Sabrina Dent: Freelance web designer, developer and internet marketer living in Cork, Ireland with one dog and a husband in no particular order.
In the Interests of Full Disclosure
Pat Phelan has a post up over at his blog in which people have been discussing boundaries and blogger ethics in terms of full disclosure. This kicked me up the arse to go and do something I’ve been meaning to do since Day 1: add a Disclosures page to my site.
There are some cases that are cut and dried, like the instance Pat is highlighting. If you’re being paid by Flixwagon, using Flixwagon on your site, demoing Flixwagon, and/or writing about Flixwagon in your own space or others, you need to disclose that you have a financial relationship with Flixwagon.
And then it gets muddy. Because by paid, I mean any exchange with a monetary value attached to it. If I got free hosting from Blacknight (which I do, although not for this blog) and wrote about Blacknight and how awesome they are (which I have), I would be ethically obligated to disclose in my post that I get free hosting from Blacknight (which I did, just for the record).
Furthermore, were I interviewed by a journalist about blog hosting and mentioned that I send all my clients to Blacknight, I would also be ethically obligated to disclose to said journalist that I have an existing financial relationship with them in that I get free hosting.
After that, it’s up to the journalist to put that fact in the piece or not, but I think they should. If they didn’t, you better believe I’d be right here in your browser (or RSS reader, as the case may be) disclosing that myself as soon as the article was published.
Why? Because the fact that I am either getting money or getting freebies by its very nature colours my perception of whoever is giving them to me. Tom Raftery hates them, and I know this. I, however, love them – in part because I’ve never had an issue with them, but also in part because they have given me something that makes me happy. I feel special, warm and fuzzy about Blacknight because they give me stuff, and the fact that they give me stuff slants my opinion of them.
Therefore, when a journalist asks me “What is the best blog hosting?” and I say “Blacknight,” this is not based on an survey of the market or even on my experience as a typical customer. My opinion is no longer impartial because I have an extra relationship with them, and it’s one that involves money, goods or services.
And if that’s true of €33 worth of free hosting for a tiny site that isn’t even running, it’s exponentially more true as the numbers and visibility go up. The web is incredibly powerful in forming opinion, and to not reveal a paid relationship when you endorse or evangelise about a company, product or service is an abuse of readers and viewers. It harms – and can potentially destroy – credibility.
Which, before you ever pull a referral, ship a product or sell a service, is the most important thing anyone has online.
20 Jul 2008
| In: Activism + Crankypants |
Sabrina
Thanks for the positive mention and hopefully we are able to satisfy your clients needs.
Regards
Michele
21.07.2008, 3:41 pm[...] disclosing Sabrina Dent is Emer’s mammy. And both attended the Open Coffee BBQ in [...]
21.07.2008, 4:55 pmSabrina, this is a frightening concept, I hope it does not spread to polotics or even the main media industry, can you imagine a movie where the star had to disclaim his love of starbucks coffee each time he had a sup of his “ummm thats a delicions half caf long skinny etc etc “he had to declare that his love of the aforementioned beverage was in fact part due to starbucks insistance on giving him a free coffee/ cash /sexual favour, it could add at least 30 minutes to any mainstream movie. I wont even go to political announcements, the 9 o’clock news could go on for hours.
my god I have too much time on my hands, I need a job, the devil makes work for idle tumbs, see you later
04.11.2008, 1:28 pmRory