General discussion

Before you read this, please know, wot is a great tool, and I'm not trying to insult it. I just am stating my opinion, that personally, I liked it even more how it used to be. Please don't let this article at any time discourage you from using wot in any way, since after all, these suggestions may very well be incorporated. In addition, wot is still a great tool, it just in my opinion, isn't quite as good as it used to be.

Wot used to be my favorite tool of all time, and I was very excited when I got it, knowing I wouldn't have to be afraid of going to a website I was unsure about. I would know right away whether or not it was safe, and on the occasionally unrated sites, I could do my part to contribute ratings and help others be safe. That however was months ago and things have changed- a lot.
It started when the new version of wot came out. Several weeks after it was released I noticed one major change. The ratings started becoming even more and more inaccurate.
For example, conduit had a terrible rating, until I posted something on the forums in addition to giving it a good rating myself. Conduit has posed no threat on me at all, and I have had conduit almost as long as I've had wot.
Another example is bullguard. Bullguard is a virus scanner and spyware scanner.
Bullguard.com has an unsatisfactory rating for two of the four rating types. A friend of my brothers who works in fixing, and building computers, knows a lot about security, and agrees with many other people, bullguard can be called the best virus scanner out. In addition, it finds and stops a lot of spyware. In fact, I tried it myself, and had no problems. It helped a lot.
Now I know, yellow or unsatisfactory isn't a terrible rating, but consider this:
1. More than one category has an unsatisfactory rating.
2. It's a virus scanner, so it should be very secure
3. You can change the settings to block sites with yellow, or unsatisfactory ratings.
On the old version of wot, had the ratings said this, I would have been skeptical about downloading bullguard. Now, after having used bullguard, I know it is very secure.
Some sites that aren't secure are rated secure as well. The foreign exchange student staying with us found a site called esnips.com, saying it had free songs for download. I checked this site out myself, and saw it had a secure rating for wot.
The first thing that happened was I tried to log in and it wouldn't work. I closed it and a window for a site with a RED rating came up along with many error windows saying my computer was full of errors. In other words, all the basic obvious attacks. I had to close about 6 windows and of course, the only way to do that was to click ok. Luckily it didn't shut down my computer like it said I needed too.
The exchange student kept begging so I gave it a second chance. I made a new account and it finally worked. I tried searching for 6 songs, all of which came up, and then when I clicked them, it said they were taken down. Finally the exchange student typed in another song, and it wasn't deleted or taken off the site. I took a look at the page, with its ads and look vaguely familiar to that of virus sites. Flashing buttons and just the whole look let you know, it wasn't terribly safe. After closing the window, I checked my email. Two emails from esnips for both accounts filled my inbox when I hadn't even verified my email. After that, I gave esnips a terrible rating.
Next came the wot website, which had some nice features, but the homepage seemed somewhat excessive. In addition, people started using grammar sometimes too hard to even understand in the forums, unlike before. I think the wot team should tell people to at least try and use correct grammar for the most part. After all, there is spell check for a reason. That however is just a minor detail.
Finally, wot for internet explorer was released, which was something I was very uncomfortable about. It was right around the time it was launched that the ratings began becoming somewhat inaccurate, Some too strict, some not strict enough. I know I have the power to rate things, but the future of what shouldn't depend on mainly me alone. I, myself, want to be alerted of a sites reputation before I click it.
I think the inaccurate ratings are because of two things.
A. Most people who use internet explorer in the first place, aren't as careful about security as people using firefox.
B. This only adds more people to wot, which can cause accuracy to go down, and ratings to not matter as much. In a small community, a small issue from a person or several people causing incorrect ratings can be easy to fix. In a large one, it's not that simple.
Plus, Wot is meant for specific people. People who are both knowledgable in security, and know when a site such as smiley central, is spyware, after either looking at the website or downloading the product itself, (since some people never seem to realize it's spyware) and people who care about security. If you're using internet explorer and you were knowledgable about security, you'd know that the browser itself is very unsecure.

In conclusion I'd just like to say, that I think if you rewound a little bit, wot would be a better tool for both me, and the rest of the community.