] In other words, e-marketplaces are media as much for
] social interactions as they are for financial
] transactions. That is, who you are and what you're doing
] are as important as what you want to buy or what you want
] to sell. It's no accident that eBay is still around and
] making money for both itself and its, ahem, community of
] auctioneers. Your reputation on eBay can--and often
] does--matter far more than what you are attempting to
] either buy or sell.
]
] "Reputation marks the spot where technology and
] cooperation converge," Rheingold writes. "The most
] long-lasting social effects of technology always go
] beyond the quantitative efficiency of doing old things
] more quickly or more cheaply. The most profoundly
] transformative potential of connecting human social
] proclivities to the efficiency of information
] technologies is the chance to do new things together, the
] potential for cooperating on scales and in ways never
] before possible."

Preferential Attachment and the Rising Meme