A Consumer Watchdog in Second Life?

Last night I was thinking of the things that could benefit the expanding world of Second Life and it's many creations, aswell as advise against the 'Not-so-good' creations in Second Life.

I was then inspired by the RATE group of Second Life (No longer in circulation) and the Consumer Watchdog in 'Real Life'.

So here is my idea:

I would like to set up a Watchdog group in Second Life, which will be a none-profit group designed to help the growing world of Second Life by providing a list of Approved Locations, Events and Objects.

The Locations, Events and Objects will all need to pass every qualification [Set by myself with advice from others] to be listed in the directory and recieve a membership invite, and a texture/object to place on/near the Location, Event or Object.

The group contributors should be as unbiased as possible and will explore any posibilities of Locations, Events and Objects that is presented to us.

I would like to know what you think to this idea? Do you think it will benefit the community of Second Life? Do you have any advice or Locations, Events and Objects you think would qualify for the Watchdog Approved List? Or do you think you could contribute to the group by finding Objects, Events and Locations that would pass the guidelines set by myself?

Read the notecards babe! looks like a good idea <3

I like this idea, any list that would have approved locations, events and objects wuld be great.

Thanks for the link ReallyRick!

great idea David. i look forward to seeing it

Thanks for the positive feedback..

Bump.

what is your process going to be for submissions, review, and publish?

and how to people access the list?

There is one problem with this.

Who the hell are you?



I am not trying to insult you but why in the hell should anyone trust your judgment alone?

Credibility and the ability to appear that you aren't playing favorites will be a major issue with anything like this. The only way something like this will work is if it is completely open. The person “creating” this should only be creating a website and a format for this, not deciding on who or what. We need an eBay like feedback system with ratings. It should be open to any and all businesses. An approved list sounds like a black list and smells like favoritism. I would think a Tringo park has no value, but to someone that loves Tringo, they might rank it high because it is entertaining to them. The format needs to be open and the community should decide not individuals.

I am offering a viewpoint of an average player who's been a consumer for a year and a half. I've found the guidelines I've set to be pretty easy to meet with any good business product or plan..And let me end by asking who the hell you are to take judgement over anything I or anyone else does? Just because I am not a 'Household' name means I can not offer advice or an Approved list of people who's creations I believe should be spread to the world at large?

Actually, I agree with what Eboni is trying to say, David.

The question is about credibility. You need a user base that is both broad and relatively unbiased.

Nobody is discounting your experience. But one person going around and rating business means virtually nothing. Setting aside the quesition of bias, there are just too many businesses for you to rate.

The best system I can think of would be an Ebay style rating system. I'd suggest setting up a web-based database and allowing anybody to create ratings, perhaps after a verification process.

If someone appears to be griefing the system, then you could delete that user and their associated ratings easily enough.

A system like this will only work with a large base of contributing users. Limiting it to one individual or even a small group means nothing in the long run.

I would love to see something like this happen. Go for it!

I would be happy to help out.

Something like this will develop with time, right now I'm trying to get together a list of business' who do have good business practices to start something like this off in the future..The only way I will know however is if a person suggests a company, questioning a persons credibility is not a great way of advancing..Doesn't everyone deserve a chance just because they are not a 'House hold' name?

David, what are a few things you dislike in SL?

What sorts of people?

What sorts of product?

What sorts of places?

So it would be a type of SL BBB? Or closer to an SL version of Consumer Reports?

Pretty much Mike, I'd like to..If the call is needed to, produce a website with an 'Ebay vote system' as people have suggested, but have a report section to it too display the good points..And [Hopefully not too many] bad points to a particular business practice.

David, what's to keep a group of people from negging a business just for the hell of it?

To the first question, I dislike very few things in SL apart from what I am sure everyone can relate to: People being rude, people selling objects that were originally for free to make a profit and people Griefing/Not providing a good service to the customers that spend money on their product.

To the second question, I like all sorts of people..This will not be judged on a person, but on a holistic view of the business they are running... Equal oppertunities for everyone!

To the third question, whatever is presented will be checked out and a report on it will be made (Which may/may not be displayed.)

To the final question, all places are considered and judge the same way.

Michi, I have produced a set of guidelines based on the RL Consumer Watchdog, and advice from the Lindens..ALL of the Objects/ Events/ Places will be judged on these guidelines..If someone has a complaint then that is their opinion and I will try to listen..However if it is an unjust complaint and people are just pissy..What do you think would be a good way of going about telling them?

I don't know, David. What is to keep 1000 W-Hats/SA goons from rating Luskwood negatively simply because we sell furry avs? Would you consider these 'legitimate' complaints? This is something I really do have to worry about, because it's likely to occur.

hmm, ok, so it would be close to the BBB setup then from the way it looks. Would also be nice to have a complaint/resolution config too like the BBB to see how a particular business is at handling customer disputes which can sometimes break a company. I am going to bore you with a tiny but funny (to me) story:

My last job, we were a member of the local BBB. One day, the rep from the BBB got fed up with trying to contact the owner of the company to work out a customer dispute (my old boss was horrible at contacing people). This BBB rep pops in, rips the BBB membership sign off the wall and storms out. That was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I guess you had to be there. We still weren't back to good relations with the local BBB when I left that company.

Sorry , but this thread poped up an old memory lol

Unfortunatly, it's a 99.9% garuntee it's going to occur, however when it does..I will take measures to remove those votes [I pressume you mean on the website] and will do all I can to stop them from voting again.

Heh, they did it just for the heck of it against individuals when we had the normal +/- rate system.

OK Mike, does that neccessarily mean that the complaint was valid, or that your boss is just bad with getting back to people?