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What is that makes a dream website trust worthy?
That is a hard question to answer. First of all, it is very subjective. Second, arbitrary "standards" might limit new and interesting experiences yet to be discovered on the world wide web. Third, who am I to presume to even suggest having any wisdom about the answers.
But here goes, anyway - I'll start with a good example from my online research that made me think to pose the original question.
With my favorite Search Engine, dogpile, I did a search on the phrase "tribal dreams." This brings up all sorts of stuff, including a lot of belly-dancer sites, Native American music sources, etc.
The author - One of the things I discovered was linked to Miami Magazine articles, "Impossible Dreams," and "Banking on Brainpower," both by David Villano. Villano, "A.B. '83" is listed as frequent contributor to this Florida university alumni magazine. I was unable to learn anything more about his academic credentials, and reading the articles clearly reveals his keen interest in brain/mind subjects.
Associations - I found, through further investigation, that he was a guest on radio's Democracy Now and has written for Mother Jones. Well, that means he is independent spirited and probably liberal. OK, so far.
Recognition - In 2003, the author won a National Editorial Awards honor for contributing to the winning news article in Florida Trend.
Review - Up to this point he has a certain standing as a writer. But I didn't stop researching. For him to pass muster in my mind, I needed to see what others thought about him. This is what I found. The Columbia Journalism Review published a blistering critique of this reporter in 1996. So now I do not trust the information in his articles quite as much, though they seem OK.
Judging reliability - See what I mean? Of course, you won't necessarily go to this much trouble before passing along references. I was merely using this research an an illustration about checking out assumptions.
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