When Uber was first invented, my mother was incensed about the star-rating system. She did not wish to be evaluated for her manners, she said. It was outrageous. You paid someone to take you somewhere – your personality was none of their concern. “You could try just being nice?” I suggested. “I am nice! I’m always nice. I’m really nice,” she said, with feeling. “I just don’t want to be ranked on my niceness.” I pointed out that she could rank them back; it was a symmetrical power dynamic that could only serve to drive up niceness in aggregate. And that is pretty much how it is worked out, I think (I’m a 4.73, thanks for asking, and I’m sure I dropped that quarter point because of my husband).
You know what online power dynamic isn’t symmetrical? Dog-sitters. Romeo, my charming but problematic staffordshire bull terrier, went to stay overnight with a dog-sitter from Rover.com, let’s call him Steve (which is not his name). He was great, my review said he was great. I was nice, his review said I was nice. And then it came to the dog, of whom his review was: “Romeo – loves attention”.
