Overview
In EIP-7 we introduced a new system to reduce the impact of spam reviews on user scores. Specifically, reviews detected as “review-for-review” (R4R) where the author and subject likely do not know each other, and the review is given in exchange for receiving one will have their score impact neutralized.
This update ensures that genuine, meaningful reviews carry more weight, while spammy or opportunistic exchanges no longer provide an advantage.
Why change was needed
Ethos currently overly rewards leaving reviews for strangers, anticipating a review back ("review-for-review," or "r4r"). Because reviews are free, the perception is there is 'nothing to lose' by doing this. Previous EIPs penalize misplaced reviews. This EIP attempts to remove the benefit of spam reviews.
How it works
While calculating the impact for each review, Ethos will take into account the likelihood that a review is "review-for-review."
This will be evaluated as follows:
Identify all reviews received by a profile.
Count how many are reciprocated (the reviewer also received a review from the subject).
Apply the following scoring rule:
The first 10 reciprocated reviews count as normal.
For every non-reciprocated review, one additional reciprocated review counts as normal.
All remaining reciprocated reviews beyond that limit have zero score impact.
Example:
If a profile has 10 non-reciprocated reviews, they can have 20 reciprocated reviews count normally (10 + 10). Any reciprocated reviews after that will not contribute to score unless you get more non-reciprocated reviews.
Safeguards
This update only removes the positive impact of certain reviews it will not have any impact on negative reviews.
The system focuses solely on review-based score impact.