Take a look at the Rants and Raves section on Craigslist. Guess what???? — there aren’t a lot of raves. Just rants. And more rants. It should be called "Rants and more rants." how come no one wants to say nice things about their neighbor, the cashier at Starbucks, or the girl they went on a date with?
James Currier pointed this out to me and it got me curious — is this becoming increasing true?
More and more on the Internet, the microphone goes to the person that can make the nastiest comment, be the meanest, be the bigger gossiper. And worse are the anonymous comments … often all that comes out is bitterness and vitriol.
Until then, I’ll be waiting eagerly for the new "raves and more raves" section on the web …
Irony alert? A rant about rants? How recursive! 🙂
I’ve noticed that people are happy to take the time to “rave” or “endorse” when there is something in it for them. Take linkedin’s testimonial section. I’ve had multiple people tell me that they spend time writing testimonials for others because it gets more traffic to their profile. Additionally, it makes someone more likely to pass through an invitation request if you’ve just endorsed them.
There has to be a ‘pay it forward’ mentality built into any system that wants to collect positive reviews.