Ok, so I stole the title “Keeping them honest” from Anderson Cooper’s 360 podcast – but it fits the topic of this blog post. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I often wrote posts warning small business owners about scams. Most of the time, folks who read my blog say thank you. Every once in a while though, it makes someone really angry.

This week I was reminded of the price that I sometimes pay for trying to keep other web developers and web marketing folks honest. I often write blog articles because I receive emails that I suspect are spam or scams, or because in the course of doing work for a client, come across some unethical practice I want to warn other developers and clients about.

The majority of the time, it works out fine. Folks who read my blog leave me really nice comments thanking me for my efforts. But everyone once in a while, the person or company that I might be warning others about decides to take action against me.

This week I received several emails from a web developer who was very angry that I submitted an inquiry about his company’s multiple listings on Google Maps. Google is the ultimate judge. And Google provides different ways for people to report websites who might be in violation of their policies. But it makes people angry when you report them, which is understandable. It’s much easier to get angry at me, the whistleblower, than at Google, who makes up their own rules and enforces them.

Another side effect of writing these kinds of posts, is that sometimes the angry people will write fake bad reviews about my company and post them online. While some of these reviews were just outrageous and obviously written by a nut, it’s still not fun getting them.

I guess when the bad reviews and angry emails out number the thank-you’s I get from readers, I might reconsider my practice. But for the moment, the praise is greater than the punishment. I think that since there is no standard of web design ethics (like there is for psychologists), using Google’s webmaster quality guidelines is the next best thing. I do my best to help keep small business owners out of trouble and free from scams, and also keep the internet itself free from spam by using Google’s reporting tools. Wish me luck.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 12:52 pm and is filed under the Spam & Scam Watch category. Read other Aldebaran Website Design Blog articles by returning to main blog page. Need a blog added to your website? Click here to read about blog installation services or click here to contact Aldebaran Web Design.