Reader Responce #2

Throughout the book, Rheingold talks much about reputation systems. Reputations require a number of characteristics in order to function. EBay is one major reputation system that is currently on internet today. It was created by a man named Pierre Omidyar in 1995, for his wife to trade Pez Dispensers. Some people choose to use their real names and others pseudonymous, but either way the buys and sellers of EBay should be long-lived, so future interaction can be created if needed. Also, feedback must also be available for future interactions. Lastly, people must pay attention to the reputation rating to make their decisions about the products. All three of these three characteristics are what make EBay as popular and trustable as it is today.
“Reputation, like surveillance, may induce people to police themselves” (p.126). Why eBay works so well as a Reputation system, I believe, is in most part because of the feedback characteristic. I have used eBay many times even throughout the last year. The first thing that I go to when I find an item, is look at the persons past feedback. This allows you to see how reliable the person is as a seller, and how well they interacted with people in past purchases. I know that at first I was very unsure about reputation systems, such as eBay, for a good reason in fact. When I was in high school I hadn’t been on eBay too much or known much about it. One guy in my grade was caught for fraud on eBay and robbed thousands of dollars from people on the site. After hearing about that It was hard for me to trust the internet after seeing how easily someone can be scammed by it.
After reading more in dept about eBay and reputation systems is easy to see that yeah Fraud can happen, but that can happen just as much and even more, out in the real world. “Only 27 out of 2 million auctions over a four-month period were considered to involve possible criminal fraud.” “Retailers have a much higher rate of shoplifting than the fraud that eBay runs into” (p.124). Honest sellers build up good reputation scores from interactions and feedback, enabling buyers to become more trusting and reliable. Learning about reputation systems through Rheingold has opened my eyes, to how policed and trusting most can be, and as long as you’re careful the internet is a good way to communicate and socially interact.