example, messages that resemble Parry test messages have appeared recently which contain coding very similar to work of May's (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996) that have generated responses that are ideally suited for reputation capital establishment from new community members. This fertile field for study holds significant promise, and the author welcomes further developments from any who chooses to work here. - -- Alan Bostick | "Dole is so unpopular, he couldn't sell beer on mailto:abostick@netcom.com | a troop ship." (Ohio Republican Senator William news:alt.grelb | Saxbe on Bob Dole's early career in the Senate) http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~abostick http://www.theangle.com/ The first site with a brain. Yours. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQB1AwUBMneUvuVevBgtmhnpAQEE4wL+PnPHAIjYv77ad3xDYUM/WMFMqGubduyH vs5veTK0BlqdFSChvponVpXGmP9fHXBnTVxlipj8To12DfFgFzYy1gqkQ0NgUrud UHygCOU503ZIx2u5FpifLY95VR0u5HqG =EU+x -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----