How could I be so foolish.

Oh and your TV Land show sucks.

and i pity the fools that do.

Way to disclose that, Dan.

We are completely transparent. We don’t get paid to post, and we sure as hell don’t pay others to post. When we’re wrong, we make the correction. A disclosure policy is a red herring. Nobody reads the things. It’s CYA, and that’s all.

What is far more important is trust. You can’t get trust by a boilerplate page that comforts yourself. You get trust by building a relationship with your audience. That takes time and effort. A ”disclosure policy generator” sounds like one of those joke sites. You know - the ones that make up sentences like ”Maximize Syngergy Seachanges.” You don’t automate or generate trust.

While I strongly oppose what PayPerPost does, you have every right to do so. I object, however, to the implication that there is some purity by leadership in having a disclosure policy link.

No soap gets your hands perfectly clean.

This is obviously a move towards more transparency in the blogosphere, but then again it’s not as controversial as FUD

Bull.

Shit.

Here’s how you promote disclosure:

Require (key word there, means you don’t give people options) it to be stated on every post that the review / post is a paid one.

There’s no fear / uncertainty / doubt. PPP is slimy. Creating a silly voluntary site and then recommending its use is not disclosure or transparency. For example, such disclosure appears nowhere in the list of requirements:

* You must be 18 to participate or have written consent by a legal guardian. Please fill out and e-mail this form to support.
* All posts must be in English on a blog written in the English language.
* You must first submit a blog url for approval prior to submitting any blog posts for an opportunity.
* Your blog must also be at least 90 days old, verifiable by a third party index of the site.
* If over 90 days old, your blog must have at least 20 entries in the past 90 days. If just around 90 days old, your blog must have 20 pre-existing entries.
* No blogs with gaps over 30 days (no entries posted for 30+ days) will be accepted.
* The content of each post must be unique (paid and unpaid). You may not post the same thing on different blogs and you may not copy someone else’s post (except when specified by the advertiser).
* We reserve the right to deny any post and cancel any account at any time at our sole discretion.

I wouldn’t expect it to, though, because you wouldn’t want it to appear that paid shills were pumping up products for profit.

Then you turn it around on this site, which I think is funny. They disclose their relationships and potential conflicts of interest any time they arise. They did it long before you created your little project to try to mitigate the deception PPP employs with its practices.

Please. Next time you want to lecture someone, look inward. How about pushing PPP to take a stronger stand on your own and requiring it rather than politely asking and making it voluntary?

Of course, I never expect more than sleaze from VC’s anyway, so I know that’s not an option.

DisclosurePolicy.org was launched today to HELP people disclose, even including a Disclosure Policy generator to HELP create the bulk of a good DP (although blogger editing/voice is encouraged). I blogged about this at blog.disclosurepolicy.org. There are also forums and best practices so bloggers can hear various views before drafting their DP. This is obviously a move towards more transparency in the blogosphere, but then again it’s not as controversial as FUD

Given your strong feelings on the topic, check out DisclosurePolicy.org and I’d love to see you lead by example with a clearly linked Disclosure Policy on your blog.