Mass Rating Tool Madness?

[c۞g]

<quote user="alecsf">'owners redress'[/quote]
This exists
and it's linked on every scorecard, even yours.

Code: Select all

https://www.mywot.com/en/claim-site?target=excelliance.com.cn

Certain precautions are in place such as a requirement of proving the domain / site is "yours" - otherwise what is to keep me from claiming your domain? To do this, you must first verify your domain: https://www.mywot.com/wiki/Verify_your_website

Site owners can respond to scorecard comments
Site owners can create a site evaluation topic.

[Kraftwerk]

What i don't get is:

This person claims that this site has a wrong reputation.

It's reputation is excellent. So you want them to have a bad reputation? And who are you? A competitor? Hopefully not the owner.

[GURBL]

<quote user="imdb">
Bah this is crazy, somehow our name server that we use got Mass Rated, even though it's not a Website nor there is a website. Anyone on the name server ends up getting rated as site rating of 1! I am not sure how that works but obviously that tool is not very useful and down right inaccurate.
[/quote]

I'll comment directly to this user since this isn't the appropriate forum to do so. Suffice to say the name server is chock-full of abusive domains used by Russian botnet criminals.

[Angalia]

It is a hard job rating sites and MRT are meant to make it easier on those raters who do this a LOT. It is not something that just anyone can use. But I have come across inaccurate ratings that need adjusting or reevaluating and I just message the rater. If it is rated by many and commented by many then I take the rating a lot more seriously. But if no one has rated a site except one and it is rated falsely then ... I message that one rater. I have done that just today in fact for a store in my city that was rated as related to out-of-country-pill-shops when it is a party supply store (balloons, costumes, and such). Just message the person. I don't put too much focus on the MRT as it is not the deciding factor even if it does seem more common with those who use them to have short simply comments to justify their rating.

[Figure10]

While I see your point about MRT overuse, I think users actually abusing the MRT are rare. The majority of us who use it mean only to protect other WOT users from the massive amount of spam and scam domains out there.

[Jazspeak]

<quote user="figure10">
"The majority of us who use it mean only to protect other WOT users..."
[/quote]

Echo that.

[Vednier]

Mistakes with Mass rating tools is unavoidable. For example, when you use some semiautomated tools to gather domains from known aggregators (for example, i do that on HYIP monitoring sites) you always getting one or two good domains in list of hundreds bad domains. Its sad, yes, but its price you need to pay for fighting scam.

[NotBuyingIt]

\

I agree that everyone makes mistakes sooner or later. It seems to me that among the most active platinum members, several of the most conscientious users of the MRT have exceptionally low error rates, though. They are generally quick to correct errors brought to their attention.

[alphacentauri]

<quote user="vednier">
Mistakes with Mass rating tools is unavoidable. For example, when you use some semiautomated tools to gather domains from known aggregators (for example, i do that on HYIP monitoring sites) you always getting one or two good domains in list of hundreds bad domains. Its sad, yes, but its price you need to pay for fighting scam.
[/quote]

If it is your site getting the low rating, you don't care that hundreds of other sites were rated accurately. I have serious disagreements about the attitude that fighting scam sites is so important that good sites can be sacrificed as collateral damage. Even a low rate of inaccuracy is magnified by the fact that the scam sites usually don't stay around long, but the legitimate sites continue to bear the effects of negative ratings for a couple years.

Whatever method you are using to gather lists of sites, you need a double check on the resulting lists. If you use an automated means to gather the domain names, then use a second method to confirm they are copies of the same web template, for instance. Whatever source you base your list on, there should be a way of confirming all those sites that is independent of the first source. Otherwise, yes, you do have to visit the sites manually to confirm them.

If you want all the effort you're expending to have the effect you're looking for -- to warn people who might otherwise be fooled by a scam site -- WOT needs to be reliable enough that unsophisticated internet users are going to install it. False positives make people less likely to install. Your few inaccurate ratings can make your hundreds of accurate ratings unheard, like speaking to an empty auditorium.

[imdb]

<quote user="spamfighter666">
I'll comment directly to this user since this isn't the appropriate forum to do so. Suffice to say the name server is chock-full of abusive domains used by Russian botnet criminals.
[/quote]

Which domains would that be? We're a small hosting company and we don't have any Russian customers. Unless the server is hacked and someone is using it without our authorization.