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. For information on how WOT takes steps to avoid manipulation, see below, "Reputations are easy to manipulate."

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 could easily spam the system with tons of ratings and rate down their competitors or otherwise manipulate reputations, but that's not true. We designed the reputation system to be as fair as possible and very resistant to manipulation.

Ratings aren't equally reliable

Usually in reputation systems each rating is weighted equally and reputations are computed as the average of all ratings, which makes them extremely vulnerable to automated attacks. Therefore, we decided early on to value ratings by their merit and use some of the principles of Bayesian inference for combining the ratings into reputations. Without going into details, the system analyzes each user's rating behavior from several aspects in order to determine their reliability. When you start using WOT, your ratings have little weight, but if you keep rating sites consistently, your ratings will be considered more reliable over time. The meritocratic nature of the system makes it far more difficult for spammers to abuse, because bots will have a hard time simulating human behavior over a long period of time.

Note: User reliability is determined using statistical modeling and doesn't depend on the number of ratings or whether you agree with other users. Specifically, it's not related to your activity score or user level, which simply tell you how active you've been.

Unusual behavior is automatically detected

In addition to weighting ratings differently based on statistical analysis of user's rating behavior, we also monitor for unusual rating activity. The system is capable of ignoring spammers without human intervention and almost every type of unusual rating behavior can be detected. We investigate all suspicious activity and ratings from someone abusing the service will be silently ignored.

Blacklist Data

WOT also gets its data from a series of blacklists and whitelists that combines with data from its users.

Losing Trust

If one were to try and use their new-gained trust to begin falsely rating websites, that user could just as easily lose trust. A constant shift from losing trust and gaining trust can cause the system to lose its trust in you altogether.

But I don't agree with a reputation!

The site's reputation tells you how much other users trust the website. If you disagree with a reputation, it's most likely not because the reputation is being manipulated or there's a conspiracy against the site, but because other people simply don't agree with you. Their experiences may be different from yours, it happens sometimes. You may want to start a new topic on the forum to discuss the site's reputation or if you suspect unusual activity, report it.

Comments don't match the reputation

A site's reputation is computed from user ratings, not comments. Leaving a comment is completely optional and since users who disagree with the reputation or otherwise feel strongly about the site are more likely to also write a comment, it's not uncommon for comments to appear to contradict with the reputation.

I've rated a website but no person icon shows

The number of people icons is a visual representation of the weight of a website's reputation (see above: WOT's Rating System). It does not represent the actual number of people who rated it. Three people icons could actually mean five people rated it, depending on the weight they have in the system.

For Webmasters

My website is unrated

If your website is not rated, its recommended you create a forum post on the WOT website. Include the domain of your website, and any basic information about it.

I'd like to show my viewers my trustworthy rating

With WOT's new Community Trust Network, you can display a badge right on your website showing viewers your safe WOT rating.