Could business verification be useful?

This has been on my mind for a while. Like anyone else in-world I think it would be nice to see the 'reliable' businesses in SL. The people who work hard every day to bring you things that you use/wear on a regular basis and aren't trying to cheat you for a few crummy $L's.

I think it would be extremely helpful to add something in-world where you register your business (only to one person, most likely the owner). Then you can set your registered business to where ever your business resides, so that the visitors can easily view it.

Then when your customers come to buy your stuff or hang out, they have the option to give you a 'verification point' which basically means your stuff is legit and that they recommend you to other customers.

However, to help with people making alts and voting for themselves.. you restrict an avatar to vote only once per verified business. Plus, make this voting free.. since actually paying to vote would discourage people from voting.

You could set up the verified businesses to specific categories (apparel, casino, autos, whatever). Plus, make it so that no scripts can alter your points. (ie. you camp here-- I'll give you $10 you give me 1 point - through automation.)

--I know this seems like our great and outdated personal points system. However, those points really don't mean anything anymore.

--I know that you could be able to do this to groups, if implemented. However, it seems that groups but most groups don't actually solidify a business, most of them are a bunch of people that hang out or are working towards a cause (non-business)

--I know that this puts us long term businesses at a disadvantage if started now, because of our loyal years in SL don't matter. However, with our loyal customers voting... things will sort themselves out.

--I know there are 3rd party sites/businesses that already do this, but do you think the average- to- new avatars know about these sites? Plus, doing it in-world would be so much easier.

All in all, this is mainly just an idea. I know there are bugs and a lot of brainstorming to sort this out. Plus, this probably has been suggested 100 times over (too lazy to read ALL the forum posts).

However, with implementation and people actually using it, it could become a way to show people that it's safe to buy stuff /hang out / generally, spend money at your business.

Sorry for the novel.

I'm not sure about businesses, but currently we have PayPal verification, but PayPal accounts can be made more credible by verifying them (attaching them to a bank-account via direct-debit ENSURING they can pay up on demand). This is better than regular PayPal as it verifies a user even further and means they can definitely be held accountable. It would be interesting to know if PayPal have ever considered working with games to make it possible to 'fine' someone via PayPal, that would be invaluable in SL...if they canned free unverified account creation again.

But yeah, you see it on eBay, and it makes sellers just that much more credible. This would be good in SL, as a lot of 'businesses' in SL are just regular people without registered real-world businesses.

I totally agree with Rughster that there should a registration format so we know the business is legit. In addition, I would like to see a poll on whether to stop the influx of corporate brands into SL. I was dismayed to see a KFC (yuk!) bucket in SL. Once the corporations get a foothold, the SL experience will completely change, and not for the better.