Some background on who is who

RateItAll was founded in 1999 by four friends from grad school - Lawrence (me) (aka Magellan), Rob (aka Wiggum), Craig (aka Shafty), and Brad (aka Ruby). We had all been roomates at business school at Emory University in Atlanta. I am the only one of the original founder who is currently on board full time.

My guess is that most of those who read this blog already knew, or at least suspected, that I was Magellan. So now it's official.

So let me give you a little background on how and why things are set up the way they are.

I currently have four RIA handles - Magellan, RIA Administrator, Lawrence, and Weblister. The RIA Administrator account was set up to speak for the site and to enforce site rules, the Lawrence account was set up as a link for new members into the RateItAll trusted network system, and the Weblister account houses orphaned Weblists.

I've been feeling increasingly uncomfortable with this arrangement, primarily because it is a violation of site rules to operate more than one account (as pointed out in this pleasant comment.)

But because I have two distinct roles on the site - as a site member (Magellan), and as an enforcer of the site rules (RIA Administrator), I do think it's necessary to maintain two distinct identities. In other words, Magellan's views do not reflect the views of RateItAll the business, and vice versa.

I think the other two accounts should go away. RIA Administrator and Lawrence will be merged, and the Weblister account will be shut down. More on this to follow.