Reputation manipulation

Reputation manipulation
: Smart Mobs sends us to RepCheck, a new venture to manage reputations; it “allows users to review, rate and search our database of people’s reputations for both business and social purposes.”

Now this is frightening.

Sounds like it has the potential to become systematized libel.

Imagine if all the Howard Stern haters trolling in the comments went in there and rated me (don’t get any ideas, guys!). Imagine what right-wingers could to do lefties and vice versa. Imagine what competitors could do. Imagine what former lovers could do.

Oh, it sounds cool. But this is another artificial — and scary — social network, one that can be used against people. What a sucky idea.

I was going to delve in and see what was there, but I’ll be damned if I’ll give them my personally identifiable information.

The truth is that the Internet is already a reputation management system for those who know how to use it.

And I find it amazing that the people behind this don’t put up their names and don’t put up their own “repscores.”