‘Web Ethics’ Category

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FTC to go after blogger freebies and non disclosure

35
responses
by
Mark Ghosh
on
June 22nd, 2009
in
Blogging Essays, Blogging News, Web Ethics

The Federal Trade Commission is planning to crack down on bloggers who review or promote products while earning freebies or payments, the Associated Press reported Sunday. “New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers–as well as the companies that compensate them–for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest,” the article explained. via Report: FTC to go after blogger freebies | Politics and Law – CNET News.
While I am not a big fan of government scrutiny and general “big brother” mentality, I do believe that this will add to the believability and authenticity of the blogging medium. We at Weblog Tools Collection try very hard to keep commercial interests completely out of the content that we generate and only rely on what we consider to be ethical ads to make ends meet. We also follow a [...]

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Need something designed? Crowdsource it.

18
responses
by
Mark Ghosh
on
April 29th, 2008
in
General, LinkyLoo, Web Ethics

99 designs is an interesting site. It fills a niche that I have carefully treaded in the past and have received negative feedback for (rightfully so). 99 Designs allows you to crowdsource your design needs. If an organization or an individual seeks a new design, they hold a “contest” of sorts using the tools built into 99 Designs and offer up some money for their project. Designers are then allowed to post entries for these and the contest holder is allowed to pick and choose the best design(s) and distribute the money based on the winning design. In the past designers have turned up their nose on design contests for a variety of reasons, most of which I agree with. However, the surprising thing about 99 Designs is the popularity of the site and the sheer number of designs that have been submitted for existing contest. Some of the work [...]

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No Sponsored themes on WeblogToolsCollection

153
responses
by
Mark Ghosh
on
July 10th, 2007
in
Web Ethics, WordPress Templates WordPress Skins WordPress Themes

We will not promote sponsored themes on WeblogToolsCollection any more. There are a bunch of reasons for this decision much of which has been rehashed in the past. Things have gone downhill since then. I cannot hope to please everyone and I do not apologize or repent for this decision. I believe that this is in the best interest of the community and this is the best way I can serve my readers.
I strongly urge sponsored theme authors to reconsider their means and I laud those who choose to offer their themes to the community without sponsored links.

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Make the web a cleaner place : adopt a Honey Pot

17
responses
by
Ozh
on
May 3rd, 2007
in
HOW-TO, Spam, Web Ethics, WordPress Plugins

A few days ago, Project Honey Pot introduced a new service, http:BL, “a system that allows website administrators to take advantage of the data generated by Project Honey Pot in order to keep suspicious and malicious web robots off their sites”. A honeypot is a trap set to detect email havesters and spam robots : this should ring a bell to most bloggers, I guess.
The beauty of Project Honey Pot is that anyone can contribute : just register an account, download the script and put it somewhere on your blog. It’s been more effective than I would have thought and wished : the day I had my first honeypot installed, it detected a new and before unseen comment spammer.
Contributing to this project is an easy way of making the web a cleaner place, and it will also benefit to another Wordpress related spam-fighting project : the almighty Bad Behavior will [...]

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On Sponsored Themes

180
responses
by
Matt Mullenweg
on
April 12th, 2007
in
Blog Templates Blog Skins Blog Themes, Blogging Essays, Business of Blogging, TLA, Web Ethics

Thanks to posts here on WLTC and around the blogosphere, the topic of “sponsored themes” is at the top of everyone’s minds. I thought this would be a good time to share my thoughts on the ramifications of sponsored themes, and what it means for our community.
For those who are new to the topic, in the past yew years a market has developed around advertisers that pay money to websites to have plain-text links back to their properties so they can rank better in search engines like Google for the text in those links. At some point the people gaming Google realized instead of buying links from dozens of individual sites, they could pay theme authors to bundle their links with their download and get hundreds or thousands of sites with their link for a small fraction of the cost. This is politely referred to as “theme sponsorship.”
Sometimes theme authors [...]

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AboutUs.org – Is it Ethical?

11
responses
by
Ajay
on
August 24th, 2006
in
LinkyLoo, Web Ethics

AboutUs.org is a new wiki on the block that has information for every domain in the world. But is the concept ethical? Join in the discussion.

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Plagiarism Today

No
responses
by
Mark Ghosh
on
June 22nd, 2006
in
Business of Blogging, LinkyLoo, Web Ethics

Plagiarism Today Very relevant to blogs and bloggers and definitely on my reading list now. Thanks Micro Persuasion

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Blog Micropayments: IndieKarma

2
responses
by
Mark Ghosh
on
June 1st, 2006
in
LinkyLoo, Web Ethics

Blog Micropayments: IndieKarma Each time you visit a website or blog on the indieKarma network, your account is seamlessly debited just one cent. It’s the smallest of micro-payments, directly supporting the blog or website you’re enjoying. Interesting concept, but will the average blogger/blogsurfer really benefit from this or will most of the money end up with the company. Same company as Pixelpass

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The AdSense trap

1
response
by
Mark Ghosh
on
May 23rd, 2006
in
LinkyLoo, Web Ethics

The AdSense trap: True story from a fellow blogger. If you were advised to remove unwanted and unqualified Google Ads from your AdSense, try not to click on those ads to find the links. Just hover over them with the mouse and type in thr URI.

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