More and more, you can't go by appearances when you're surfing sites: Business & Technology: The Seattle Times

Read the full article for a timely reality check.  Also consider reading Infotopia (especially the chapter on wikis, blogs, and open source) for analysis of why things are only going to get worse, especially with blogs (and other blog-like channel types).

Lurking behind every twist or turn of the Web is the shadow of fakery. The Web is the most intimate of mediums, a format that allows you to enter from the privacy of your bedroom the privacy of others' bedrooms — including those of people who would spit if you tried to approach them on the street.

Through the Web, you can sort through a colleague's favorite songs and see what articles your neighbor is reading (on del.icio.us).

But the Web's honor code — the idea that what you are seeing is direct and real, that for every open ballot a one-user, one-vote principle will prevail — is every day being subverted.

Two recent developments threw into relief the potential for treachery behind every Internet corner.

Source: More and more, you can't go by appearances when you're surfing sites: Business & Technology: The Seattle Times