Do You Trust Anyone?
- Posted on: Jan. 3, 2007
- 14 Comments
All this talk about disclosure and ethics is all a bunch of bullshit - I can’t fucking take it. It’s all so new-agey and web 2.0, and it makes me want to puke. It’s all such bullshit. It comes down to this:
who do you trust?
It all comes down to that.
Posted in Advertising, Gossip, Loren Feldman, Money, Robert Scoble14 comments
You seem genuinely pained.
ReplyLoren, are you paying this guy VInce? He’s a nice addition to your show.
Ferrari? Scoble? Edward’s plane? I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, man.
You are right on. I’d quit the Internet if I believed there must be some Ethics Code that must be followed. Just run for Congress or something and leave us alone. It is stupid. The Internet, at its finest, is a Carnaval. a Show.
People need to learn to swim. Hell. and this is coming from a guy who is a massage therapist and believes that there is actually something to Reiki.
All of this talk about disclosure and ethics basically is saying I’m not smart enough or have a right to make my own decisions as to who I trust and why.
They need to read Poker Without Cards. Do you think I’m pushing Ben Mack to you guys for free? Come on…I have my reasons. What is wrong with that? Ben sold frickin $100million worth of yoyos in one year. He got 300,000 teenagers to download a frickin BOOK on a $400 budget. People can learn a thing or two from his new book Two Products Ahead, which will be published later this month. I hope I can pull off the interview with him. We might venture into fringe territory for the hell of it so Beware. It will be up sometime next week. CHeck my blog for updates.
I’m not disclosing a thing unless I want to. Like it matters. I’m just a guy who is evidently popular in Argentina. I have to learn Spanish.
Loren, I need to get around to making my own top 5 list of best shows on the internet. You are at the Top of The List. Did your ass buzz?
ReplyI don’t know what the deal is with this Ferrari computer thing, but if people are writing reviews in exchange for free (expensive) products, I think disclosing that fact is the ethical thing to do. Should it be “required”? Maybe, if they’re writing for a magazine or some kind of organization. If they’re writing for themselves, who’s going to require it? Their mom? The Internet police?
On that score I agree with you. Trying to legislate this sort of thing will be a disaster. But recognizing sleazy behavior for what it is, I don’t think that’s so bad. The world is sleazy enough already without saying that we have moved beyond the idea of sleaze, that we are post-sleaze. I don’t know if that’s really what you’re suggesting but that seems to me to be a dangerous line of thinking.
Oh and this guy with the yo-yos, I have no idea what the hell he’s talking about. I run a consulting business though and I can tell you that if I started telling people that these Ferrari computers (whatever the hell they are) are fantastic and they should buy 200 of them and replace all their office machines with them, then they turned out to be crap and the customer found out that I accepted payment from them, well, I’d get my ass sued off. And THAT is the real world.
ReplyJvon,
We are post sleaze. Great line. We are post sleaze and you need to assume everything is bullshit. We are in a modern Sodom. Anyway. Microsoft gave some bloggers computers with Vista on it. That’s it. You either believe they will write and talk honestly or you don’t. They disclosed that they were sent the box.
ReplyAh well there you go. Disclosure’s all I ask for. What I think looks extremely bad (for good reason) is to find out after the fact that someone received compensation for blathering on about how great something was.
The way I look at this, I can decide for myself when someone starts talking about a product that they admit they received for free whether or not they’re qualified to express an opinion about it.
Good example: Glenn Reynolds. He receives books in the mail constantly, and mentions which ones he’s received. Sometimes he’ll offer his opinion on them. I think Glenn can afford to buy his own books, and I also think he’s got enough integrity that he’s not going to praise something that’s actually crap. I see nothing wrong with any of it.
But consider this: what if Glenn, who runs kind of a politically themed site, started linking to flattering stories about a certain politician? Then after the race it came out that he received fifty thousand dollars in compensation from the campaign? If I found that out, I’d stop looking at his site.
I don’t think Glenn would do that, but other bloggers have, and failed to disclose it. In this specific case, political campaigns are required by law to disclose who they pay — after the fact. So it comes out.
In the case of companies paying people to shill for products, not only aren’t they required to disclose that, much of the work I’ve done in the private sector (not in sales thankfully) has been under contract and I’ve been forbidden to even mention who I was doing it for. This, I think, requires some thought. Do we want corporate shills infesting the Internet impersonating bloggers? What would that look like on a grand scale, and how annoying would it be? I think it would be just as annoying as TV commercials. (And would serve the same purpose.)
ReplyJvon,
I agree with all points. Your last point hit it. Smart people will know who to trust and what is bs as you said. It will get annoyng and it is becoming TV.
I don’t care about all of your business relationships though I care about if you will tell me your honest opinion about something.
And then I can make up my own mind.
ReplyI like the new look Loren. Scott’s theme’s are the best. Simple and elegant and easily digestable as they are navicable.
I’m not really sure why I watch your videos. But once or more during the week I pop over and get my fill of Loren. I might watch because you seem to have your own unique voice that doesn’t blend into atmosphere. I don’t care much about the scoble’s but you sure do. LOL.
Your “trust” and your “you” video thing you have going on seems to make me smile and grind my teeth simultaniously. Those two words can knock a person down as much as they can lift somebody up.
Happy New Year Loren
ReplyThanks for the kind words, Jecklin.
Sadly, the honeymoon is over.
Loren doesn’t talk to me anymore.
And we never even made it past verbal foreplay.
I don’t hate him, though.
ReplyWhat are you talking about Vince?
ReplyJust goofing around to see if you would say something. Now I’m gratified.
You always look so morose in the morning (if that’s when you wake up). Maybe you have seasonal affective disorder. I’m thinking you should have taken that vacation in Barbados.
I
ReplyNice one Vince.
ReplyThank you.
ReplyGreat post. One of your best IMO and short. I wish I could wrap things up as nicely and short as you do sometimes.
I (ab)used it for another topic (linked to it) that has the same bottom line but is directed towards search engines, not people
See http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=4288
Cheers!
ReplyThanks Carsten.
Reply