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It's like Yelp for people instead of restaurants, says TechCrunch, a somewhat scary-sounding combination, if you ask us. Recently making its beta debut, a site called Unvarnished lets any user create an online profile for a professional and submit anonymous reviews ... about anyone.The site says its reviews "help you get the inside scoop on other business professionals, providing candid assessments of co-workers, potential hires, business partners and more." And while the comparable professional networking site LinkedIn also lets you leave reviews of past and present colleagues and co-workers in the form of recommendations, LinkedIn's reviews are not anonymous.
Unvarnished's About page states that "to help reviewers be honest and candid in their reviews, Unvarnished obscures the identity of review authors. This lets reviewers share their true, nuanced opinions without fear of repercussions."
Candid or defamatory? By keeping secret the identity of review authors, who's to know whether a negative assessment is coming from a past client whose project you screwed up, or Bob from Accounting, whom you screwed after the office Christmas party? No fear of repercussions doesn't sound like a great thing, necessarily.
But Unvarnished says they've got it under control with Reviewer Authority scores: Other Unvarnished users can rate the quality of an individual reviewer's submissions, resulting in a badge that is attached to each review by a given reviewer. There are five available badges: new reviewer, novice reviewer and three levels of "trusted reviewer." Trusted by complete strangers! Sounds fair, right? Anonymous Internet users anonymously rate the quality of other anonymous strangers' anonymous, possibly candid and honest, possibly slanderous, reviews of other individuals. Phew, thank goodness for that.
And the best part: the Internet never forgets, and neither does Unvarnished. Once your profile is up, it's never coming down. Every post, once you claim your profile, is there to stay. When TechCrunch writer Evelyn Rusli asked Unvarnished co-founder Peter Kazanjy if users would ever getting the option of taking down their profiles, he was succinct: "No, because if we did that, everyone would take their profile down."
Damn right we would, and we can't help but feel like services like these prey on our vanity-Googling generation, unable to resist the morbid curiosity to find out what strangers think about us. Unfortunately, this isn't just Hot or Not for grown-ups, and your morbid curiosity can deflate more than just your ego; it can also do a number on your online reputation, a concern even for those us who regularly attach our bylines to tales of sexual debauchery and drunken mistakes. After all, the story of the time your grandparents caught you having sex in their antique rocking chair is something you chose to put out there, for better or for worse. But you and I both know that it's possible to be a total basket case on evenings and weekends, yet totally kill it in the office, climbing that ladder with gusto and finesse. We just don't want the rungs sawed out from under us because we once forgot to return Psycho Suzy's clipboard and she's been plotting her revenge ever since.
TechCrunch's Rusli has the same concern that this service can quickly turn into a "digital burn book" of sorts, and makes a good point when she says "Theoretically, a community of professionals has more scruples and ethics than a group of 17-year-olds," the key word, of course, being "theoretically." What easier way to test one's professional scruples and ethics than by putting a promotion, a raise or a livelihood on the line? Dangle a big enough bonus in front of someone's face and the office turns into a high school cafeteria food fight, with insults, insinuations and accusations (true or not) hurled every which way.
Still think services like Unvarnished will do more good than evil? Check out some of the barely comprehensible, savage rants on almost any website that allows anonymous comments. Do you want Max the Misogynist commenting on your managerial competence?
What do you think: Are review sites like Unvarnished a useful professional tool, or a disaster waiting to happen?
Comments:
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Saturday 12 June
By Larry Caldwell
KISS my wangfeinaerw--you're a waste of time and space. LMAO---your bf thinks you are incompetent, too! Come on AOL---let's get rid of this crap. Please HIRE an AMERICAN to review these Bullsh*t spam adverts before they get posted.
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Saturday 12 June
By lindmoberg
I believe this is going to be a place for people to get even with others. Some may give nice reviews, but there are others who, for reasons only known by them, may have ulterior motives for giving a bad review. There are those who may have been fired, got a bad evaluation, passed over for a promotion, etc. This is probably going to be the minority, but I wouldn't want to be the person that gets the bad review. Hopefully, you know people who would be able to give you better reviews that would make that person's information invalid, but once it is out there, it is still a thorn that may not help you.
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Saturday 12 June
By Grace
This is scarey. People don't even have to know you to review you. There are more than enough nasty people with nothing to do that will be bad mouthing everyone, just for kicks. People aren't basically good. They are basically self-centered, self-gratifying, egotists who don't want good for anyone but themselves. People can't get jobs now and this won't help.
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Saturday 12 June
By Brink
"Divide and conquer and the spoils of war"...
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Saturday 12 June
By JD
The creators of the site claim it's a useful professional tool? Any company that uses that site to get valid and useful "information" on candidates, is a company that I wouldn't want to work for. It's a site for cowards who are not willing to stand by their words. The least the site could do is to call it what it is: a site for people to negatively rant. Don't try to sell it something that it's not.
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Saturday 12 June
By J
I can see the slander lawsuits popping up.
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Saturday 12 June
By elin
WOW! Now we have a new site where adult bullies can abuse their coworkers. Great. Just what we need. Adults setting a good example for their children and society in general.
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Saturday 12 June
By David S.
This is fairly ridiculous. Assessing your colleagues fairly is one thing, but we all know there are folks who have an agenda, and will say vile things about co-workers when they are not deserved. But no doubt plenty of gullible people will be using it. Go figure.
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Saturday 12 June
By Bob
People who don't even know you will sign on and give bad reviews just for the fun of it. This should not be allowed to start. This will be loaded with abuse. Its bad enough when people have to worry about credit scores so they can get a house or car. Now this stupid crap!
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Monday 14 June
By BonBON
This idea absolutely rots. What a fking world. @@
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Saturday 03 July
By Bren
No it is a horrible idea. It just gives people an excuse to trash someone else hiding behind a computer and acting like a complete coward. If something like that is allowed you should have to provide a valid email and if you review a worker, the forum should be heavily moderated. Also no personal attacks on one's character, their family, or things that don't amount to a hill beans such as the way they dress, etc. That type of site gives people who lack morals a free opportunity to trash someone else and possibly ruin their reputation or career. I hate when people claim "freedom of speech." Our forefathers did not mean a person has freedom to libel someone. That type of a site is a bad idea. I mean heck look a company like Topix for example. That is the trashiest site on the internet and they profit from people's misery. Those sort of sites are disgusting.
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