No strings attached

Well the whole of teh intarweb it would seem is running hot with the whole M$ Ferrari free review unit ethics debacle.

As I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t think there is a problem with microsoft doing this.  Their ethics are only questionable in that some bloggers then have a hard time dealing with the equipment (too time-consuming to return with a no thank you note).

The ethics question only really comes into play with regard to disclosure. An ethical blogger will disclose the fact, no question.

To me it’s more a question of credibility.  If a blogger posts on their site that they have received a shiny ferrari laptop running vista, and it was the best ever user experience they have had, and go on to say how they came to have it and in fact they still own it, or gave it to their ex, or the homeless shelter or whatever, then that’s all dandy.  People may even rush out and buy one based on their recommendation.

If in a month’s time they mention the new office chair they have, and how great it is, and how wonderful the manufacturer is for sending them the chair, unsolicited and allowing them to keep it, or give it to their kid sister or the kid dumpster diving out back, that’s fine too.  i may even check it out, my wife needs a new chair.

Then say, hypothetically like, they post about this great cell phone that arrived in the post, unsolicited, and how vodafone sent it asking for a review, and how, by the way they are allowed to keep it.

If one were an astute reader, and perhaps even a conspiracy theorist, then one may believe that they can see a pattern forming.  The blogger’s ethics are unquestionable – full disclosure every time – great – fantastic even – stand up guy!

But would you buy a used car from this man?

I’ve read bloggers that do this often, many times they don’t disclose, certainly they didn’t in the days before the practice was widely known.  Their ethics suck.

I’m sure most of the people MS chose were good solid bloggers that have a good history of disclosure and well thought out reviews.  It would be a huge PR blunder not to.

Most will probably finish up with reputations intact, but it is up to us – the readers to let them know we don’t like being duped.