3 ms·

Do you say "in exchange for a review," or "in exchange for a positive review?" There's a reason newspapers' editorial and advertising departments are separate.

freehunter 10y ago
My contracts with local businesses do not guarantee a positive review. Usually the agreement is along the lines of "have to write so many words with so many pictures and mention the article on X, Y, and Z social media outlets X number of times over the course of Y many days", but I and my other writers reserve the right to say whatever we want to say in that article. Obviously it's bad for business to badmouth stuff we got for free, so we're actually pretty picky about what we accept. If I don't like eating at a restaurant, I won't accept free stuff from them on behalf of the business. I've been offered services by a hair salon in town but it doesn't line up with my demographic so I won't accept the contract because I wouldn't want to write about them. I've turned down two offers from the local bowling alley because I'm not going to have much nice to say about it. But no one is guaranteed to get a good review. I've written some reviews I would describe as "hopeful", in that "I'm hopeful they'll get better soon" mostly with regards to brand new restaurants where the kitchen is still finding its groove. Everything that I write is my opinion and is clearly marked as such, even while it's also marked as something I was given for free in exchange for my honest opinion.
- username223 10y ago
  > I've turned down two offers from the local bowling alley because I'm not going to have much nice to say about it. To maintain your credibility, you should review it pro bono; for bonus points, note that they previously tried to pay you twice. Otherwise it would be honest to clearly disclose that you mostly/only write positive reviews, albeit via selection bias rather than outright lying. I've written product reviews before, always either for stuff I bought or stuff received via an intermediary (i.e. X sends me Y's thing, I send my review to X). The whole "sponsored content" model makes me long for the days of flashing banner ads.
  - freehunter 10y ago
    Oh don't worry I have a whole section linked in the header that lists out our advertising policy so readers can see the same terms I offer to sponsors. It even details my "anti-clickbait" policy where my headlines are guaranteed to be descriptive. I also do a lot that I don't get paid for and is not marked as sponsored content. Again on those I don't go negative, whether I'm being paid or not, whether I've been asked to write something or not. There's just enough negativity in the media that I don't want to contribute to that: what I'm selling is the way I want my city to make people feel. You should be happy to live here, let me show you how that's done. I'd link you to it so you could see all the details but it's personally identifying right down to my first name and the street I live on in my city, so I'm not comfortable linking my HN name with that. It's funny to me that whenever I mention this side project on HN it always gets a lot of interest from people wondering if I'm being honest to my readers and giving advice of how I can be more honest. Guess it goes to show that there isn't a lot of honesty left in this world.
    - username223 10y ago
      > There's just enough negativity in the media that I don't want to contribute to that... I'd link you to it so you could see all the details but it's personally identifying I respect that. But 90% of everything is crap, and this is a forum created to worship shameless hustling. Negative reviews are important.

freehunter 10y ago

My contracts with local businesses do not guarantee a positive review. Usually the agreement is along the lines of "have to write so many words with so many pictures and mention the article on X, Y, and Z social media outlets X number of times over the course of Y many days", but I and my other writers reserve the right to say whatever we want to say in that article. Obviously it's bad for business to badmouth stuff we got for free, so we're actually pretty picky about what we accept. If I don't like eating at a restaurant, I won't accept free stuff from them on behalf of the business. I've been offered services by a hair salon in town but it doesn't line up with my demographic so I won't accept the contract because I wouldn't want to write about them. I've turned down two offers from the local bowling alley because I'm not going to have much nice to say about it. But no one is guaranteed to get a good review. I've written some reviews I would describe as "hopeful", in that "I'm hopeful they'll get better soon" mostly with regards to brand new restaurants where the kitchen is still finding its groove. Everything that I write is my opinion and is clearly marked as such, even while it's also marked as something I was given for free in exchange for my honest opinion.

username223 10y ago
> I've turned down two offers from the local bowling alley because I'm not going to have much nice to say about it. To maintain your credibility, you should review it pro bono; for bonus points, note that they previously tried to pay you twice. Otherwise it would be honest to clearly disclose that you mostly/only write positive reviews, albeit via selection bias rather than outright lying. I've written product reviews before, always either for stuff I bought or stuff received via an intermediary (i.e. X sends me Y's thing, I send my review to X). The whole "sponsored content" model makes me long for the days of flashing banner ads.
- freehunter 10y ago
  Oh don't worry I have a whole section linked in the header that lists out our advertising policy so readers can see the same terms I offer to sponsors. It even details my "anti-clickbait" policy where my headlines are guaranteed to be descriptive. I also do a lot that I don't get paid for and is not marked as sponsored content. Again on those I don't go negative, whether I'm being paid or not, whether I've been asked to write something or not. There's just enough negativity in the media that I don't want to contribute to that: what I'm selling is the way I want my city to make people feel. You should be happy to live here, let me show you how that's done. I'd link you to it so you could see all the details but it's personally identifying right down to my first name and the street I live on in my city, so I'm not comfortable linking my HN name with that. It's funny to me that whenever I mention this side project on HN it always gets a lot of interest from people wondering if I'm being honest to my readers and giving advice of how I can be more honest. Guess it goes to show that there isn't a lot of honesty left in this world.
  - username223 10y ago
    > There's just enough negativity in the media that I don't want to contribute to that... I'd link you to it so you could see all the details but it's personally identifying I respect that. But 90% of everything is crap, and this is a forum created to worship shameless hustling. Negative reviews are important.