Bad company, till the day I die

[S.Vashti]

I've always known that rep systems in forum were fraught with danger, but in ways I was not about to articulate. It's the reason I stopped visiting RnR, actually, because you could give negative reps to others, and I saw it repeatedly abused, at least from my point of view.

Here is a blog about reputation systems on the internet, and in particular, the dangers of being able to negatively rep others in a game/forum.

[MonCapitan2002]

I don't have to read it to consider it a very bad idea. It is far too prone to abuse and should be disabled whenever possible.

[Adam]

It didn't take long for a group calling itself the Sims Mafia to figure out how to use this mechanic to shake down new users when they arrived in the game. The dialog would go something like this:

"Hi! I see from your hub that you're new to the area. Give me all your Simoleans or my friends and I will make it impossible to rent a house.”

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm a member of the Sims Mafia, and we will all mark you as untrustworthy, turning your hub solid red (with no more room for green), and no one will play with you. You have five minutes to comply. If you think I'm kidding, look at your hub-three of us have already marked you red. Don't worry, we'll turn it green when you pay…"

OK, that is fucking inspired.

[Qingdai]

It's the invisible hand of the market! Mafia style.

[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by Adam

OK, that is fucking inspired.

I would just like to point out that Internet Congress created, in addition to Internet criminal penalties, an Internet civil remedy for Internet misconduct of this kind with the Internet RICO Act. 18 W.W.W.C. § 1964 allows Internet plaintiffs to bring Internet suit for damages in Internet district courts (in this case, the Sims Online District Court).

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Qingdai

It's the invisible hand of the market! Mafia style.

Yeah....