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Posts tagged with 'Ethics'
Back to Work!
Blogathon 2007
27 Hours Left To Pledge
Flash fiction, poetry, & literary tech for Planned Parenthood
Sponsor me! Click Here.
Total Pledged: $95.00 Thank you Lou!
Well today seems down right slow after all that. “All” I had to do was shadow the Frame Ordering lady, record her every motion, then figure out how to document it so the next time she goes on vaca someone will know how to do her job.
Though I did bring the project home with me, I’ll spare you a sample. It’s a bit flat after the last bunch.
Speaking of which, I’m almost to $100!! Come on folks, if I can do that well in 24 hours, there is no reason I can get to $200 by this time tomorrow.
You heard about the incentives? Alright I’ll tell them again
- If you pledge more than $10, I will send you a clean .pdf copy of the Written Justification Blogathon 2007 manuscript, complete with links and graphics.
- If you pledge $25 or more, I will send you the epic conclusion of one of the many stories I started during the Blogathon.
- If you pledge $50 or more I will not only send you the manuscript and a story, but I will let you choose which story I will compete! Just click here or here for the list of what I wrote on Sunday. The just email me what you want to read when you pledge!
Don’t want to give the little machine your personal info? We can make arrangements. Contact me some other way and I’ll see your contribution made real!
[repost] Tips & Leads
Hey there! I write the Denver Blog for HotelsByCity.net. It’s a hotel booking site, like Priceline or Travelocity, and the blog is generally aimed at folks traveling to our great city. It a fairly new project and I’m hoping the devout readers of the Denver LJ might have some tips or leads for me. What is your favorite hang out? Any particularly excellent shopping, spas, clubs or events our tourists should know about? Anything they should avoid like the plague? I’m trying to focus on places unique to Colorado that embrace this area’s urban-granola attitude. Planned entries include a review of the Curious Theater Company’s Aphrodisiac, Top 10 Spas in Denver, and regular restaurant and night club reviews.
The blog updates about twice per week. I’ll link back here and to you in the entry if I take your suggestion. Thanks for your help, fellow Denverites!
EDIT: So, is posting this OK? I want all the information I can get, and I know that networking is the primary way that blogs get noticed. I’ve been doing my footwork solo until now, and would love to get leads about new and interesting places from the general population. Are there any other ways that I could track down places and events to review?
New Blog
I have a new project and an ethical question.
Starting today, I’m writing the Denver Blog for Hotels By City. I plan to post to HBC twice each week to begin with, and the revenue is though Adsense only, so *shrug* …
Now, a blog related ethical question. I have no issue making money from advertisers when I blog. Adsense is not a problem! But what about writining a specific post in order to collect a fee? Pay Per Post is a company that asks its writers to do exactly that. The pay is middling, but the turn around is fast. They also would prefer if you didn’t tell your readers that your post is a blatant advertisement for a certain product, service, or site. I’ve been writing for them occasionally, and have been a bit naughty. I put their posts on Cubed, my personal blog, and those posts are all taged with PPP and use a specific avatar to kinda show that I’m just out for the money.
I would never post PPP’s stuff on my HCB blog, but what about here? What would you think of me? Would you dare? Let me know what you think!
Web Fiction
Publishing on the internet is a slippery slope. Questions of ethics and copyrights are daily concerns. Many publications have exceedingly low pay, inconsistent profit sharing, or don’t pay at all. Traditional publishers are skeptical of web publishing experience because it is such a different world.
The medium is tricky for readers, too. Reading long works on a screen is difficult. Free publications abound, but the quality of writing can be dubious.
Sometimes, however, an author makes the most of a tricky medium and a trickier genre to create a fabulous, intelligent body of work that is as addictive as any novel series I’ve devoured. Introducing I, Robo the personal journal of Nikola Tesla’s atomic powered robot with complete, automatic intelligence.
Well done, Ben.
Ghostwriting Ethics
It is interesting to read the information available about ghostwriting these days. The Counsel of Science Editors, an elite group to which I do not dare aspire, seems to believe that is of justifiable, if questionable, morality but no nurse or academic in his/her right mind would do it.
I personally believe that it is a standard part of the nonacademic world. Business Execs don’t have time to do all of the writing they are required to do, and brilliant ideas are frequently brought to the page by someone with a better feel for the language that he-who-was-inspired.
In academic circles, be you a student, a researcher, or a previously published doc, it is completely unacceptable. It is a secret to be hidden from the world. It is a stain that will ostracize you from your peers until the end of time. Putting you name on someone else’s work? Terrible! Even if the ghost only beefed up your outline or made your dyslexic ramblings into a readable essay.
Yet it is still a common practice. You can buy a prewritten essay only for 20-30 dollars a page or have one custom written for a little more. (Don’t believe me? Google “buy essay” to see the evidence!) How do we reconcile this? I don’t see it as unethical to work for these companies, but I cannot because of the moral code of my university. Writing for a service that would have my clients expelled seems like a good sign that they would expel me too. Damnitall!
Pay Per Post – Rumor & Mystery
“Civilian journalists,” such as myself, have recently become attractive to advertising companies searching for cheap, unique grassroots PR. PayPerPost.com has taken a radical new step. They contract with advertisers for specific subjects they want blogged about, and then pay bloggers to include the information in their personal blogs. I already have Adsence ads in here, so when it’s subject appropriate, I’ll be including their ads on blogs I’m writing.
What is their angle, I wonder? Perhaps they are agents of the black helicopters, using their tracking links to monitor our personal expressions while simultaneously regulating the advertising that receives the most exposure on the web. In that case, it would only be logical that the company’ founder, Ted Murphy, is a CIA spook or an operative for the Department of Homeland Security.
Quagmire
I’m writing a few articles for an ezine that targets 16-24 year old girls in mainland China. The zine is actually camouflaged for a market research survey website intended to provide information about Eastern markets to Western companies.
The name of the site is an edited version of the old slang word for “cheap Asian laborer or Asian slave.” I ran across a message board post that warns that the simplistic writing style demanded by the editor is degrading to Chinese women and the subject matter is a high-handed attempt at Westernizing China.
On the other hand the editor/CEO/ father of this project is a very successful global business man. (Potential patron?) He did address the accusations against him and seems to have a fairly solid plan for marketing this site. The material that he’s asking for is fun and easy to produce and the pay is lovely ($20-30 hourly).
Am I selling out my “art” by indulging in even more artless writing? Am I morally bankrupting myself by writing for a company accused of racism and degrading the cultural connections of Chinese women? Is my family’s need for a financial boost merely an cover up for my own greed?
*pondering*
Nepotism
nepotism
n : favoritism shown to relatives or close friends by those in power (as by giving them jobs)
I adore my friends. We are all very loyal to each other, and we are prone to helping each other in any way possible. This is normal for friends I suppose, but with us is does go a smidgen farther that just the occasional ride to work. 3 of my dearest friends work for a company own by the parents of a 4th friend. This company is frequently in need of contractors of all sorts, and last week that came to include my editing services.
It wasn’t a big job, but it was a great credit for the ol’ resume: proofreading the rules and regulations of a home owners association.
Yay!
Realization of Audience
I’m not the sort of person to assume that people find anything that I do acceptable. “Insecure” is the only word to describe it, though I’ve been told that “neurotic” comes close sometimes. When I write a specific piece for a specific purpose, I imagine it being read by people who will appreciate the piece, but forget the author.
With this blog, I sent out an email when I started it. All of my friends and family got a copy, as well as a few business associates. It’s searchable through Google and Blogger, and I’ve linked to it on my main website. All of these different methods aside, I was still certain that the only person who read it was The Best Friend, who is a champion at showing his support of the silliest little ventures. No one else ever bothered to comment on any of it, that’s for sure. (Spam bots don’t count!)
Then I got a surprise. Within the past few weeks, several of my other good friends and a couple members of my family all mentioned this venue to me in their own special little ways. Yikes!
That’s why my last post was a tad different. Imagine finding out that the people you thought shrugged you off actually put some effort into keeping tabs on you. Shocking. I’d been using this as a journal, and I had gotten it into my mind that no one read it, so why should I worry about anything I say? That bit me back. I guess a certain bit of news got posted here before Dear Husband got around to spreading that same news himself, and he got into trouble. Hence, I also got into trouble.
OK, so here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to suck it up and keep going just how I’ve been going. I’ve been trying to provide an inside view into what I think about my writing and the process of writing. It isn’t exactly Carrie Bradshaw material, but it means being honest and writing just how I have been. If someone out there takes issue with something I’ve posted, listed or noted then post a response or email me. It’s happened at least once now, and in that case we reached a mutual agreeable solution. You never know what could happen.
