When World Wikia, the "Visitors Guide" offshoot of Wikipedia, launched, I asked CEO Bill Kaufmann what would stop a DMO from posing as a visitor and write glowing reviews. He confidently replied that "the online world will edit you out."
Which could be true, I suppose. But, what if we flipped the table and started posting really damning reviews of our competitors? Would the online world be as quick to smell a rat? Doubtful.
Here's an interesting piece from The Times that suggests that TripAdvisor (and others) are flirting with UK libel laws by allowing the posting of defaming reviews.
TripAdvisor claims a "zero-tolerance" policy for fake posts...but what is the penalty? Where is the downside (besides the resulting bad karma one would bring down on themselves)?
They claim they'll drop the offender's property or destination's rankings...but that would be, like, uh, impossible if I were to use a blind e-mail account that couldn't be traced.
Zero-tolerance sounds good...but only works on people who are too stupid to cover their tracks.
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