I decided to come to your blog because I really enjoyed what you had to say over at TechCrunch.You have a good blog here. Keep up the good work.

Actually, all I’m suggesting is we move towards a Disclosure Policy framework. I think your wording suggestions are great — just call it a Disclosure Policy. The DP Generator is only supposed to move people in the right direction, but the result is supposed to be edited to match a blogger’s actual practices, affiliations and voice — as you are doing. Tools, however rudimentary, are often helpful to drive change.

In your blog’s case, I don’t even see any commercial content, but the concept of a Disclosure Policy still holds true. If readers can always look for a “Disclosure Policy” link they know where to start matching expectations. It also gives you a common place to signal if you ever start taking commercial content, affiliate links, non-cash comp (free product, free passes etc.).

Just like Privacy Policies, there could be a day when the mere absence of a Disclosure Policy could signal “reader beware”. Even that communication is progress from mismatched expectations today. Until then, I am advocating we move in the right direction of customized Disclosure Policies…thanks for taking the time to consider DisclosurePolicy.org and I’d love to see what you draft and link from your site.

I do have a problem with your Disclosure Policy, because it fails to distinguish between accepting advertising and paid splogging. Specificly, under step 2 “compensation”, you use this phrasing

“This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.”

So essentially you’re trying to say that the practice of splogging requires *exactly the same* disclosure statement as having clearly deliniated advertising content.

And that’s just wrong.

I strongly perfer the wording in the Blog Honor pledge, even if it is a bit heavy handed.

—–

I promise to attempt to disclose or clearly mark any content or advertisements or other monetization attempts that help me keep my blog operating

I pledge to never write “fake” blog content solely for the purpose of trying to generate revenue without complete and clear disclosure. With exception, my blog may exist for business purposes, therefore I use it to talk about products & services that relate to my business, thus assisting me in generating leads & sales for me indirectly

—–

It *had* occured to me that I’d better check into the agenda of the the people who wrote that pledge, so that I could be sure I was giving pagerank to the right people – now that you’ve pointed out they’re not necessarily squeaky cleam themselves, I’ll check them out and probably just write my own pledge.

It looks to me like the Blog Honor pledge is mainly a reaction against PPP and although not far from how I feel I think it’s got the wrong focus. I’m a bit busy right now but I’ll ping you once I’ve had a chance to work on my own version.

Starting with the assumption that most people want to be honest (you may debate that), the root of the transparency problem is mismatched audience and blogger expectations. If all audiences had the opportunity to read the Disclosure Policy of the sites they find/frequent and then hold bloggers accountable to what they promise then we’re getting somewhere. Until then, bloggers can claim they make no such promises and/or claim different disclosure promises as the mood/issue hits them (as TC and other A-listers do regularly).

The honor pledge you embrace is a crock of static, fuzzy language that was created by an affiliate link pusher. Given that affiliate links actually provide an incentive to deceive (blogger only gets paid if they convince audience to click/buy) but sponsored posts provide no payment for specific clicks, I think you’re confusing your PPP/disclosure arguments.

A Disclosure Policy framework is key to matching blogger/audience expectations and moving towards a more transparent world of consumer generated media. DisclosurePolicy.org provides a central place to share best practices and create a DP. There is even a tool to kickstart a DP that should be customized to match blogger practices and voice. It’s a beta version and improvement feedback is encouraged. New bloggers can learn from your transparency experience/input. Heck, adopt one yourself and link to it alongside your honor pledge.

I can see why you’re concerned about PPP — there are plenty of arguments for all sides. I’d suggest that not blind you to the potential of a ubiquitous Disclosure Policy framework.

Keep the ideas flowing…