Re: Internet Credibility and Impact

["Bill Thebert" <bthebert@domain.elided>]

If y'all aren't sick of this topic already, let's take it one step further.
 I'd like to toss out for comment an experience I've had and an unfortunate
decision I felt forced to make, and see if there are not alternatives that
I've overlooked.

Background:
------------------
I had developed what I thought was a pretty nifty "feedback facility" to
augment the vendor list on the Binder Bulletin web site.  It was a place
for folks to post experiences (both positive and negative) that they've had
with the various listed vendors.  I felt the vendor list would be more
useful to a newcomer to our community if one could see "customer service
patterns" associated with the various vendors.

If "Vendor X", for example, charges your credit card for a product on the
day that you phone, and then doesn't ship for 30 days -- this is a valuable
experience to share with your IH-loving fellows.  Likewise, if "Vendor Y"
consistently goes above & beyond the call of duty,  dispenses free advice
readily, and always ships the correct parts promptly -- this too is
noteworthy & deserving of being shared.

Business can be directed to those vendors exhibiting consistently high
standards of customer service (thereby rewarding good business practices),
and vendors with less-than-stellar track records might be motivated to
improve their customer service practices.  Seemed like a perfect Win-Win to
me. 

Problem Scenario:
---------------------------
John Doe (with no e-mail address) posts some negative feedback about
"Vendor Z".  Said vendor cannot locate Mr. Doe in his customer database,
and feels that the comments can neither be verified, nor can the situation
be corrected -- as Mr. Doe has left no way to be contacted.  Vendor feels
that the comments are libelous and false.  I as WebMaster am left in a
position of having to decide among:

1) removing a comment that *may* be perfectly valid
2) allowing a comment to remain on my site that may be false and injurious 
   to a vendor's business
3) more or less having to "adjudicate" the truth of these conflicting
claims.

I elected to shut down the entire feedback facility, since maintenance and
administration became way more of a nightmare than I thought I "signed up
for" when I created it.

If I allow an unverified comment to remain on my site, am I tacitly
"endorsing" it and lending it additional credibility?

The vendor in question is perfectly free to post the "rest of the story",
if there is another side of the issue that deserves to be heard.  Is this
sufficient?

How can I offer a forum for such a collection of vendor feedback -- WITHOUT
feeling responsible for "refereeing" or "judging" the veracity of each
posted comment?

I rather expected that experienced web surfers would read Mr. Doe's
comment(s), judge for themselves his language / tone / grammar / argument,
and decide for themselves how much credence to place on Mr. Doe's expressed
opinion.  Perhaps he doesn't come across as the reasonable sort, for
example.

I was unwilling to delete a negative comment just because the vendor
objected to it's presence.  It's not my purpose to "blow sunshine . . .",
and only post feedback if it's positive.  The entire facility becomes
meaningless in this case. 

I was willing to eliminate the entire feedback facility for a given vendor
(at that vendor's request), but this conspicuously "singles them out" as
being unwilling to expose themselves to public feedback, and certainly
doesn't reflect well.  I could likewise remove a vendor from the list
altogether -- and place a vendor on the list ONLY if they agreed to accept
public feedback.

I've rambled on long enough here -- but the issue I think is clear:  am I
"responsible" for the CONTENT of a forum that I provide and make available?
 Does Richard feel responsible for the CONTENT of the speech that passes
through the Digest?  Are there simple "rules" that I can make and enforce
that will make the process more fair and "self-moderating"? (e.g., no
comments posted without REAL name, e-mail address & phone number of the
poster).

I would like to provide a forum for vendor feedback that is both credible,
and FAIR to all participants.  I don't want one business to be able to
sabotage the reputation of one of its competitors, and make me in the
process an unwitting accomplice in libel.  It's a sad thing that I felt I
had to pull the plug on what could have been a useful facility.  But I felt
I had no choice -- until I answered some of these questions, that is.

Regards,

Bill Thebert
The Binder Bulletin