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I don’t want a score associated with my name, so I wouldn’t use your service. I wonder how many people would like to have an associated “trust” score; I mean if

I don’t want a score associated with my name, so I wouldn’t use your service. I wonder how many people would like to have an associated “trust” score; I mean if you are an average individual I imagine you would get an average score of, let’s say, 5 over 10... you’ll look ridiculously untrustworthy compared to someone who has a score of 9/10. At least in the real world you have a chance to prove that you could be as trustworthy as anyone; with a score that chance goes away.

mleonhard 6y ago
Second. I want a LinkedIn that respects its users. Sellff doesn't need to make a product that is much different from LinkedIn. 1. Let me make an online resume, publicly connect with past colleagues, and give and receive recommendations and skills endorsements. 2. Sell job postings. 3. Sell search tools for jobs & candidates. 4. Don't trick people into uploading their contacts. 5. Don't provide an Invite All feature. Require users to state the relationship type for every invitation sent. Allow me to opt-out of connections by type: acquaintance, family, friend, school, work,etc. 6. Respect my communication preferences. For example, don't rename the preferences and re-enable them every few years. 7. Don't break core product functionality. For example, don't remove the email archive button for a year. Use functional integration tests. 8. Provide discussion Groups with useful moderation tools. This would draw users to your site every day. Don't provide useless moderation tools and let all groups flood with spam. Recruiters must pay for every message they post to a Group. New feature idea: Allow groups to curate comprehensive FAQs. It could be like Quora & Stack Overflow for professional questions. This could grow to be a very popular and bring a lot of daily traffic.
- mooreds 6y ago
  > Allow me to opt-out of connections by type: acquaintance, family, friend, school, work,etc. I'd also love an 'age out' functionality. As far as LinkedIn shows, someone I work with at my current job shows up as the same strength of connection as a random person I chatted with once at a conference a decade ago. Time and number of interactions should play some role in the strength of connection as displayed in the UX (at least to me).
  - warkdarrior 6y ago
    > Recruiters must pay for every message they post to a Group. Slight adjustment: Recruiters must pay group members for every message they post to a Group.
- 4sellff 6y ago
  Thank you for your comments. We have similar thoughts it seems and both see the larger opportunity to provide value to professionals. Are you interested to discuss offline? Thx.
- thomasfromcdnjs 6y ago
  I've been on and off attempting to make a linked in competitor that is exactly this. Won't finish it anytime soon but might heat it up in a year or so.
  - mleonhard 6y ago
    I look forward to trying it out. :)
    - thomasfromcdnjs 6y ago
      I created https://jsonresume.org/ https://jsonresume.org/ I hope to leverage my influence there to start a linkedin competitor, and will set up a nice basic for having a more trusting/open relationship with the users around their data.
null0pointer 6y ago
Ironically I might be inclined to believe someone with too high a trust score is actually less trustworthy because they tried too hard to optimise for it.
- 4sellff 6y ago
  As designed, there is no direct way to influence the TRU Score in any meaningful way. A person could theoretically make 100's of trades every day and post dozens of messages, reviews, etc. This would have some impact on the TRU Score, but nothing significant over a time period of less than 6 - 12 months. As is true in the real world, when making decisions about the people to work with, we all use a variety of inputs. We would consider SELLFF to be successful if it helps you to discover and connect with trustworthy people who meet your criteria for the person/people you want to meet. From there, the decision is yours. Use the TRU Score as an additional data point in your decision making, not as the final determination. I would consider this to be accurate whether you are promoting/selling your services or if you are a buyer and looking to hire a service provider.
  - banana_giraffe 6y ago
    > As designed, there is no direct way to influence the TRU Score in any meaningful way If I cannot influence my TRU Score, then it's not really a reflection of anything about me, is it? The screenshots I've seen of your site suggest you give this score the most prominent position on info cards about people. This suggests to me you are designing the site to let people use this information first and foremost in making decisions.
    - 4sellff 6y ago
      Allow me to be more clear on my original response. When I used the word "influence" I should have instead stated "manipulate." I believe honesty and integrity is what people care about in a score or rating system. So, there is no direct way for a member to "manipulate" the TRU Score: - Your activities on the site contribute to your TRU Score - The community reaction to your activities will contribute to your TRU Score - If a member invests the time to develop their profile and is active on the site, those activties [if viewed positively by the community] will contribute to an increased value for the TRU Score I believe this is a fair, appropriate and transparent way to derive a score. My belief is that our members will not only rely on the TRU Score in making decisions. Instead, they will also review other parts of the member profile. In the same way you might look at a Yelp or Amazon review. Guessing that you do not make decisions based solely on the star ratings when buying a product or choosing a service. But that you might also read some of the reviews and look at images of the product/service. Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts.
4sellff 6y ago
Valid point and I understand the concern. However [at least in the USA] we are all scored in many different ways. This includes: credit scores, insurance scores, criminal scores, employer/employee scores, education scores, etc. Yes, these examples are private and only visible to certain people [unless hacked]. Whereas the SELLFF TRU Score is public and visible to everyone. We have been transparent about how the value is determined and what it means. It is an indicator of trust and reputation, not an absolute value. For many of the reasons you stated, we chose a much larger range of values. So, instead of 1-10 or 1-100, we selected 100 - 1,000 with a starting value of 400. In anything we do, there is the starting point from which you determine if adjustments are needed. If the TRU Score is deemed to be in error or unfair or inaccurate, we will make the needed changes. It is also worth noting that people who are selling services and trying to reach new customers are looking for new/better ways to connect. It is our belief that SELLFF can become an additional, valuable option for these providers. Instead of having a reliance on the mega platforms that might have already lost out trust.
- 29athrowaway 6y ago
  Those scores almost without exception come from authoratative sources, not crowdsourcing. If you crowdsource reputation, people will be able to buy it.
  - 4sellff 6y ago
    Thank you for your comment. Would you prefer to be rated by an authoritative source using inputs that are closed and unknown? Or, would you rather have your peers provide a rating in an open and transparent manner? [I think] Crowdsourced opinions are an excellent way to make informed decisions about products/services. A great example is using Amazon.com for competing products: Product A: 5.0 star rating | 32 reviews Product B: 4.5 star rating | 5,264 reviews Which product would you weigh more heavily when making a buying decision? Keep in mind that SELLFF is positioned as a Professional Network. Any response or feedback will be relative to you, in a professional capacity. This might include the quality of the service you provide, your communication skills, did you finish the job on time, etc. Also, any reputation you earn as a seller works in your benefit when you consult with others as a buyer. People want to work with other people who they have confidence in. This is true on Uber,Lyft and AirBnB, where both parties "rate" each other. I think a digital reputation is a vital part of a healthy marketplace.

mleonhard 6y ago

Second. I want a LinkedIn that respects its users. Sellff doesn't need to make a product that is much different from LinkedIn. 1. Let me make an online resume, publicly connect with past colleagues, and give and receive recommendations and skills endorsements. 2. Sell job postings. 3. Sell search tools for jobs & candidates. 4. Don't trick people into uploading their contacts. 5. Don't provide an Invite All feature. Require users to state the relationship type for every invitation sent. Allow me to opt-out of connections by type: acquaintance, family, friend, school, work,etc. 6. Respect my communication preferences. For example, don't rename the preferences and re-enable them every few years. 7. Don't break core product functionality. For example, don't remove the email archive button for a year. Use functional integration tests. 8. Provide discussion Groups with useful moderation tools. This would draw users to your site every day. Don't provide useless moderation tools and let all groups flood with spam. Recruiters must pay for every message they post to a Group. New feature idea: Allow groups to curate comprehensive FAQs. It could be like Quora & Stack Overflow for professional questions. This could grow to be a very popular and bring a lot of daily traffic.

mooreds 6y ago
> Allow me to opt-out of connections by type: acquaintance, family, friend, school, work,etc. I'd also love an 'age out' functionality. As far as LinkedIn shows, someone I work with at my current job shows up as the same strength of connection as a random person I chatted with once at a conference a decade ago. Time and number of interactions should play some role in the strength of connection as displayed in the UX (at least to me).
- warkdarrior 6y ago
  > Recruiters must pay for every message they post to a Group. Slight adjustment: Recruiters must pay group members for every message they post to a Group.
4sellff 6y ago
Thank you for your comments. We have similar thoughts it seems and both see the larger opportunity to provide value to professionals. Are you interested to discuss offline? Thx.
thomasfromcdnjs 6y ago
I've been on and off attempting to make a linked in competitor that is exactly this. Won't finish it anytime soon but might heat it up in a year or so.
- mleonhard 6y ago
  I look forward to trying it out. :)
  - thomasfromcdnjs 6y ago
    I created https://jsonresume.org/ https://jsonresume.org/ I hope to leverage my influence there to start a linkedin competitor, and will set up a nice basic for having a more trusting/open relationship with the users around their data.

null0pointer 6y ago

Ironically I might be inclined to believe someone with too high a trust score is actually less trustworthy because they tried too hard to optimise for it.

4sellff 6y ago
As designed, there is no direct way to influence the TRU Score in any meaningful way. A person could theoretically make 100's of trades every day and post dozens of messages, reviews, etc. This would have some impact on the TRU Score, but nothing significant over a time period of less than 6 - 12 months. As is true in the real world, when making decisions about the people to work with, we all use a variety of inputs. We would consider SELLFF to be successful if it helps you to discover and connect with trustworthy people who meet your criteria for the person/people you want to meet. From there, the decision is yours. Use the TRU Score as an additional data point in your decision making, not as the final determination. I would consider this to be accurate whether you are promoting/selling your services or if you are a buyer and looking to hire a service provider.
- banana_giraffe 6y ago
  > As designed, there is no direct way to influence the TRU Score in any meaningful way If I cannot influence my TRU Score, then it's not really a reflection of anything about me, is it? The screenshots I've seen of your site suggest you give this score the most prominent position on info cards about people. This suggests to me you are designing the site to let people use this information first and foremost in making decisions.
  - 4sellff 6y ago
    Allow me to be more clear on my original response. When I used the word "influence" I should have instead stated "manipulate." I believe honesty and integrity is what people care about in a score or rating system. So, there is no direct way for a member to "manipulate" the TRU Score: - Your activities on the site contribute to your TRU Score - The community reaction to your activities will contribute to your TRU Score - If a member invests the time to develop their profile and is active on the site, those activties [if viewed positively by the community] will contribute to an increased value for the TRU Score I believe this is a fair, appropriate and transparent way to derive a score. My belief is that our members will not only rely on the TRU Score in making decisions. Instead, they will also review other parts of the member profile. In the same way you might look at a Yelp or Amazon review. Guessing that you do not make decisions based solely on the star ratings when buying a product or choosing a service. But that you might also read some of the reviews and look at images of the product/service. Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts.

4sellff 6y ago

Valid point and I understand the concern. However [at least in the USA] we are all scored in many different ways. This includes: credit scores, insurance scores, criminal scores, employer/employee scores, education scores, etc. Yes, these examples are private and only visible to certain people [unless hacked]. Whereas the SELLFF TRU Score is public and visible to everyone. We have been transparent about how the value is determined and what it means. It is an indicator of trust and reputation, not an absolute value. For many of the reasons you stated, we chose a much larger range of values. So, instead of 1-10 or 1-100, we selected 100 - 1,000 with a starting value of 400. In anything we do, there is the starting point from which you determine if adjustments are needed. If the TRU Score is deemed to be in error or unfair or inaccurate, we will make the needed changes. It is also worth noting that people who are selling services and trying to reach new customers are looking for new/better ways to connect. It is our belief that SELLFF can become an additional, valuable option for these providers. Instead of having a reliance on the mega platforms that might have already lost out trust.

29athrowaway 6y ago
Those scores almost without exception come from authoratative sources, not crowdsourcing. If you crowdsource reputation, people will be able to buy it.
- 4sellff 6y ago
  Thank you for your comment. Would you prefer to be rated by an authoritative source using inputs that are closed and unknown? Or, would you rather have your peers provide a rating in an open and transparent manner? [I think] Crowdsourced opinions are an excellent way to make informed decisions about products/services. A great example is using Amazon.com for competing products: Product A: 5.0 star rating | 32 reviews Product B: 4.5 star rating | 5,264 reviews Which product would you weigh more heavily when making a buying decision? Keep in mind that SELLFF is positioned as a Professional Network. Any response or feedback will be relative to you, in a professional capacity. This might include the quality of the service you provide, your communication skills, did you finish the job on time, etc. Also, any reputation you earn as a seller works in your benefit when you consult with others as a buyer. People want to work with other people who they have confidence in. This is true on Uber,Lyft and AirBnB, where both parties "rate" each other. I think a digital reputation is a vital part of a healthy marketplace.