Tenants are always worried about renting a vacation home. will it be a dump? is it what we hoped it will be? will the keys be where they are supposed to be?

and vacation home owners are scared that tenants might trash their place … especially since the vacation home is often the owner’s second largest investment after their primary residence.

solution: Rapleaf

Vacapedia has integrated Rapleaf — to allow tenants and home-owners to rate one another.

I think Vacapedia is really cool. so much better then renting a hotel room … often a far better deal and much cooler. My favorite place is this Mendocino home … check this out … on the water, 2 bedrooms, 2000 sq ft, sleeps 6 comfortably … and all for only $225/night. i’ll take it. (seriously, i am definitely going to try it).

Hans Blaauw is at it again. Hans, who is the master Skype mash-up king, has built a dating site that integrates Skype, Flickr, Rapleaf, and more.

when2date is a cool experiment and a good example of how combining different services can yield great results.

From Hans:

We just releases the dating service on www.when2date.com It now has the full API in it for Rapleaf. So if someone has a email address that is also on rapleaf it will show the Rapleaf picture.

Pageflakes, one of my favorite sites, believes it is more profitable to be ethical.

Pageflakes my personal start-page — i use it every time i launch my browser to see my BBC news, get quick access to my gmail, and now have an easy window into Rapleaf.

If you are like me and are already using Pageflakes, then you should add the Rapleaf flake to your homepage. otherwise, we encourage you to sign up for Pageflakes and make it your start page.

additionally — I’d like to point out that Ole and Christoph at Pageflakes are a pleasure to work with. we are big fans of both. and special thanks to Tony Singh who originally introduced me to Ole Brandenburg back in late June.

Rapleaf officially welcomes Jeremy Lizt to the team as co-founder and our fourth person. Jeremy is a stellar software engineer who has been at Oracle for the past 8 years doing Java development and building a lot of cool apps there.

Vivek, Manish, and I are excited to welcome Jeremy to the founding team. we are really looking forward to working with him … and we need him because we have a ton of sweet stuff to build

Last week we launched our partnership with Edgeio. We are very excited about the partnership as we are big fans of Edgeio.

Edgeio is a huge aggregator of items for sale. It is one of the largest marketplaces in the world (bigger than Amazon, eBay, craigslist, or Wal-Mart in terms of number of items for sale).

Edgeio also collects and lists items that are listed on the edge of the Internet. That means you can put an item on your blog that is for sale, tag it, and Edgeio will find the listing, categorize, and list it.

Edgeio’s back-end ratings system is now powered by Rapleaf. Take a look at an Edgeio member’s profile (here is mine: http://www.edgeio.com/user/auren) and you’ll see that person’s Rapleaf score if they have one. And if you click the link “Tell us about this publisher” you can the seller on Edgeio and never have to leave their site (all powered by Rapleaf).

A person’s career can sometimes be dictated by the name given to them. If your name is “Brock”, it’s pretty much expected that you’ll be some type of athlete. Having the name “Jeeves”, well that’s no-brainer.

So we hired a new employee at RapLeaf - his name is “Dummy.” And of course, Dummy* is very slow, he really is. But we hired Dummy for a reason…to take all your abuse.

Rate him at dummy@rapleaf.com - leave a test comment, let him know how upset you are, try out the system; do whatever you want to Dummy. Don’t worry, it’s his job to take it all in. How is he able to do this without getting his feelings hurt? He was born without any emotions. Sad, but true.

But if you do have any helpful feedback for RapLeaf, don’t send it to Dummy. He doesn’t have the mental capacity to know what to do with it. Instead any helpful feedback should be directed to people@rapleaf.com.

So rate Dummy. Rate your friends. And rate those that you bought and sold from.

*Note - Dummy’s last name was withheld for privacy/security reasons.

Clancy Nolan writes a piece on Rapleaf in this month’s Venture Capital Analyst magazine from VentureWire.

snips:

Rapleaf, which operates similarly to eBay’s online rating system, is designed to track e-commerce reputations across multiple Web sites and marketplaces. The idea is reminiscent of “whuffie,” Hoffman says, referring to the reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow’s science fiction novel, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.” In the book, your “whuffie” is a constantly updated rating that measures how much esteem and respect other people have for you. The rating system is instantly viewable to anyone, and determines who gets scarce items like the best housing or a table in a crowded restaurant.

A person’s Rapleaf score is calculated by the number of positive ratings minus the number of negative ratings given by buyers and sellers, and is designed to be integrated with multiple Web sites and platforms. The ultimate goal, Hoffman said, is to make Internet users to act responsibly when buying and selling items. “If we are successful, we literally will create more ethical people in this world,” he said.

Clancy wrote the original Rapleaf funding story in VentureWire. of course, she gets the essence of what we are doing with this quote: “If we are successful, we literally will create more ethical people in this world.” Nothing is more motivating than to have an opportunity to really have a massive positive impact on society.

and others. this video has been posted to thousands of blogs already … and it does have a few small (and extremely uninteresting) quotes from a Rapleaf perspective.

Watch the video

There was a very interesting story in today’s Mercury news about feedback and a lawsuit against eBay.

eBay seems to be in the right legally on this. and eBay eventually won the case. but eBay once again demonstrates poor customer service and it pushed away another seller who will be selling through other channels.

overall, this is less a cautionary tale about feedback and much more a tale about having good and responsive customer service.

You received an email indicating that you were rated on RapLeaf. You open the email. You go over the positive comment left for you. You think to yourself “Aww, that’s nice of [insert name].” You’re also thinking “Okay, now what?”

So what is the point of RapLeaf? Why did we start this company and why are we working so hard to provide this service for our users?

RapLeaf is a portable ratings system for commerce. Buyers and sellers can rate each other. If you’re a reputable seller, you’ll be able to generate more business for yourself. More business = more money in your pocket. Just ask this merchant to see if RapLeaf helped out his business.

If you’re a buyer and you’re competing against other buyers to purchase something on Craigslist for example, displaying your RapLeaf badge will give you a competitive edge. If your profile is full of positive comments, that seller will see that you’re a genuinely nice person, you’re not a flake, and you won’t screw them over - you’ll then get that rare Tickle Me Elmo doll. Simple.

So what if you don’t engage in online or offline commerce? Are you looking for a new job? You can post your RapLeaf badge on your résumé. Comments and feedback left for you will vouch that you’re a good person. It’s an easier way to get the job without having to wear a monkey suit. No Myers-Briggs test needed.

As you can see, there’s a whole slew of ways you can use your RapLeaf badge. Your reputation is helpful for commerce, yes. But your reputation affects not only buying or selling, it also affects your life and where you want to go in life.

With that being said, if you haven’t already signed up on RapLeaf, sign up here. It takes less than 30 seconds to start building your reputation.