Ripoff Report is a consumer advocacy site created by Ed Magedson in 1998. At launch it was the first online service dedicated to empowering victims of consumer fraud, scams, and ripoffs by telling them “Don't let them get away with it. Let the truth be known!” using an anonymous posting device. Now with over 600,000 active Ripoff Reports it is a search engine reputation death sentence for small time conmen and innocent small business owners alike as well as a menace to medium sized companies and large corporations that may or may not be ripping people off. Ripoff Report has done its job well at exposing bad business practices over the years, but has consistently failed to protect good businesses from sleazy competitors by failing to provide a two way dialog where all can be heard.
Ripoff Report operates by letting users agree to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help them. After that they are free to warn consumers about horrible businesses that will stop at nothing to turn your hard earned money into soft quilted toilet paper to pamper their sweet asses with as they wipe away your life savings. The problem with this is that like all online service providers who allow users to exercise free speech Ed Magedson does not know who is telling the truth and must protect his users from sue happy lawyers at all times. As a result Ripoff Report is a combination of genuine consumer complaints combined with outright lies by dishonest people with vendettas and competing businesses intent on making your otherwise innocent looking small local business look like a skid mark on my underwear after a long bike ride.
Normally I would say that there is not much Ed can do to mitigate lies told through his service, but he refuses to allow users to post comments about reports. A simple comment board would do a lot for both sides to be heard. He does allow people to sign up for his Corporate Advocacy Program, but that costs money.
Conclusion
Ed Magedson provides ripped off consumers with a good service, but need to do more to mitigate false reports. He needs to give businesses wrongfully reported for ripoffs they did not commit a way to fire back so they can stop letting them get away with it by letting their voice be heard.