The Thawte Web of Trust FAQThis list of Frequently Asked Questions has been compiled from the two Web of Trust discussion groups, and is intended to answer the most common queries asked by new Notaries and WoT members. For clarification or correction, please e-mail. Help! I'm a 10-point Notary. What can I do? A common problem new 10-point Notaries have is that they are rarely approached for identity assertion. People seeking notarisation are far more likely to contact three 35-point Notaries rather than ten 10-point Notaries, for obvious reasons. This means that 10-point Notaries find it very difficult to achieve the number of assertions necessary to increase their status. Thawte recognise that this is a problem, and are in the process of reviewing the point allocation scheme. In the meantime, however, there are some things you could do to improve your situation, if you are willing to put in a little effort. If you have other suggestions to add to this list, please contact me so that I can make this page even more useful to 10-point Notaries.
On the subject of charging for Notarisation services, it would obviously be inappropriate to charge a fee in either of the above situations, although you may find that people are willing to make goodwill donations to charity. I hope this helps. In the meantime, don't forget to keep an eye on Thawte's Web of Trust pages for any change in the point allocation system. Update: Success Story Since writing the answer above, I have been informed, by Christian Barmala, that such a Notarisation Party took place, and was a very successful event. Christian's message to me reads:
In organising the event, Christian put together some extremely comprehensive documentation, as well as a very useful matrix for working out the best approach to take. These are reproduced here with permission (edited slightly to make them more generic):
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