FAQ

This is a collection of answers not found in the official FAQ. If you are experiencing problems with the add-on, you'll find solutions on the problem report page.

Common misconceptions

Users aren't qualified to rate sites

We realize the average web user isn't a security professional and we don't expect them to go out and investigate random websites for safety. We have an active group of experienced users, who review sites for technical safety and help the average user avoid security threats. We only expect users to share their experiences with the websites they already know, because they are uniquely qualified to do that. Being able to learn from other people's experiences is the whole reason for this service.

Someone has to fall victim first before others can be warned

Someone obviously has to discover threats before they can warn others, but it doesn't mean this someone has to fall victim or even be a WOT user. We collect information from a number of blacklists and other sources to warn users of emerging threats before they have to experience them personally.

Reputations are easy to manipulate

When someone first hears about the concept behind WOT, their first objection is that someone can easily spam the system with tons of ratings and rate down their competitors or otherwise manipulate reputations, but that's simply not true. We designed the reputation system to be as fair as possible and very resistant to manipulation.

TODO: there's tons of material about this in the early blog postings, which I shall add here later.