OT: End to "blogger payola"

While we're not usually fans here of more legislation, this is good news for independent blogs like ours that are putting their own money up to review products in a fair and unbiased manner:

New rules to end 'blogger payola'
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

US regulators will for the first time crack down on bloggers who fail to disclose fees or freebies they get from companies for reviewing products.

The Federal Trade Commission, FTC, decided to update its nearly 30 year old guidelines to clarify the law for the vast world of blogging.

Offenders could face eventual fines of up to $11,000 (£6,900) per violation.

The updated policy on how advertisers can use endorsements will also apply to celebrities and research firms.

Until now, bloggers had not been covered by the guidelines - something which had concerned consumer groups. They had argued that for a long time that the links between some bloggers and companies were not always totally transparent and clear for readers.

"Consumers are increasingly dependent on the internet for purchase information," said Jack Gillis of the Consumer Federation of America.

"There's tremendous opportunity to steer consumers in the wrong direction."

Full story at: BBC News Technology

00:51 GMT, Tuesday, 6 October 2009 01:51 UK

Dunno about you but the last thing I want to do is spend ages online researching a product or service, trying to find what's best for my needs, only to have my time completely wasted by borderline unscrupulous people who'll say whatever they're told with an eye to a fast buck.

Obviously that's in the States but it's a move in the right direction for anyone searching for honest unbiased reviews online.

What do you think?

OT: Viewing whited-out text on this blog

Updating this blog, it just occurred to me some readers might not know how to view whited-out text, ie text where we've typed in WHITE, not the TEAL colour we use for most posts, so that it's not immediately visible against the white background.

CAUTION: we use whited-out text here to conceal the "S" word where it's necessary to use it, so if you view any whited out text here, it will have the "S" word at least once, possibly more often.

To view whited-out text using your mouse, position your cursor anywhere near the beginning of the line or block of text - you don't have to be precise.

Press and hold your primary mouse button (commonly the left-button) - while holding the button, move the cursor to the end of the block of text, and then let go of the button.

This will highlight all text from the beginning to the end, making the white text we use visible against a normally dark-blue background - I've highlighted some safe text below, so you can see what it will look like:



To re-conceal the text, just click with your primary mouse button (commonly the left) anywhere on the page, and it'll go back to the previous view.

Welcome to ArachNoNo!

This is a blog for and about arachnophobia, by fellow sufferers, about the irrational phobic fear of our eight-legged exo-skeletal web-making enemy. Other stuff whited out in the blank space below, because we know that many of you don't like to even read or see the "S" word... So this blog is about spiders, spider phobia, being phobic about spiders, killing spiders, spider capture, humane spider killing, and getting rid of spiders. Arachnophobic as well, repelling spiders, spiders are evil puppets from hell. Etc! You get the idea...
I'm a lifelong arachnophobic, and I'm still shocked at the lack of realistic resources online for serious arachnophobes: instead, we get "helpful" answers informing us that our little buddies kill flies (is it just me: I often wonder at their level of personal hygiene, that the people who exalt the eight-legged ones NEED a rampant fly-assassin, on their daily roster?!)

So, anyway: that's what this is all about.

Oh, and none of the blogging contributors to ArachNoNo have ANY commercial interest in any product or service, we're basically hijacking google blogger's good nature to write a few rants and reviews about arachnophobia resources, and hopefully write an entertaining few posts, and that's yer lot.

It's not going to be daily, and you won't read about the Brangelina three-way with (insert current meeja obsession) here. We don't tweet, either (though I have been known to let out screams only dogs can hear, upon seeing an arachno in my kitchen...)

Arachno is the term we're going to use, to refer to the you-know-whats. This isn't for us: my family share the phobia, and dislike the "S" word, and many other people do too.

You will not see photos of arachnids on the posts in this blog, and you will not see the "S" word in posts either, although we will occasionally use it whited-out so people can find this blog. Be aware of that if you go to copy-paste anything, which will highlight ALL text.

We're not going to click the "monetise" link here, in hopes of keeping ill-advised ads (which may lead to big gross pictures of - exactly the THINGS we hope to not have to see again!) off of this blog, and we have only one rule - no applauding the little furry eight-legged gits!

So if you're an arachnophobe in the northern hemisphere, and dreading September (when they RUN) and looking for a place to check in say hi, read reviews (UK-based) and so on - this is your blog. Abuse of commenting freedom will be punished with quite surprising amounts of supressed rage.

If you're looking for manga about lady-boys being slowly sucked dry by mutant tarantulas - then go to it, and good luck - oh, and please go away!

If you're looking to promote your NLP/EFT/EMDR service - well, make a PROPER reply, not just a "hi and here's my link" or we WILL delete and report you - I've personally tried EFT, NLP, hypnotherapy, ayahuasca, vodou, all sorts - but we're open to hearing.

But NOT to spam - and my sword is swift, and sharp.

So.... September is coming, folks - if you're an arachnophobe, it's also known as Hellmonth here in the Northern Hemisphere - I'm living in an inter-war years house, with open chimneys, that has recently got a moth problem, and now got an arachno-problem (eating all the yummy moths!), my blog-buddies live in various older buildings too, and well be trying several commercial "solutions" in the next few weeks/months - and reviewing them ruthlessly here.

Because a random blog you find can often seem randomly inhuman, our e-mail address is arachno666 at googlemail dot com - we'll answer serious questions, and laugh at anything else...

Erm - 'sall!