This news item reinforces some points about the fungibility of reputations and also about whether or not "things in cyberspace" are worth paying money for:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020325/ap_on_hi_te/virtual_property_4& cid=528 Of course, such things have happened before. (In a smaller way, I paid $20 in real money for the "credits" in a reputation market run on the Extropians list, circa 1993.) Of course, in a more nuanced understanding of reputations, it would be appreciated by Everquest players that the skills that got a player to Grand Wazoo are not transferrable when the nym is sold. Reputation is more properly about beliefs about future outcome, about bets. But clearly someone thinks these turnips are worth $600. --Tim May "You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged." - -Michael Shirley