Tim wrote:
At 6:13 AM 9/4/95, Futplex wrote:
Deranged Mutant writes:
My worry is about abuse. One would prefer to save endorsements and find a way to remove thumbs-downs... also how to prevent one from overdoing a thumbs-up or -down certification for a person (either to inflate or de- flate a reputation).
A few nuisance lawsuits from people who were given thumbs-downs might do the trick, as with employment recommendations in the U.S. :[
A good point that deserves further comment. Employers have taken to _saying nothing_ about past employees, for fear of lawsuits by disgruntled job seekers. So much for free speech, courtesy of the American legal system.
As a somehow related note, my experience with some past jobs is that in some circumstances the employee turnover rate is high enough that a manager will give a neutral or good rating simply because they have no experience with a previous employee who clearly did not deserve a good rating. Something similar could happen with mailing lists... hardly anyone can remember when a 'newbie' posted to a list a few years ago, irregardless of whether a person is still worth a certain rating after a time. Then again, with a lot of material being archived, it might be easier in some circumstances to review a person's contributions to a list rather than rely on a rating... or maybe send a trusted rater to research an author on the 'net for you rather than maintain a huge database of ratings that will need some form of interpretation. Then again, (as Tim and others noted) there's alws killfiles and manual glossing over of threads, etc.
But as we can't changed the litigious nature of American society (and maybe European society--I don't know), the emphasis ought to be on digital systems and reputations by pseudonyms.
Litigating in a society of pseudonyms may have it's own problems anyway... (imagining suing a trusted friend of yours who prefers to give you much needed crticisms through a pseudonym so as to protect the friendship... on example off the top of my head)... How can a 'nym be held legally accountable as a non-'nym? -Rob