Trust is one of my favourite topics as the whole dynamics are changing. Take Facebook, you actually trust your friends not to spam your email address and this trust is extended to your friends friends as these guys have access to you via your network. Strange really, in a world where we feel more and more insecure and worry about identity fraud, credit-card scams and all of these new threats we now face.
We interact far more through the virtual world and maybe that gives us the feeling of physical security but we also seem to be learning a new way to trust - we trust by actions and opinions and we respect those that are around us. The reverse is also true - I belong to SELOC a forum created in 2002 for drivers and lovers of Lotus cars and I’ve been pretty active racking at 8,000 or so posts in the last 5 years. There are clear boundaries for what can be posted and generally they are adhered to but every now and again the whole thing goes off the rails and a mass debate kicks off discussing the merits of rule 5.4 or whatever. When this happens the forum splits into factions that are quite vocal and sometimes abusive in complete contrast to when the waters are calm. Anyway, a newbie arrived on the forum asking about an Open Day at Lotus’ headquarters to celebrate 40 years…blah, blah get the idea. Lots of people chipped in opinions about whether it was a good or bad thing to go to and then someone discovered that the original poster worked for Lotus’ marketing company. This generated so much bad-press for the event and the company that they requested the thread to be deleted.
Me? I chuckled. It’s good that the agency world understands the importance of the community but woeful if they think they can influence it by registering a new user and making a single post. It that post had come from one of the SELOC big-wigs then many would have listened and quite a few would have turfed up the M40 to show up.
Abuse the trust and you get caught out.