Re: Reputations

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 1:11 AM 9/6/96, Greg Burk wrote:

>> I strongly disagree. It's quite possible for Person A to quickly convert
>> his reputation to Person B to a _negative_ value. Real quick, in fact.
>
>I don't see how there can be such a thing as negative reputation
>capital. Wouldn't that mean B believes the opposite of what A says? If
>you anti-believed someone in a consistent manner, couldn't they exploit
>that?

Well, I suppose that if you don't believe in negative repuation capital,
I'm not going to be able to spend enough time to convince you. It's like
someone saying they're not sure such a thing as "entropy" exists.


>For instance, when a certain infamously-low-reputation (deservedly so)
>individual recently joined the cypherpunk lists, others who had endured
>him in the past tried to relay their impressions of him. It proved very
>difficult to convey, and they were somewhat attacked for their efforts
>and not entirely believed.
>
>In other words, he *could not* spend down to 0, despite years of
>unflagging effort.

No, with many of the list members, his reputation was in fact negative.
They disbelieved nearly anything he had to say, and his approval of some
idea was largely cause for others to take the opposite tack. About as clear
an example of a negative reputation as one can find. (Note that I am not
saying his reputation is negative with _me_.)



>I've already made the points I wanted to make, so I may not have further
>comments.

Nor me.

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."