7.2. Who Will See a Reputation?

So far, the reputation you’re calculating is little more than a cold numerical score rolled up from the aggregate actions of people interacting with your site. You’ve carefully determined the scope of the reputation, chosen the inputs that contribute to it, and thought at length about the effect that you want the reputation to generate in the community.

Now you must decide whether it makes sense to display the reputation on your site at all and, if so, to whom. How you display reputation information—how much and how prominently—will influence the actions that users take on your site, their trust in your site and one another, and their long-term satisfaction with your community.