Publisher Reviews: Feature Update— Startup Week 23
Twitter is in the middle of a battle with President Trump. It flagged truthfulness in the link he shared. This Twitter’s fact-checking algorithm is completely a black box. We don't even know how many people are working on this. Do you trust this handful of engineers to become the big brother of the conversations of millions?
Traditionally we have universities that have been established over centuries to persuade what is true. They have gained our trust, and we rely on PhDs and the science community to tell us the source of truth. Twitter on the other hand I am not hopeful. Their approach is based on a few opinions.
There’s another danger in Twitter’s approach. Once we see the untrustworthy label, people stop thinking about the subtlety behind the decision. That flag is based on encoded codes that make a binary choice. But the truth is often nuanced and non-binary. Everyone needs to be interpreting and evaluating the given facts constantly, even if that’s not an easy task.
Alternatively, Internet has brought us truth based on mass opinions in 2000s. Wikipedia is a perfect example. When I was in highschool, Wikipedia was seen as an amateur untrustworthy place to source. That may be still true in an academic setting. But no one denies the power of quick referencing you can do with Wikipedia. They have gained our trust through 1000s of passionate editors/contributors.
In this thinking, I want to bring the good old Internet web 2.0 style reviewing feature on Kaffae. It’s the truth established by crowdsourcing from thousands of people. We have review sites for electronics, movies, books, and restaurants. But none exists for articles or publications.
The best way to establish the truth is to look at and compare the two extreme opinions. That’s why Amazon product review shows you the top and worst reviews side by side. That takes us much further than checking how many followers that publisher has.
When does it become useful?
You can use other people’s reviews to:
- Find good articles to read
- Find news that is neutral in their opinions.
- Find career oriented blogs that fit your expertise level.
- Contribute your knowledge to the rest of the world.
The introduction focused on the news case. But it works on the career driven purpose. For example, you are a software engineer, and want to read more about the industry topic. There are a lot of engineer blogs out there targeting different audiences from a complete beginner to senior level. It’s good to find blogs that specifically target your expertise level.
Since Kaffea shows how many articles you’ve read, it shows the read count beside your review too, therefore boosting the credibility of your comment.
Now, the review features are only available on publication. It’s to be expanded on articles as well.
Admittedly, it relies on the assumption people will be contributing. But after years of setting it on place, it can be a credible source of finding great publications and news outlets.
What about if you care about an engineer blog. That does not say about the level of expertise required to read those blogs.
