Rating
SYSTEMS 21 REPUTATION SYSTEMS
DOMAIN THE SIGNAL
DEFINITION:
A score, evaluation, assessment, grade, or judgment assigned to an individual, group, product, service, organization, behavior, or entity according to selected criteria.
FUNCTION:
Transforms subjective evaluations into visible signals that communicate perceived quality, trustworthiness, performance, reliability, credibility, satisfaction, or value.
EXAMPLES:
- Star ratings
- Product reviews
- Seller ratings
- Driver ratings
- Restaurant ratings
- Employee evaluations
- Service quality ratings
RELATED SYMBOLS:
Reputation
Trust
Credibility
Score
Ranking
Review
Feedback
Status
Evaluation
Approval Rating
Social Proof
RELATED SYSTEMS:
21 Reputation Systems
20 Algorithmic Governance
19 Manufactured Consent
09 Attention Extraction
15 The Name Machine
NOTES:
Ratings may be generated by individuals, groups, institutions, algorithms, or hybrid systems. Their influence often depends upon visibility, scale, methodology, participation, weighting, and perceived fairness.
CONTROL TEXT OBSERVATION:
Trust becomes scalable when it is quantified. A rating functions as a reputation signal that converts individual judgments into visible metrics, allowing strangers to evaluate credibility, quality, reliability, and status without direct personal experience. Through ratings, social trust becomes measurable, transferable, and actionable within larger systems.