Stamp Smarter

I've seen the notices and have been asked to join Stamp Smarter. I think its a good concept and I am tempted. But something I do NOT see holds me back. I have been all over the parts of the site a general visitor can see, and I do not see any statement that my identity information will be kept confidential by the site owners and will not be given out without my consent. I do see a note about anonymous reviews, which is close but not close enough.

Given the nature of the reports being given, confidentiality and ID protection ought to be a major major.

Open vs. hidden identification of reviewers on Stamp Smarter has been discussed on the Stamp Community Forum, with a wide range of opinions.

It is important that the reviewers be identified (at least within/by the site) to limit and try to avoid frivolous or retaliatory reviews. On the other hand, openly disclosing the reviewer identity to casual viewers of the site will keep good reviewers from participating, due to same.

My opinion is that it is important to have the site internally identify the reviewers, so that they are accountable to their reviews and to help police the bad/retaliatory reviews/reviewers.

I am a participant, and my interest is to identify ebay (and other venue) mis-identified stamps, notify and educate listers, and to educate/inform other viewers/peers.

I am not one for direct policing or casting rules - this usually ends up onerously burdening sellers in general, even though the intentions may be good. So educating and providing a free resource to those that wish to learn is my preference.

Personally I have the opposite reaction to the original post. I have concerns if identities ARE kept secret.

Essayk,
Sorry, you are right. I have not gotten around to adding a privacy notice.

I can assure you that it all names will be held in the strictest confidence and never released to anyone unless under court order. Additionally email addresses will not be 'sold', given away, or made available to any 3rd parties. I will have to think about the possibility to occasionally sending an email to members. If it is decided that this might be allowed, I can assure you that it would be few and far between. Perhaps 1-2 a year and only with specific reason such as announcing that the datasbe may be taken down for maintenance or something like that.

I am a stickler about web sites that view membership lists as a profit center and am about as anti-spam as anyone you can find. I apologize that the privacy notice has not yet been posted, I have a few stashed away that have been previously approved by my lawyers. I will try to dig one of them out within the next 24 hours and get it added to the site.
Thank you for raising this omission.
Don

Hungary,
Understood.

Just like this forum and many others, an anonymous policy is always a hot topic. It is sometimes pretty easy to define based upon the 'type' of web site. For example, most gaming forums and web site are strictly anonymous; there is little need for anyone to know, or care, about who a poster really is for a gaming site.

Some sites almost require a non-anonymous policy; these are usually professional and research type sites. (Posts don't carry much authority if they are strictly anonymous in this type of site.)

Hobby forums and sites are mixed; some do and some don't. In some ways Stamp Smarter would benefit by requiring real names be used since it then lends more authority to a Review. On the other hand, it also exposes to everyone in the world that this person is a stamp collector and this info certainly could then be used to make them a bigger target for a home break-in or robbery.

Of course there are also many other considerations; both pro and con. Just like every other web site registration it isn't really that hard to 'work-around' the need to supply a real name and email address if a person is determined. This is true with either a anonymous or non-anonymous policy.

I had more people tell me that they would not join if their real names were exposed than the opposite. This, and after consideration of the other factors, I decided to never, ever expose anyone's real name unless court ordered. Bill Weiss and I police the names and watch for any kind of abuse, I do this daily. This includes not only looking closely at the membership submissions but also the reviews themselves. If I see anyone pulling any nonsense I will immediately delete the reviews and membership for that person.
Don

Everything Don says is true. And we need informed reporters badly because all of us lead busy lives, so can only spend a limited amount of time in searching for problematic listings, but if a larger core group of concerned members pitch in and check listings, then report problems, the site will prosper and grow. And the bigger it gets, the more effective it will become and eventually may be a positive influence in the hobby, helping to educate both sellers and buyers. Please help as your time allows!

Don... as a suggestion... I'd like to see
a logo for Stamp Smarter, that sellers can
post in their listings to promote the site,
as opposed to just a mention and a hyperlink...

The idea I had was perhaps a #1 (for example)
with a graduation cap, or cap and diploma...

(smiling)

Randall

Essayk,
A Privacy Policy has been added, it is a new link at the bottom of the page (next to copyright notice). Note you may need to 'refresh' your browser to clear the cache to see this modification. It is boring and has "legal beagle speak" but if you have any questions let me know and I will respond quickly unless I need to get further legal input.

Randall,
Good idea, and one that Bill and I have previously discussed as a possible future enhancement. It would be a 'Seal of Good House Keeping' kind of thing. Whipping up a logo/graphic is the easy part but sitting down and deciding the criteria for allowing one, who makes these decisions, how often they are reviewed, etc is still undefined and needs to be 'manned'.

We are getting a lot of members and traffic but it appears many are joining now and seeing how the site pans out before making any commitments. This is understandable but hopefully folks will realize that Bill and I can only do so much ourselves. Bill has been promoting the site and contributing strongly with populating reviews. I am trying to improve the site, develop new features, implement user suggestions, do the graphics, and handle all of the other admin tasks (adding new members, sending emails, etc).

But I will add this to the 'To Do' list (located on the News page) and we will see about adding a feature like this in the future.
Thanks
Don

Perhaps someone can explain what Stamp Smarter is. I've never heard of it.

Hi Steve,
Stamp Smarter is new web site which helps collectors make better buying decisions through education and prevention of potentially misleading online stamp offerings. It is a free site in which Members review online auction listings. We also proactively interface with sellers before a listing is closed. This communication often results in sellers getting better feedback on how to improve their listings; resulting in less returns and more satisfied customers.

It is located at http://www.stampsmarter.com. Bill Weiss and I are the 'founding members' but the site is also unique in that the ownership (database and web site itself) is actually all the Members. At any time any Member can download the entire database in one of several formats. There are no ads, commercial interests, or hidden fees. Moving forward we may eventually seek to partner with a larger philatelic organization and/or develop elected organizational positions.
Don

The revelation of someone's real-world identity is a hot button topic, and has been debated and argued ad nauseam. I can see both sides of the issue. I know that Bill and I have had disagreements on this in the past.

Might I suggest splitting the baby, so to speak?

In my opinion, real world identities should be required at least for internal purposes, even if only to site management and not even to other members. Then, as with message boards, make one of the fields a user "alias" which if some people desire, they can use their real world identity, and others can use a fictional title if they so wish... but then make those aliases part of the reports, that can be sorted and filtered by.

I think that some sort of personal identifier, even if fictional, will become very important as the site grows. As with any kind of "review" or "critique" site, certain reviewers (or reporters, use whatever term you like) will be come recognized as more accurate than others over time. Being able to search or sort by the reviewer/reporter will become a valuable feature.

If I know that "Party X" has been spot on in identifying fakes or forgeries in a certain area, or that I know his reports will be chock full of useful and knowledgeable information, the first thing I may do when coming to the site will be to look and see if "Party X" has made any new reports.

It may end up turning into a giant teaching database, assuming there is enough criteria to filter upon.

Extracting by reporter may also be useful in sorting out if a certain party's reports are agenda-driven (hostile, personal, bashing the competition, etc.). I'm not trying to be negative, but human nature is what it is, especially as sites gain momentum.

Possible feature a ways down the road (more for Don's to-do list): the ability for site members to contact other members (through a site interface that only uses aliases) and communicate about potentially suspicious listings.

For example: I see a listing that looks suspicious but I'm not 100% sure, so I don't want to report it outright, in case I'm wrong. I know "Party X" is an expert in the area, so I send him the link to the auction along with my concerns through the site.

Further extension of the idea: Allow members to self-select philatelic categories where they feel comfortable making assessments of authenticity.* If someone comes to the site wanting to ask about a listing, they can submit the listing through an interface and the listing is sent to one (or more) people who are "experts" for that category.

* There probably should be some sort of vetting/approval process; anyone can claim they are experts at anything... maybe the site has a tiered membership system with regular reporting members and authorized experts.

My apologies if these issues have already been discussed and/or are on their way to being developed.

You guys are walkin' a really fine line.....

????

There is a name & shame section in a forum already in the southern hemisphere.


The owner & his..... have set themselves up as the stamp Gods and truth has very little to do about what they do!

Even I have been told how to sell stamps by them.......

These people for Stamp Smarter call what they do as a "review". I call it. many other very unpleasant names.

"In my opinion, real world identities should be required at least for internal purposes, even if only to site management and not even to other members".

Maybe this point hasn't been made clearly before (though I believe it has), but real names are only required for registering to membership. For making reports, pseudonyms are fine. We recognize that some people simply will not participate as reporters if required to use their real names - for various reasons - many which are perfectly understandable, so indeed, we want to accommodate those folks.

I'm sure Don will consider your other suggestions and thank you for making them.

KGV,
I have to say I am amazed that people perceive the posting of reviews as being so risky. Do people get sued when they write a negative review of a movie of Broadway show? Do they risk everything they own when they post a review of a restaurant? Why are web sites like Angies' List and Yelp amazingly popular? Do FaceBook or FaceBook users risk being sued every time someone marks something with a 'dislike'?

And what about forums like this one? I see endless posts on many forums in which opinions are offered, some of which border on being slander/libel. I watched in amazement when one 'down under' forum not only hung an ebay seller out to dry with not only strong personal attacks but also published the guys home name and address (which was removed after some period of time). But I did not see anyone saying that they were walking fine line.

The definition of slander and libel have been around for years and are not hard to discern from an opinion or review of something. The 'fine line' that Stamp Smarter is walking is no different than this forum walks; we have many of the same rules for posting. Personal attacks are not allowed, no one is passing judgments on other people or how they do business. Is it possible that readers can form their own judgments on sellers after studying the information in the site? Yes, we supply a database of Reviews which can be used to build well informed opinions on all kinds of things. Everything from what to look for when buying stamps to those which are most commonly mis-described. We also proactively work with sellers to improve their listing whenever we can. A good seller should never have an heartburn with getting feedback that increases their sales and lowers risk and costs. (For example if a seller avoids misunderstandings and having to deal with returns.)

Sorry if I am a bit defensive on this topic, I have done everything I can to keep the site legitimate and not allow it to slip into a flamefest, and whine board, or a place where people grind their personal axes and hone their personal agendas. I am dedicated to keeping it an educational site and tool for helping philately. Putting my head in the sand and pretending that we aren't losing potential long term hobbyists when they make bad buying decisions is not something that I want to do nor is it something that I think is healthy for the hobby. Mis-described listings, bad transactions, and uninformed buyers ARE a problem for our hobby.

But I guess some folks only want to focus on the fact that humans can be litigious. I learned a long time ago that anyone can sue anyone else and it often has little to do with being 'right or wrong'. If someone wants to take the perspective, stay in your darkened house and never travel out because the chances of being sued are far greater if you step into a car each day.
Don