Yelp, but for people: reputation ratings will make the world more efficient and transparent.

AuthorBeato, Greg
PositionColumn

INTERNET entrepreneurs have been trying for years to create "Yelp for people," a service that would take the practice of reductively quantifying other human beings beyond the rarefied realms of beauty contests and the National Football League draft.

In October 2015, the latest aspirant, Peeple, generated a backlash while still in the elevator pitch stage. When The Washington Post reported that the app, which didn't exist yet, would allow users to post both positive and negative reviews of anyone they interacted with, even if the reviewee hadn't opted in to the system, humanity responded with an emphatic thumbs-down.

"Since the interview with the Washington Post, I've received death threats and extremely insulting comments aimed at me, my investors, and my family on almost every social media tool possible," Peeple co-founder Julia Cordray wrote at LinkedIn. But don't look for Cordray to vindictively name names. "Peeple is a POSITIVE ONLYAPP," she wrote, pivoting from earlier descriptions of the service. "We want to bring positivity and kindness to the world." It will be "100% OPT-IN" and "there is no way to even make negative comments." Presumably, even the sadface emoji will be persona non grata there.

China may not let its citizens off quite so easily. According to government documents that were translated by Oxford University China expert Rogier Creemers in June 2014, China is developing a "social credit system" that will create a numerical rating for individuals using information drawn from financial transactions, criminal records, and social media behavior. The system, the International Business Times concluded in an April 2015 article, will be designed to "hold all citizens accountable for financial decisions as well as moral choices."

But while China's vision may escalate the idea behind platforms like Peeple from the merely annoying and intrusive into the realm of oppressive and coercive, there is, in fact, a positive case to be made for the liberating virtues of reputation systems. One reason the "Yelp for people" dream remains so persistent is because Yelp for optometrists, life coaches, and laundromats has proven so useful. Instead of relying on marketing and other forms of branding, scattershot news media coverage, and government regulations designed to protect consumers (that may or may not succeed), we can now easily access detailed information about people's actual past experiences with businesses, products, services, places...

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