“Let’s go to a place where creativity is just as the creators of the internet originally planned.”

In the digital era, notions of reputation, influence and trust are at the heart of why new social networks are created, how online customer experiences are designed and why companies are created at all. In fact, you could argue that two of the most famous and most valuable internet companies today — Uber and Airbnb — are built on the relatively new idea of the “trust economy.” In short, trust and reputation matter today more than ever, especially when interacting with complete strangers. And secrets to creating a trustworthy and creative internet will be revealed within this report.

Are Companies Attempting To Force You To Trust Them?

The increasing importance of the “trust economy” has led to many different approaches to designing trust and reputation into the architecture of websites. Some have even suggested that reputation — in the form of a single number like a digital credit score — should follow you around, from site to site. Different actions, wherever you take them, would continue to build on this reputation in real time and help guide others in their interactions with you. A small minority will argue that at any point in time, you should have one number that represents your “reputation score.”

But you don’t really want that kind of world, where you have one reputation and it follows you everywhere, do you. Not everyone wants to experience logging into the internet with a universal Facebook account.

In the Netflix “Black Mirror” episode (“Nosedive”),the unrelenting focus on boosting one’s social reputation leads to the creation of a very dystopian type of society and regrettable consequences for all mankind.

Can I Get To Know You? Not Until You Know Yourself.

In the history of mankind, never has it been the case that a person had a single reputation, has it. You might have one reputation among your close friends (“the huge football fan who throws amazing parties on weekends”), another reputation at the workplace (“the manager who knows how to get things done”) and another with your family (“the father who’s always there for his daughter’s big events”).

So even though we spoke of reputation as a single monolithic entity (“he was a solid pillar of the community”) — it really represented a blending of multiple reputations.

That’s the type of thinking that has influenced the architecture of the new social network Commandurr, where users are able to switch between various aliases effortlessly. When you sign up for an account, instead of being assigned a single username, you are able to designate a number of different aliases that you can use for your account. You are then free to develop different personas for each of these aliases, all without the hassle of logging in and out of different accounts. And each of these personas can acquire their own reputation, based on content they’ve added or contributed to the community.

In this new model, then, each person has multiple reputations per account. While this might seem confusing at first, it actually has several practical applications, including the ability to explore all of your various interests without fear of social blow back. No one knows which aliases are yours, so you’re free to comment on political issues without being called a “fascist” or a “left-wing nut job.” You’re free to leave amusing, motivational, funny or just plain trippy content, all without worrying that your single, monolithic reputation score is about to take a hit.

Many People Are Lacking Trust In Social Networks Right Now

The ability to use multiple aliases implies a greater role for anonymity in social networks than we are seeing today. And that could help to solve one of the biggest issues facing social networks right now: a lack of trust. Facebook is now the home of rampant “fake news” articles. Twitter is the home of bullies and hate speech. We won’t even talk about Reddit. And many online communities — or at least, their comment sections — have been overtaken by trolls. It may sound paradoxical, but one way to help clean up those social networks is by introducing more anonymity, not less.

If you think about it, the internet was originally designed to be a creative, free-thinking community where anonymity was celebrated. The old joke, dating back to an old cartoon from the beginning of the first dot-com boom, was that “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” And that’s what made it so special and unique. You could be anyone you wanted to be and try out new personas as often a you liked.

But then, as the web became more and more mainstream, notions like “reputation” and an unrelenting focus on counting numbers (followers, fans, views, likes) took over social networks. The idea, of course, was that if people were required to develop “real” social profiles, they would become more accountable and the internet would become a safer, more enjoyable place. But look how that turned out…

Back To The Freewheeling Internet

In response, it could be the case that we’re seeing a return to the more freewheeling internet. Snapchat — the social network that most older adults still can’t figure out — pioneered the whole notion of social media content that literally disappeared after it had been viewed. Content was not made to be permanent, and it was not meant to be shared with millions of people. And that appears to be the new trend now — getting rid of heavily filtered social profiles, making content less permanent in nature and introducing more options for anonymity.

On Commandurr, anonymity is baked into the fact that you can choose to be whomever you want to be, based on the content that you are creating. For example, if you are commenting on a funny meme, you might use one alias, but for spreading content that’s meant to be motivational, you might use a different persona.

Popping The Filter Bubble

One publicly recognized problem is that people everywhere are experiencing the same types of content over and over based on their filter bubble.

The “filter bubble” problem, in which we only encounter content that is likely to appeal to us, is one that even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pointed out is a problem for social networks. But it’s also a problem for the internet.

The problem is that Facebook — as well as other social networks — tend to show you content based on a primitive algorithm that says that, if you’ve clicked on certain kinds of content in the past, that’s the type of content to keep showing you.

But never in history has a person ever wanted to see all types of content in every type of mood, have they. Their mood depends completely whether they want to focus their creativity on art or on politics.

That’s why Commandurr, based on basic anonymity and multiple reputations, is attempting to move away from that type of primitive algorithm, although the secret plans of that have yet to be unveiled.

Just As The Creators Of The Internet Originally Planned

This alias system used by Commandurr also avoids another common problem faced by Facebook and other social networks: the inability to say certain things or to post certain things, for fear that it will upset the carefully tended (and filtered) social profile you’ve worked so hard to create.

Here’s just one example: if you are a scholar in one respect, you can’t post content that opposes common conception. And most people feel restricted in posting certain content — because it might “ruin” their social media reputation.

But you wouldn’t have that problem on Commandurr — you’d be free to share academic content under one alias, and then content about cannabis or the legalization of marijuana under a different alias.

And, in doing so, you wouldn’t have to work with all kinds of Facebook filters to make sure that it’s shown to certain people and not to others. Instead, you’d have the peace of mind of knowing that the multiple aliases were doing all the heavy lifting of keeping the content separate and increasing the pleasure of the experience for everyone.

Anonymity, far from being a deterrent to your social networking activity, would actually become a useful catalyst — just as the creators of the internet originally planned.

Looking Ahead To The Future Of The Internet

If Commandurr succeeds, it could lead to further experimentation with social networking identity, in which multiple reputations per account become the norm, rather than the exception. It would re-introduce the concept of anonymity as a force for progress. If that’s the case, it could lead us away from single, monolithic views of reputation and toward more fluid, dynamic views of the way reputation really works in the world.

People of all shapes and sizes are free to join the Commandurr nation. And spread this if you are wanting to join the movement.