Unvarnished is a new site that purports to be like social networking site Yelp–but for individuals instead of businesses. The site has been roughly criticized in the press this past week because of concerns that the site will basically just turn into a place for misanthropes to participate in online defamation.

However, people won’t have the choice as to whether they’re reviewed or have the power to get reviews deleted. They may not even know others are writing about them, unless they seek out the site or the person reviewing chooses to have a courtesy email sent.

It’s not a total free for all though, with Unvarnished claiming they’ve introduced safeguards like an internal reviewer rating system, so people know which reviews to give weight to. People will also have the ability to respond to reviews.

I’m glad there is a system set up to safeguard against online defamation, I just hope its enough. Even Yelp has become an environment which allows for a good deal of online libel.

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/04/06/2010-04-06_getunvarnishedcom_allows_users_to_anonymously_review_coworkers.html