From: Blanc Weber <blancw@microsoft.com>
Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 09:46:50 +0800
To: "'cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: RE: self-ratings vs. market ratings
Message-ID: <c=US%a=_%p=msft%l=RED-81-MSG-960508194708Z-15104@tide21.microsoft.com>
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>From: 	Vladimir Z. Nuri (in response to Tim May)
>
>hmmmmmmmm, I seem to recall earlier letters in which you advocated 
>a market-type rating system in which services could rate things,
>in the way that stocks are now rated, doctors/lawyers
>could be rated, etc.-- let a thousand ratings services bloom.
>(or maybe we were talking about reputations. in my mind, they are
>mostly interchangeable--hence my interest in "rating" systems).
.....................................................................

In consideration of the difference between "ratings" and "reputation":

I think of a rating as something which is attached to something
"pre-knowledge", whereas a reputation is something which develops over
time & based upon informed knowledge ("after-knowledge").

A rating is applied to something (a service or whatever) by only those
few individuals who are acquainted with what they are rating.

A reputation is accumulated by the impressions made upon larger numbers
of individuals - a general population not necessarily employed to
collect these impressions - but who have nevertheless sufficient
exposure to and acquaintanceship with the person/service/etc. to make an
informed conclusion about it.  

A rating can make a statement on what something "is" or is expected to
be (eg, general in content vs explicitly sexual), where a reputation
reflects on past behavior.

    ..
Blanc