Left on the Web

Ivo Jansch: Hmm, this is a bit of an ethics issue; even though you’re not forced to write a positive review, a more than usual number of reviewers will feel ‘socially compelled’ to write a positive review. Compare this for example with:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/12/28.html


January 4, 2007

left: Interesting article. I think I’ll write something about this as well. I understand it’s an ethics issue, but it is not much different from my other reviews on the site.

I review a lot of music on Electronic Music World. All artists and labels that want a review send me a promotion copy of their album. Of all promotion copies I receive, I probably review about 50%. But by sending these copies, they send me a “gift”. I don’t feel obliged to write a positive review, though in practice most music I receive is deserving of that, and so a positive review is written anyway.

In the case of DJDossiers, they can hardly send me a promo copy. They could give me a free premium account, that would probably be comparable to the free CD. But then again, the free CD allows me to keep it, sell it, give it away. A free premium account (let’s say for one month) does not give me that liberty. Well, I could give it away, but nobody needs an account for one month. Now, I get $30, which is only marginally more than what a premium account would cost, and only a bit more than the value of a CD.

Now, in the article you linked, Microsoft is literally giving away thousands of dollars worth of stuff to a weblogger. In that case, I can understand the ethics problem. In this case, where we’re talking about $10 (cd) to $30 (ReviewMe fee) ... I don’t think the ethics come in.

Again, it’s an interesting topic. I’m going to let my mind wander a bit about this and then write about it. I didn’t even think about it that hard until now basically, because the payment is not big enough to feel obliged to write a positive review.


January 4, 2007