Dirty Pool or Just Business?

Following up on the same basic theme as yesterday’s post (and thanks for the great comments, everyone!), I was wondering how people feel about posts on blogs and sites that comment on different penny auction sites, whether they’re affiliated with a penny auction site themselves or not.

For instance, if BPD also owned a penny auction “watchdog” site (which we don’t! ), and on that watchdog site, we editorialized in a way that was less than flattering of another PA site, I imagine you’d question our motivation. I know I sure would.

I know there are a couple such sites out there that are affiliated with an auction site. But they’re not always up-front about it. The blog doesn’t even have to initiate negative comments… sometimes just a question to the readers, posed the right way, can prompt negativity, that isn’t so obvious.

For instance: “Just wondering if anyone here has experienced any problems with late or missing shipments from XYZ? Inquiring minds want to know…” You can see how that kind of “plants the seed” that there may be an issue on that site, even though they didn’t really say that. Unfortunately, it happens.

Personally, I think that’s dirty pool. If you’re going to editorialize, at least be honest (transparent) about who you really are, so people know what they’re dealing with. I’m not talking about informational and instructional sites that offer tips and hints, like we do here. I mean review or watchdog stuff… just doesn’t seem kosher to me.

Still, reading the comments on sites like that can be informative, I think. If, for instance, I see a comment that’s very supportive of a site that’s getting some low blows, then I figure it’s one of two things: