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swestrupI've been thinking on-and-off for some time about the possibility of setting up a discussion board with a scoring and reputation system for people in a local geographic area to talk about (and rate) things happening in that area.
The idea first came to me a while ago when I thought of perhaps setting up a site (tentatively called 'bad cop -- no donut') to let people anonymously report criminal (or other) infractions by local police. You see, the number of traffic violations I've seen by police in this city is enormous, and wouldn't mind bringing it to public attention, but getting on the bad side of the local police is possibly not the smartest idea I've ever had. Clearly there are other government agencies that one may wish to provide feedback on (such as the roadworks folks).
Then, just now, I was watching an episode of "Holmes on Homes' on HGTV and one of the themes of this show is that there are a (probably small percentage) of shyster contractors out there that rip people off to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars at a go. One of the victims even said 'there's just no way to find out about these guys'. So, why not have a way? It could be a site where folks could talk about their experiences (both good and bad) with various contractors and let you rate their workmanship, punctuality, price, etc, etc. Obviously this can be extended to other businesses such as Strip Clubs, Bars or Restaurants.
Now, these ideas sort-of go together in that they are both ways to form a new feedback channel in a community to discuss issues relating to the health of the community, and to allow it to deal with issues where there perhaps hasn't been enough information available, but they don't match exactly. I have a feeling that there is a more basic unifying idea here than I've uncovered so far.
What is clear is that there needs to be some sort of reputation management system associated with anything like this. One of the often criticised flaws of Amazon's book commenting system is that nothing stops someone from backstabbing a competitor by giving them false bad reviews or from boosting their own work with anonymous plaudits. Yet, in todays world (especially in the states) one may well want a system where the source of reviews are anonymized, in order to protect against frivolous libel lawsuits (something that I strongly expect a crooked contractor would not hesitate to try.) The obvious solution is to allow for nyms that accrue reputation, something like eBay's feedback system, but hopefully a bit better designed.
So, what should that design be? It seems to me that you have several things to deal with:
As for revunue model, all I can think of are:
The idea first came to me a while ago when I thought of perhaps setting up a site (tentatively called 'bad cop -- no donut') to let people anonymously report criminal (or other) infractions by local police. You see, the number of traffic violations I've seen by police in this city is enormous, and wouldn't mind bringing it to public attention, but getting on the bad side of the local police is possibly not the smartest idea I've ever had. Clearly there are other government agencies that one may wish to provide feedback on (such as the roadworks folks).
Then, just now, I was watching an episode of "Holmes on Homes' on HGTV and one of the themes of this show is that there are a (probably small percentage) of shyster contractors out there that rip people off to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars at a go. One of the victims even said 'there's just no way to find out about these guys'. So, why not have a way? It could be a site where folks could talk about their experiences (both good and bad) with various contractors and let you rate their workmanship, punctuality, price, etc, etc. Obviously this can be extended to other businesses such as Strip Clubs, Bars or Restaurants.
Now, these ideas sort-of go together in that they are both ways to form a new feedback channel in a community to discuss issues relating to the health of the community, and to allow it to deal with issues where there perhaps hasn't been enough information available, but they don't match exactly. I have a feeling that there is a more basic unifying idea here than I've uncovered so far.
What is clear is that there needs to be some sort of reputation management system associated with anything like this. One of the often criticised flaws of Amazon's book commenting system is that nothing stops someone from backstabbing a competitor by giving them false bad reviews or from boosting their own work with anonymous plaudits. Yet, in todays world (especially in the states) one may well want a system where the source of reviews are anonymized, in order to protect against frivolous libel lawsuits (something that I strongly expect a crooked contractor would not hesitate to try.) The obvious solution is to allow for nyms that accrue reputation, something like eBay's feedback system, but hopefully a bit better designed.
So, what should that design be? It seems to me that you have several things to deal with:
- Events change opinions. Someone might love contractor A, then have a problem and start hating them.
- People change with time. A 25 year-old probably doesn't have the same opinions they did at age 15.
- Some people are impossible to please
- Some folks are poor judges of workmanship, character, design, etc.
- Companies change as they are sold, hire new people, or the owner gets a clue.
- Someone may be rational about everything except for ONE particular business, or one aspect of all businesses.
- One (or a few) people may have many nyms that they use for mutual boosterism in the face of general scorn.
As for revunue model, all I can think of are:
- Sell advertising to top-rated companies, and reports of lowest-rated companies to anyone.
- Let someone be a paid user so as to gain extra priveledges (ie, be able to represent a company).
