Rachel Schoenau- Reputation Systems

One community that I was part of, my high school squash team, already has a primitive reputation system, but it needs serious improvement. The team ladder is one form of a reputation system of the players; however, it counts for playing ability and number of wins and completely disregards qualities like sportsmanship, dedication, and competitiveness. The squash team does give annual awards for most improved player and most valuable player; however, these awards only indicate the reputation of two players on the team. Resnick states three properties that reputation systems require to operate effectively; “long-lived entities that inspire an expectation of future interaction, capture and distribution of feedback about current interactions (such information must be visible in the future), and the use of feedback to guide trust decisions.”

In order to serve as a “long-lived entity that inspire an expectation of future interaction,” the new reputation system on high school squash teams would involve different colored official patches sewn on to each member’s game uniform. There would be five colored patches that would represent an individual’s reputation; “information about an individual’s past behavior that can be used to predict future experiences.” The patches would be based on the following behaviors; ability, competitiveness (whether a player can come back a win a match that they are losing initially), sportsmanship (no cursing on the court), dedication to the team (player’s don’t drink the night before a practice and attend each day with a good attitude).

In order to “capture and distribute feedback about current interactions (such information must be visible in the future)” each member on the team and the coach will vote on every member’s ranking. The voting process would occur twice a season. The feedback, the patches, would be visible in the future because each player would be required to wear their patches to each match.
Finally the use of feedback to guide trust decisions through patches. College scouts will use the official patches to infer what the player might be like on their team, or the “shadow of the future,” as Robert Axelrod says.

Resnick says that one of the problems with reputations systems is that often members do not care to give feedback; however, coaches usually want their athletes to attend good schools so they have a motive to rate their players. This reputation scheme can be manipulated if members of the team try to sabotage another’s reputation or the coach of the team is biased. Hence, this system relies on trust because reputations, patches, cannot be bogus; scouts trust that everyone is voting appropriately.