ActualRep
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How domain ownership works

ActualRep hosts the public reputation of website domains. If you run a domain, you can claim it to reply, add context, and manage how your track record is presented. Here is exactly what that means, what you can and cannot do, and why, in plain language.

1. Claiming proves control, not identity

One principle: you can present as new, or as yourself, but never wear someone else's reputation.

Reputation belongs to the verified entity or person who built it, not to the domain name and not to an account. Everything below follows from that.

To claim a domain you prove you control it, using one of three methods. We never ask for ID documents at this step: controlling the domain is what grants the owner badge and the owner actions below.

  • DNS TXT record: add a unique verification token as a TXT record on your domain.
  • File upload: place a token file at /.well-known/actualrep-verification.txt.
  • Meta tag: add a verification meta tag to your homepage.

The token is unique and unguessable, and checks are hardened so a claim can never be forged from outside. If a token does not match, nothing happens to the real owner: a wrong token never blocks or grants anything.

2. Three ways reputation moves

Only three things ever change how a domain's reputation is presented. Two of them keep the past fully visible; only one hides it.

Major update

Paid

A major update puts a spotlight on your recent record and opens a new scoring period. Nothing is hidden: the past stays visible and keeps counting in the full history.

Attribution

Automatic

When the domain passes to a different verified owner, the new owner starts their own score, and the previous owner's reputation stays visible, attributed to them. Nobody inherits.

Fresh start

Paid or free

The past is archived: moved off the main page into the history (still consultable, never deleted). The page reads clean. This is the only move that hides the past.

3. Reprise or fresh start: the difference

Both start from a change of owner. What separates them is what happens to the previous owner's reputation.

Reprise (free)

The past stays visible, attributed to the previous owner. You start your own score and take over in the open. Hiding nothing.

Fresh start (anchor required)

The past is archived, off the main page. Because hiding a record is the sensitive move, it requires proof: a re-registered domain, or a verified different entity.

4. What you can do as a verified owner

Reply to a review

Free

Answer any review or post about your domain, publicly. Unlimited.

Announcement

Free

Post news without changing your score. Nothing is reset, it just adds your message.

Reprise

Free

When the domain has changed hands, introduce yourself as the new owner. The prior history stays visible; nothing is erased.

Major update

Paid

Opens a new reputation period: your recent record is scored on its own, while prior reviews stay visible and keep counting in the full history. Nothing is archived.

Rectification

Free

Correct a published major update. It reads on top of the original, clearly marked, and erases nothing.

Declare your entity

Free

Declare the legal entity behind your domain. It is free and has no effect on the score: the existing reputation is kept. If an official register confirms the number (VAT via VIES, SIRET, or LEI), the identity is shown as "Verified"; otherwise "Declared" (self-reported, not verified by us).

Company change, fresh start

Paid

Declare a genuinely different, verified legal entity: the prior reputation is archived (still visible in history) and the page restarts clean.

Personal fresh start

Free

A new account taking over a re-registered domain can start on a clean reputation, no company required. It is free and limited to that case: the past is archived (still visible in the history, never deleted), and it does not apply if the account already owned the domain before.

5. The fairness rules (and why you can't game them)

Hiding the past requires proof. A fresh start (archiving) is granted only by a real anchor: an auto-verifiable entity (an EU VAT via VIES, a French SIRET via Sirene/INSEE, or a worldwide LEI via GLEIF), or an objective re-registration of the domain. A free new account is never proof, so it can never, on its own, hide a past.
Your reputation follows you. If your entity or account leaves and later comes back, its history comes back too, automatically. You can never shed your own past by leaving and returning.
A new owner never inherits someone else's reputation. Taking over a domain gives you a fresh score of your own (attribution); the previous owner's record stays visible, attributed to them. Keeping a prior reputation (continuity) is reserved to a verified entity.
Nothing is ever deleted. Archived content stays permanently consultable under "view history", period by period. Archiving means moving out of the headline, not erasing.

Ready? Claim your domain or read the Community Charter.

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