eModeration introduces ReputationShare online reputations

Wouldn’t it be good if community managers could somehow detect what kind of person was registering on a community site? Whether s/he was a known troll or cyberbully, or had previously uploaded child abuse images onto another site – or on the other hand, as an excellent online reviewer, was going to be a real asset to the community?

If you know a bit about your community users’ previous history on other sites you may well change the way you treat them on yours. You may choose to pre- (rather than post-) moderate their contributions for a while. You may not grant them as many ‘strikes before they’re out’ as you would other users. You might even ‘gag’ them from the off, or reject their profile altogether. Conversely, if you know they have performed well elsewhere, you could reward those with good ‘online reputations’ by granting access to ‘VIP’ areas of your site or issuing them with discount vouchers.

What you choose to do is up to you. But we’re really excited to announce that, thanks to LOOKBOTHWAYS Inc’s new product ReputationShare, it will now be possible to offer community managers and publishers that choice.

ReputationShare, a new way to track and share the reputations of online community users, is being introduced to the UK and US markets by eModeration and their moderation technology partners Crisp. The adoption of ReputationShare technology is a significant step in increasing the protection of community users from abusers; for example people who persistently upload abusive or illegal content to websites, or commit online fraud. ReputationShare allows brands to tap into user reputation information in much the same way that credit reference information is shared, so users’ reputations will precede them from site to site.

Now for the science bit:

How does it work?
Everyone starts off with a score of 500. Whether that score then goes up or down depends on what moderation the user receives from sites participating in ReputationShare. Moderators working on sites using ReputationShare will be submitting their (encypted) information to ReputationShare as they work, and ReputationShare then assigns their actions a positive or negative score, based on category, severity and date. It’s important to note that users will only get a seriously reduced rating for specific, serious abuse of the rules of a website – for example, uploading offensive or abusive material onto a community designed for children, and that the service’s algorithms take into account the date and severity of the offence. Only in cases where an incident report is extreme, such as a report of sexual or grooming behaviour, would a single report dramatically damage a user’s online reputation. ReputationShare will be monitoring participating sites and will investigate any instances of mal-moderation. Users can see their score anytime at ReputationShare, and will have enough information to challenge a negative report at its source if they feel they need to.

What’s the unique identifier for each user?
Their email address (or addresses – users can add addresses or change the email addresses associated with their ReputationShare identity at any time by going to the ReputationShare.net website). The email addresses are encrypted by an algorithm so that no personally identifying information is held by ReputationShare.

Can Web users view their reputation information?
Yes. Any user can visit ReputationShare.net and enter their email address to see their score, their incident reports, the incident report number, the dates the reports were submitted, the event types (active and positive user, bullying, profanity, etc), whether the reports were positive or negative, see which service made the report and the service’s URL. (However, if the negative score originates from a user flag they cannot see which user made the report).

What’s the benefit to the community owner?
Quite simply, it will improve the community. Make it a safer, more pleasant environment to participate in. And this has obvious benefits to the site owner: a higher net promoter score, better customer retention, with customers more likely to pay subscription fees. It will provide a further level of knowledge about your site’s customers, and help to exploit the power of social media by making it easier to identity the brand ambassadors and community champions. Moderation costs may be reduced as users with a positive reputation do not need to be moderated as intensively as those with no history or a reduced reputation. It will promote good online behaviour by both carrot and stick approach: good users can be rewarded for being socially responsible, persistent offenders will find their online freedoms curtailed.

Who is behind ReputationShare?
LOOKBOTHWAYS Inc., a leading online safety technology and services provider, has developed ReputationShare. LOOKBOTHWAYS is headed up by Linda Criddle, a 13 year Microsoft veteran, pioneer in online safety technologies, and president of SAFE Internet Alliance. They have partnered with eModeration and Crisp to bring ReputationShare to communties who would really benefit from its use.

The adoption of ReputationShare demonstrates the online community’s commitment to safety and social responsibility. The strength is in the numbers, and we feel really strongly that this is a system that other moderation companies and brands should take up. If you’d like more information, please have a look at http://www.reputationshare.com/ or get in touch with tia@emoderation.com.