[amitsy]

It is an excellent point and very similar to the experience we had seen when we first started with this approach. We have seen that once financial incentives and limits on no of people whom you can recommend, were introduced, people were not just praising anybody and everybody.

Another interesting phenomenon we see is that people don't generally recommend people from their current emplpoyer, they generally do from previous ones or their college friends.

[dsr_]

Let's say that you think highly of Ivan, who works at FooCo as a C++ developer.

When Ivan starts recommending Paula for her C++ skills, and Paula used to work at Bar, LLC where Ivan used to work, you can trust that to a certain extent.

When Ivan recommends Istvan for his Haskell skills, and they've never worked together, Ivan's recommendation might be worth less (he's doing a favor for a friend) or worth more (Ivan is recommending the leader of a local Haskell User Group.)

When Ivan recommend Maura for C++ skills, and Maura works at FooCo, that could mean:

Ivan sees Maura as a threat or an irritation and would like her to go elsewhere - low value

Ivan is getting ready to leave FooCo and is pre-emptively arranging exits for people he likes - medium value

Ivan is getting ready to leave FooCo and is trying to do as much damage as possible on the way out - high value

Ivan sees that FooCo doesn't have a place for Maura to grow and wants her to thrive - high value

People are complex.