notes
fusing public and gossip reputation on ebay
21 october 2003
Both public and gossip reputation systems have a place and role in ecommerce, and they are compatible with each other. Ebay's system, while promoting trust in the use of their markets, fails to reveal negative reputation information to potential consumers. The solution may be to embed a gossip reputation system within the existing public reputation system, which is still useful because it promotes trust in the community. Consider the following design.
User X wants to buy something from User Y. User X can read the public reputation infomation on User Y, but suspects there is more negative experience not being reported. User X broadcasts a request for information to all the other users who have dealt with User Y and have privately recorded negative feedback they chose not to publish. User Z's personal agent responds because User Z has had previous dealings with User X and trusts User X to not tattle-tale. On the basis of this trust, User Z's agent releases private feedback to User X, either signed, or anonymously. Included is User Z's own reputation. In this way, users can provide negative feedback to warn other potential buyers without fear of retribution. In fact, these users can still publicly come out as being positive on someone and enjoy the usual benefits of the public reputation system. User Z has motivation to release private reputation information to User X because there is a reciprocal agreement between the two users to share private information.