4/10/06

Transparency and Ownership

One of the things that's changing with the redesign is the ability to delete your stuff from RIA whenever you want.

We're adding a big "delete my account" option via the Profile Page which will remove all ratings, helpful votes, Weblists, messages, etc. This will be a permanent delete, and irreversible.

Part of it is that I think it's the right thing to do, part of it is because I think it will will help to build trust among our community, and part of it is that it's consistent with the vision for where I want to take the site.

We're also changing the TOS so that it's clear that those that contribute reviews and lists to RateItAll will be the owners of that content. And of course, we're going to continue to help our reviewers make money off of that content.

Not to get too much into the vision, but I want people to think of RIA as a place where they store their opinions, not give away their opinions.

We're also working on ways that will allow RIA reviewers to publish their stuff on other Web sites, once it's on RIA. You can already do that through RSS, but I'm hoping to make it more user friendly. (for example, i think it would be cool if you could easily add your weblists to your MySpace page, or to your blog).

3 comments:

  1. I'm impressed. Sounds honorable to add more of ownership sense to raters, and I'd think this would especially please anyone with Web space control issues.

    Speaking of Web spaces, adding Weblists to myspace.com could wind up being a great way to promote RateItAll.

    As for permanently deleting a whole acount at the press of a button, I fear some unfortunate consequences. Examples: angry spouse deletes a great contributor, an account infiltrator deletes their political enemy's account, or an impulsive, self-destructive, or hotheaded person tests button and quickly regrets it. For exception cases, maybe accounts should be restorable behind-the-scenes.

    Rock on,
    Andrew Scott

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  2. Wow, Andrew, I didn't even think about those implications when I read the posting, but I agree with you (specifically regarding the deletion of the account; maybe RIA can send an "Are you Sure?" e-mail to the user's address to confirm their wishes, at the risk of being annoyingly repetitive?).

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  3. Technically you have to click four buttons, including an "are you sure you want do this?" alert. And you have to scroll a bit.

    It's not going to happen by accident.

    If you're concerned that someone with access to your computer would go through that just to wipe you out on RIA, I would take very good care of your password :)

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