> A website that invites you to file a report on your fellow
> man...
>
> Can't quite tell if its a parody...
>
> http://word-of-mouth.org/
WHOIS inquiry>Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
WORD-OF-MOUTH.ORG
RICHARD GARFIELD
SIVERANO MIRABUENO, STO. NINO VILLAGE
UPPER PIEDAD, TORIL, DAVAO CITY, DAVAO DEL NORTE 8000
PH
+63.918.565.3118
WORD-OF-MOUTH.INFO at SBCGLOBAL.NET
Domain created on 19-Apr-2003
Domain expires on 18-Apr-2005
Last updated on 29-May-2003
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.GRANITECANYON.COM NS2.GRANITECANYON.COM
Then googling>http://www.ruminatethis.com/archives/000705.html Fruit Loops and Anonymity With
Fruit Loops and Anonymity With all this talk lately about anonymity in blogging, lost privacy in our day-to-day and that wacky bit of political surrealism, Operation TIPS Meets America's Most Wanted, wasn't it just positively thematic that RuminateThis should receive the following frazzled email from our friend, Renee:
"Hmmmm," she writes, "I got this in my mail today and was wondering if any of you did, too. PS. I went to to look at this 'report' and found it had been deleted."
What precisely did Renee find in her email? Well, how's about we just let the email speak for itself, eh?
"To: Renee Subject: A REPORT HAS JUST BEEN FILED BY OR ABOUT SOMEONE YOU KNOW AT WORD- OF-MOUTH.INFO Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 16:54:06 -0700
**********WORD-OF-MOUTH.INFO TELL-A-FRIEND SYSTEM**********
******************THIS EMAIL IS NOT SPAM*******************
Here is a copy of a report that was just filed by or about someone you know at Word-of-Mouth.Info
Word-of-Mouth.Info is a website where users submit detailed reports about people they know. Other users can then search through and review these reports.
Word-of-Mouth.Info currently has over nine (9) million reports in its report database.
This email has been anonymously sent to you by us per the instruction of the report author.
Do not respond to this email; it has been automatically generated.
This email is not SPAM! It has been sent to you through our Tell-a-Friend system. Upon report submission report authors have the opportunity to enter up to twelve email addresses of people that they think might be interested in the report. We then send out notifications like this one in an anonymous fashion. The author of this report entered your email address and this is why our system sent you this email."
Hmmm.
To answer Renee's question straightaway, RuminateThis would like to make perfectly clear that "no, we've not received this email, Renee. You, my dear are apparently the lucky one."
In the time-honored tradition of J. Edgar Hoover's government-sponsored snooping and its subsequent reinvention as US Patriot and Operation TIPS, we bring you Word-of-Mouth, a particularly loathsome and anonymous online vitriol pit where for a nominal fee, folks can trash the reputation of all manner of "ex's": lovers, friends, business associates, etc. How on earth have we managed this long to survive as a society without such a well- coordinated online defamation bureau? I ask..."How?"
Let's examine for a moment some of Word-of-Mouth's "User Testamonials (sic) ":
.From one Lori Santiago of Houston, TX, USA: "I did a search on my new boyfriend and found reports from other girls that said he was unfaithful. I was able to end the relationship before I got hurt. Thanks!"
Goodness, Lori..RuminateThis is pleased to learn that thanks to Word-of- Mouth, you were saved from the discovery that life truly does exist off of the Internet. Taking the word of anonymous cyberchix is always preferable to exploring commonality and meaning in the three-dimensional. Our virtual hats off to to you!
Atty. Angela Tyson, St. Paul, MN felt compelled to file this testamonial (sic): "My ex-boss is totally inconsiderate, demeaning, unreasonable, and generally a horrible person to work for. After I left I filed a negative report so that other potential employees can avoid him at all costs."
Novel way of fixing the wagon of that guy who didn't call back last Friday! Eh, Atty. Angela? Oh, Angela...not to be stylistically picayune, but legal eagles generally opt for "Esq." at the tail end of their names instead of the abbreviated version of "attorney" up front.
In all fairness, RuminateThis did find positive reports over at Word-of- Mouth. As an example, check this one out...apparently left by a West Coast caterer seeking to crack a new but perhaps overly suspicious online market:
"The caterer I used for my daughter's wedding was so great. Everything was perfect and the price was very reasonable. I submitted a very favorable report in her name because she deserved it!"
...and this one from Jeff Lomenstad of San Diego, CA USA who writes: "I found several reports about my new financial advisor that were very positive and not one negative. Now I sleep easier at night."
Indeed, as can we, Jeff. Your financial advisor spent the entire weekend penning anonymous but very good reports about himself. He's pleased you agree.
While we do tend to coincide with Skippy's thesis that the use of real names on the Internet does not always add gravitas or credibility to an argument and we do recognize that there exists in this virtual realm a disproportionate number of Fruit Loops, we certainly can see the flipside. Were everyone to use their real name, and the temptation to be rancorous, explosive and outright libelous calmed, one might actually see an elevation in the overall online discourse.
via: Skippy and Jane Galt and of course, our friend Renee who alas, does not blog...
-- Michael Pugliese
"Without knowing that we knew nothing, we went on talking without listening to each other. Sometimes we flattered and praised each other, understanding that we would be flattered and praised in return. Other times we abused and shouted at each other, as if we were in a madhouse." -Tolstoy