Re: Who rates the raters?
I had an idea long ago for a PGP style web of trust, that was generalised and included negative trust. Who rates the raters, you do. You pick who you trust, and who you don't trust, for a variety of things.
I trust Alice's taste in comedies, but not her taste in chocolates, and I think she has no concept of how politics work. I don't trust Bob at all. I trust Jonno has a good idea about who to trust in the local city council. Jonno trusts Charlie's knowledge of traffic congestion, but doesn't trust Charlie to know anything about tree planting. We all plug such things into our web of trust.
Alice tells the world that this new comedy movie is great, that turns up through my web of trust as a recommendation to watch that movie. Alice raves about how great some particular chocolate tastes, I'll avoid it. The city council holds a vote about building a new road. Charlie thinks it's a great idea, which info wanders through Jonno's web of trust to mine, and I have no other reason to vote against it, so I'll vote for it. Bob's been campaigning against this new road, I feel more confident that voting for it is a good idea.
Who rates the raters who rate the raters? Everybody does, but since you picked who you trust and who you distrust, you get an individualised trust score for people you don't know.