---
name: Reputation
slug: reputation
type: social_construct
status: unstable
version: 4.2.1
released: "prehistory"
maintainer: everyone_and_no_one
dependencies:
  - memory
  - gossip
  - consistency
  - time
  - other_people
license: Commons Attribution (you do not choose the terms)
tags:
  - social, currency, identity, perception, fragile, emergent
---

Reputation

What it actually is

The cached version of you that other people run instead of loading the real thing.

How it works

Reputation is a distributed ledger with no central authority and no appeals process. Every person who has ever observed you holds a local copy. These copies diverge immediately and continue diverging forever. The aggregate is called "what people think of you," which is a different thing from you, but increasingly hard to distinguish from the outside.

Writes are asymmetric. A single bad commit can overwrite years of clean history. Good behavior, by contrast, accrues slowly, like compound interest with a very low rate and unpredictable compounding periods.

You cannot read your own record directly. You infer it from the behavior of others: who returns your calls, who cites your work, who crosses the street.

Features

Persists across contexts you have forgotten
Portable (travels ahead of you into rooms you have not entered yet)
Self-reinforcing: high reputation generates more reputation-affirming opportunities
Survives physical absence, sometimes for centuries (see: legacy)
Operates without your consent or participation

Known bugs

Propagation lag: good work often posts to the ledger weeks or years late. Bad work posts instantly.
Source contamination: one loud, poorly-informed node can corrupt the read for an entire cluster
Identity drift: the version of you that has the reputation may no longer exist
Context collapse: reputation built in one environment imports incorrectly into another (see: imposter syndrome)
No rollback: previous versions are archived, not deleted. They surface during audits.

Error codes

REP_001  Contradiction detected between public record and private behavior
REP_002  Insufficient sample size (new in town, new to field)
REP_003  Reputation inherited from associated entity (family, employer, nation)
REP_004  Record not found — you have been forgotten, which is its own problem
REP_409  Conflict: two incompatible reputations running simultaneously in different networks

Configuration

consistency: required
visibility: high recommended
time_horizon: long
recovery_mode: slow
ego_coupling: reduce where possible

Note: Setting ego_coupling too high causes the user to spend resources defending the cached version rather than improving the source.

Edge cases

Posthumous repair: reputation can be rehabilitated after death, occasionally on good evidence, occasionally because someone needed a symbol
Weaponized reputation: a third party may be actively writing to your ledger without your knowledge. This is called defamation when false and criticism when accurate, and the line is disputed
The nobody exception: zero reputation is not neutral. It reads as either threat or opportunity depending on the reader's priors

FAQ

Can I manage my reputation? You can influence inputs. You cannot control outputs. The difference matters.

What if my reputation is wrong? Define wrong. The record reflects what was observed, interpreted, and remembered. It was always going to be a partial read.

Is authenticity the solution? Authenticity narrows the gap between you and your cached version. It does not make the cache accurate. It makes the divergence less embarrassing.

How long does a bad reputation last? Longer than you. Shorter than the internet. Usually.

drafting spec…