Canadian Blogs.net

Copyright © 2010 Miss604. Visit the original article at http://www.miss604.com/2010/01/disclosure-statements-for-bloggers.html.Unless properly disclosed, motivation for reviews on blogs has sometimes been a mystery to the unfamiliar reader. Was the author paid? Did they simply feel moved to write based on their enjoyment a restaurant or product? Thanks to the CMP.ly service, bloggers and Tweeters now have an instant and easy-to-share way to add a disclosure statement to a post or tweet. “CMP.ly provides bloggers and advertisers with a simple disclosure solution. We have created a set of easily identifiable disclosures and codes that can be used to identify any material connections in your blog posts, tweets or other communications. These disclosures give you flexible options...

Torontoist has a great article about the current legal state of HIV disclosure, marginalization of those who are HIV+ and the possibility of more strident persecution for non-disclosure. The article does shine some hope that more education is needed but in the same sentence, the hope is ripped out by the mere mention of economic/political deflation. Enter the site HIVStigma.com, here to help promote the politically correct way of cruising online. Okay I’m simplifying it but it does offer a broad range of opinion, experience and instruction for both positive and negative folks alike. Brian (from my blogroll Acidrefluxweb.com) speaks plainly and directly about how many HIV positive people are isolated (and possibly fall victim to non-disclosure) with common Craigslist personal ad...

I’ll admit it — I’m a snob in many ways. And yea, it reared its ugly green head a few months ago when I heard that Hammer — yeah, that’s right, *THAT* Hammer — would be one of the “experts” at TechCrunch40 (then, merely 20). I wasn’t the only one questioning his “new media” or “business” qualifications [and I use the latter loosely; according to the oracle, his ‘business’ acumen is what’s relegated him to the D-list]. I mean, if they wanted the everyman’s opinion, why not choose a blogger randomly from the crowd? (points to self) Or, any other D-list celebrity? Well, it turns out there is in fact a connection. As Allen Stern — who is covering TC40 like I hope I would (asking...

So, in contemplating the latest tech issues that are floating around the blogosphere, a thought came to me during my morning constitutional. Disclosure is a Big Thing amongst bloggers, and perhaps even so amongst bloggers with influence. Witness the hubaloo over the weekend where Federated Media’s attempts at “Conversational Marketing” (and rather old attempts at that — Valleywag needs to improve the quality of its bird-dogs, methinks) created a giant stink … and some of that had to do with disclosure. And I think the issue of bias, truth, and disclosure is going to be one of those perennial topics that bloggers love to get riled over. Probably because there is a perception that blogging is somehow, or ought to be, more truthful, more honest, more...

I’ve been thinking about Edelman and the “Walmarting Across America” blog again, in part because the topic came up — not surprisingly — at the Third Tuesday PR blogger event I was at last night (more info here) and also because I came across a post at John Koetsier’s blog BizHack in which he went over the entire chain of events and said how he felt dissatisfied with Edelman’s response. As John notes, many people seem to feel the same way, judging by the comments on my previous post as well as those on Richard Edelman’s post and Steve Rubel’s post. And I must admit that I share some of that frustration, as highly as I think of Edelman. So I wanted to kind of summarize my thoughts on it, in part because that’s what I tried to do...

I wonder if Richard Edelman — or someone at the PR firm — is regretting that they ever decided to take Wal-Mart on as a client. It wasn’t that long ago that the company started a blogosphere flame war because it provided PR material to bloggers as part of a campaign to win the hearts and minds of America, material that some bloggers used without saying where it came from. Should they have disclosed that? Yes. Was it Edelman’s fault they didn’t? That’s a tougher one to answer. I would argue that it isn’t, but others disagree. Now, the firm is under fire again for a “fake” blog about how great it is to drive your RV around and park overnight in Wal-Mart parking lots, something I wrote about here and many others have covered as well,...