How to prove to our users that they are not being deceived?

Question

I have a question from information theory on how to prove (or at least give statistics) that the auction site is not a shilling of its users.

We recently launched an auction site with pay-per-auction. This is a new type of auction where users pay to bid on auctions. Each bid increases the price and increases the time of the auction. The last bidder, when time runs out, will buy the goods.

The problem is that users are suspicious that we can cheat them. I have no intention that the trust of my users is of the utmost importance to me. However, the model can be implemented by other unscrupulous sites, and it would be easy to fool bidders. I need to take measures that will show our users that we are legal.

I am ready to do an honest job. The challenge is how to prove it to the world? Any approach should be balanced while maintaining user privacy.

Some of my ideas are:

• show the IP address of each user

• Request feedback from winners who received their product. Have their mail in photos with them of their merchandise and a recent cover copy of their local newspaper.

• show some broad information about each user, for example, about the state of the house and country

I am looking for any suggestions.

Update

Some great suggestions. Still:

• Provide behavioral information about each user:

  • when connected
  • which auctions participated
  • statistics for the auction - bids placed, price

• Do not post personal information. There is no IP address, as people who do not win can punish the winner.

• public forum for discussion and resolution of issues

• Request feedback from users to show that people really win and get products.

  • how can we show in evidence that he did not “invent” us? I think it might be possible to ask for a photograph with a recent local newspaper. It would be difficult to fake on a large scale and as a distribution of winners through time and place.

Do you think that it would be good to show the native state and country of the user, or would it be too much personal information?

Answer 1

• Provide as much information as possible to users, for example, who won, how much was paid, how many purchases / sellers the user made, etc.
• Provide feedback mechanism for individual auctions and users;
• Conduct a public forum to discuss user results, support and complaints;
• Users do not need to use other paid services that you provide to get results, such as your own snipe system;
• Indicate your policies on your website. This should include, at a minimum, a privacy policy, a discussion of how the site works, frequently asked questions and the steps you took to prevent any breach or conflict of interest (for example, employees cannot participate); and
• Have a grievance and dispute resolution mechanism.

This is not a technical issue. This is a social issue. The only way users will feel confident in the results is through transparency and professionalism.

Answer 2

Isn't that something like swoopo.com ?

Answer 3

First of all, it should be well designed and look professional enough for people to trust him. People are remarkably well versed in a poorly designed website and will not respond well to it. It can be a difficult market because there are such well-established alternatives, but the best way to get users is by word of mouth from existing users. It takes time, but most efficiently. Do not violate the privacy of people and publish their information, because they use your site. People will not like and will not return. Provide a feedback system for users (a la ebay), where people can see other real people who are happy with the service. Also, a public message board for comments and complaints would also help reassure people. Good luck

Answer 4

Be in abundance of information, although, depending on your site, your users may decide that they do not like it when too much privacy is revealed to others, when they rely on something. For example, if I’m a customer and I just bought something expensive, I don’t want my username or email address to be shown to other people who will start spamming me to buy a cheaper version of what I’m just for paid. Some others may be offended by the fact that you are applying and upset the person who asked them by running DOS on their IP, for example.

Yes, you must protect your reputation as a site, but if you do not take actions to protect your users, you may lose some of them.

I think the best way to improve your reputation is to use (maybe difficult) or through some reputable review sites.

Answer 5

Providing users IP addresses can be risky, and ultimately it can be a fake site.

I guess one way to build trust is to use trusted authority to endorse you. IOW, delegation :) let someone else solve the problem for you. for example, Users will trust you more if someone like PayPal supports you. It would cost you.

[philosophical]

The main problem is that in order to gain trust, you need to provide what sociologists call "honest signals." And honest signals are usually expensive. This is a business problem because it means you have to sacrifice your income in order to get more customers on board and then balance this equation. IOW, customers and shareholders have different incentives. But as a "starup" trying to gain credibility in the user base, it would be wise to signal your honesty with expensive gestures. At first you can make less money, but in the end, as soon as you are big enough, this alarm will no longer be needed.

And what honest (expensive) signal can you send? Well, perhaps instead of asking for feedback from the winners, you should pay them a nominal fee. Make it useful for users to help you prove the authenticity of the site by disclosing information about yourself or the transaction and, in turn, make up for them with discounts, discounts, whatever.

In any case, I’m sure that you won’t achieve trust simply by distributing information to people without asking them. Let people do it for you and compensate them, thereby signaling your intentions in an expensive (honest) way.

[/philosophical]

Answer 6

Real-time chat on bidding pages, for example, IRC. People can only bet by typing "#bid $ 200" or something in the chat window. Thus, users can interrogate someone who, in their opinion, may be a bot or something else. They can also discuss a product for sale and warn others if it is a fake listing or something else. You need to show people who they can trust the site. People trust people.

Answer 7

You cannot lie.
The only way to win is just luck. You simply call your lottery tickets "bets."

Shame on you.

EDIT:
Some opinions on penny auctions

Profitable until it is declared illegal
Penny Auctions: They're Gambling

Answer 8

Remember that when talking about using cryptographic methods to prove that various facets of auctions have been properly conducted. Googling's “cryptography” and “auctions” together should provide some source material if you are interested in this approach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzVCrSrZIX8

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/crab/Auctions.ppt

Answer 9

Jeff Atwood spoke about this at www.codinghorror.com last month.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001261.html

I have never heard of this concept before. He explains it pretty well.

Katie

Answer 10

Open source?

Answer 11

This is a matter of trust, as well as a social rather than a technical problem.

Even if you opened the code and / or had theoretical proof of the information, how many of your customers will understand it?

In such situations, many companies rely on the word of a trusted third party who has verified the company's operations. A third party puts its reputation in its public statement that the company is doing business correctly.