Holy Cow, is this an actual article by RMB.reviews, and not a review?

As most of you know, I often write reviews and little things like that here on Whalertly. Normally, these are things that I have gotten and first published over on blogcritics. However, they are occasionally things that I have over here, or things that friends/cobloggers want me to talk about. I enjoy helping people out, and making money, so I will always do reviews or advertisements. Apparently, the FCC doesn’t like this…

In late June, the FCC decided that it was going to start investigating reviews, ads, and recommendations any and all ads, reviews, and even mentions could come under this scope. That means that the ads on my right-side-bar, the reviews that I do, and the links to Beth’s page are not allowed. Even though I have this page, this one too, and say “REVIEW” in titles, I would need a little paragraph before it explaining all of this.

Frankly, this is bullshit

What some fail to realize, though, is that such reviews can be tainted: Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars for a 200-word post. Bloggers vary in how they disclose such freebies, if they do so at all.

Okay, so one of the main reasons there is concern here is because some well-read blogs happen to get huge amounts of money for simply writing a few words. Well, too bad. If readers take seriously look at only one review and don’t look at others, then they are clearly just stupid. Personally, I believe that sites which rarely do reviews should point them out (otherwise it is fair to assume that it is a normal write up), but that normal review sites (like my own) don’t really need to.

If the guidelines are approved, bloggers would have to back up claims and disclose if they’re being compensated – the FTC doesn’t currently plan to specify how. The FTC could order violators to stop and pay restitution to customers, and it could ask the Justice Department to sue for civil penalties.

Now, I have no real issue if I have to say that I am compensated, but how am I going to back this up. I give this iPhone App 5 stars, and I have to prove why I did it? The app was given to me for free, but that $.99 freebee apparently might by my loyalty and lies. This shuts down huge reviewing sites, if they have to back it up, and it really messes with everything.

I have an Idea, how about we simply let the bloggers police themselves. As far as I have heard, I have not seen anybody getting nailed for a really good review of a really shitty product. Instead, the readers simply stop trusting the blogger, and the writer loses out in the long run. How about the FCC stay out of this, and actually use tax money for something good.

Side note, you see the ads on the right side, i am paid for those. You see any article by rmb.reviews, i am probably compensated for it. If you sue me, i will hate you forever.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!