Policies

Ethical Blogging

I believe in professional and personal ethics and integrity. I have set out some policies for myself and contributors in order to ensure that I can go to sleep at night worry-free.

Photographs

• All individuals portrayed in photographs on this website have given their permission for their photo to be displayed.
• Individuals under the age of 18 are typically not displayed on this website; yes, this includes my own children. In the event that I use a photograph of a child for publicity purposes of any sort, there has been a model release signed.
• Photographs of peoples’ homes, gardens, or other personal belongings are not displayed without permission.

Reviews

• All reviews are honest. I do not exaggerate or tell white-lies in order to increase positive marketing. I do, however, believe in fair and balanced reviews.
• All opinions are my own, unless expressed explicitly otherwise, and do not reflect those of my employer or any other individual.
• In the event of a product exchange for a review, all reviews are posted within seven days of receiving the product unless otherwise specified.
• I only accept products in exchange for reviews if I am honestly interested in the product.
• I often review products just because I liked them or disliked them and wanted to share and not in exchange for receiving the product.
• I will always tell you how I received the product (from a friend, I bought it, from the company).
• I will always tell you if I have a personal connection to the company or if there is any possible conflict of interest.
• If you think I might be interested in reviewing your product, feel free to e-mail me. I will respond to you within 48 hours (unless I am on vacation or otherwise out of electronic contact at which point you will get an auto-response stating such). I reserve the right to say no, but I will always respond and I will be pleasant to work with. Promise.

Advertisements

• I am in a contract with BlogHer Ads for advertising purposes. The funds from advertising are used to pay for the hosting and web domain, because I am not made from money. Half of all excess funds will be put back into the site via giveaways. The other half is my payment so that I can get nicer camera equipment. We all have to fund our hobbies.

Comment Moderation

• I do not delete comments when the content disagrees with me or otherwise criticizes me. In fact, I encourage dissenting opinions because that is how we all learn!
• You may flag comments that you feel are spam, inappropriate, or against the zeitgeist of our site. I will moderate those comments if there are enough flags to warrant it (over 10).

Can you think of any other ethical standards I should be adopting?