shanen's Journal: Public reputation and two sides

[From a discussion of an Android app.]

Or perhaps you prefer #PresidentTweety's "many sides"? Let me address both:

Two sides: Good versus non-good

Many sides: Good versus bad versus unknown

Now how does that apply to apps on Google Play? What unifies that application with discussions on Slashdot?

If people knew the reputation of the app, then good people would not choose to download or use apps with bad reputations. There are actually two obvious ways that this applies to Android apps. One is the personal reputation of the developers, and the other is the reputation of the financial model supporting the app. The financial model is easier to handle, and should be displayed on a "financial model" tab in the description of the app, which would include the google-side evaluation of the developer's description of the financial model. (In the app described in this article, the honest financial model would probably be something like "philanthropy of wealthy and reactionary conservatives to support propaganda campaigns".)

If people know the reputation of the authors of comments, then good people could choose not to read comments from people with bad reputations. This ties back to the personal reputation of the developers of an app.

People should have the freedom to decide. For example, some people might want to read comments from people with unknown reputations. I would not, but there are actually certain kinds of comments I might be willing to read from certain kinds of people with certain kinds of bad reputations. As things stand now, those freedoms of choice are being suppressed because the public reputations are ignored even though they are in theory right out there in public.

Time to close with one of my old jokes: Details available upon polite request. It shouldn't be a joke these days, but there was a time when the "collective mind" of Slashdot was not so narrow and closed. Long ago.

Many sides

[hackwrench]

You don't understand many sides. There is no pure good. There are only varying shades of grey. What we think of as white is merely a shade of grey. There can be no complete winners in any scenario.

Say what?

[BarbaraHudson]

Slashdot doesn't censor, so you can certainly read the opinions of those who are unpopular - just browse at -1.

As for apps, whatever happened to word of mouth? You try it, it sucks, you delete it and tell others. You try it, you like it, you keep it and tell others. Advertising and promotion don't create a good or bad reputation - they just increase the pool of people who are likely to try it. A sucky app is still going to be sucky even if you advertise the sh*t out of it.

If we had gone with reputation, t

Re:Say what? Ekronomics

[shanen]

Can't see anything clear enough to reply to and can't figure out what you didn't understand. If you asked nicely, I suppose I could attempt to explain.

Perhaps you should wonder why I removed it from the original context?

Re:

[BarbaraHudson]

Reputation is already available in the Google app store - users rate the apps all the time. I've given a few 1-star ratings (because no stars was not an option), along with why the app sucked. I've read plenty of other reviews that have done the same. The detailed explanations people leave for why they like or hate an app are far better than just the overall rating, which can be artificially inflated. I don't think we need anything more extensive than that, because let's face it, unlike comments in a thread