Community 101- The Good, The Bad, and The Unethical

Thanks to Anne and Jessica for inspiring today's topic. Anne asked what I thought about online reviewers who get paid to write favorable reviews.

I have one simple response: "that is not fair!" Okay, I know it sounds like a third grade response-- sometimes it just feels good-- so let me try again. 10 seconds goes by. 30 seconds goes by... Okay, it still isn't fair.

Here is the bottom line for me. While it angers me, I think it is a fact of life. Isn't every community in which we live and work made up of all kinds of people? Some good. Some stellar. Some kind. Some all-giving. Some self-centered. Some rude. Some unethical. Some downright shady? I say-- a resounding YES. (and having managed an HR department before, I can tell you that with absolute certainty) So, am I surprised that a handful of online reviewers have been paid by service providers or manufacturers to post favorable reviews? No, not in the least. But you can safely assume that I am disheartened.

What are other sites doing to manage this problem?

A select few sites are linking reviews with a purchase. This means, that you can only write a review if you have purchased the product or service on the site. While this is a great way to authenticate that the person really bought it, it can limit your review content. For example, what if you bought it as a gift but never really used it yourself? What if you own it but bought it someplace else? What if someone else bought it for you as a gift? In their cases, they say-- "Sorry, your feedback isn't welcome here."

So, how will http://www.viewpoints.com/ stop people from contributing "false" reviews in an attempt to create hype around a product or service? Here's my top 5 picks for dealing with the issue.

1. We will be honest with ourselves. We have to recognize that we can't solve the problem 100%. We are working with real people, in a real community. There are always going to be those sneaky few that find a work around and post their false content freely.

2. We won't over police. You can't let the few bad apples spoil it for everyone else. As a former colleague used to say to me, don't let a few bad seeds force you to create policy that penalizes the rest of the community. We need to trust our community and trust that they will be able to figure out which reviews pass the "sniff" test.

3. We will make it easy to tell the truth. We should openly allow people to comment on a review and tell others if they are affiliated with a product or service being reviewed. By limiting an owner or managers ability to contribute content, you often create a need to falsify information or a desire to hire someone to give a good rating. To be honest, often times, it is helpful to get an insiders view, you just want to know where it is coming from.

4. Personal profiles will be at the heart of the site. Like many sites, we will be asking our contributors to provide helpful information about themselves. This will allow readers to put the reviews in context. Hopefully by having contributors reveal information about themselves, they will feel more obligated to be honest and will feel some obligation to the community.

5. Rely on your community and the reputation system to self-police. As Jessica said in her post last night, "I imagine we can expect to see plenty of shill reviews by PR people once Viewpoints is well known, but a high profile member would effectively trash their reputation if they did the same. As huge as the Internet is, news travels instantly. An untrustworthy reviewer would have a hard time coming out from under that stigma. Hopefully, that is a big enough deterrent..." I couldn't agree more.

We will also employ some small tactics to deal with the issue-- such as allowing people to flag reviews, authenticating emails, etc. However, I can't pretend to have all the answers. This is a great topic and one that I am sure many consumer oriented sites are struggling with. I personally commit to thoughtfully evaluating all of the options available. If anyone has suggestions on how we manage this, I would definitely welcome them! But-- (here is where I impart my wisdom-- or lack thereof), remember that we aren't out to over police! We are a community based on trust...