Virtua Gallery - A photographic Journal

The blogging world is exploding everywhere. No niche that isn’t covered, no topic that does not
have their bloggers.
While that is all good and well - the disturbing fact is - that blogs are no longer what we got used to.
True - you have to take everything on the internet with a grain of salt. But it appears that a grain
won’t do any longer. What about a metric ton?

For the longest time blogs were more or less a tool for opinion (as o the cuff it might be) and of personal
expression. And that was just right. That made it fun and interesting. A reader was getting insight into
the mindset of others, new information, fun, food for thought and fun all over the place.

The next step was that we began to see advertisement and - oh, well - a professional blogger needs
to live - so what the heck, we can live with that. Especially since we have AD-Block.

But more recently there is a new wave of bloggers out there, hoping to profit from their blog and to
make it big in the internet world. And along with them “How to make money on the internet!” sites
are popping up faster than you can comprehend and behind them the real Pro’s.
They promise and deliver money for bloggers. And they do that by letting Bloggers blog about preset
topics and pay them certain amounts of money. Quite obvious that the industry chips in big time,
and so the Jane and John Doe’s in the blogging world all over sudden advance to reviewers and
start to recommend products.
Admittedly it is funny in times - see some of the examples I collected, but at the bottom
line it is more disconcerting than it is entertaining.

And those reviews I show are those, who have actually seen the product. The average reviewing
blogger won’t usually have that privilege.
A person is reviewing sneakers, that they never laid their eyes on, not to mention their feet in, others
review an instrument and come to the conclusion that it is good, because it has strings.

Equally frightening for the integrity of today’s blogging world is the fact that the truth (This is a paid
advertisement) is knowingly obfuscated in many cases. Either it is not mentioned at all, or you see
a “Sponsored by” button at the bottom of a post. And only a few state that they are actually being paid
to review. The general regulations on marking advertisements went overboard in the blogging world,
making the post appear genuine for the unsuspecting reader.

And while I was doing a software review myself today it came to me. Holy cow - people probably think
I’m plugging something.

So after a short review of my options, I decided to do two things. One writing this article and the other
being making it unmistakingly clear - that I am independent. That the opinion I utter is actually my own
and that I’m not in the pocket of anyone. And so I created badges - that bloggers, who feel like me
can copy and place on their site, linking to a statement of independence of the author.

Here they are:

And here are the examples I promised. Get a kick out of them, but mourn a little too, will ya?

Cry or laugh Part1 - I have to go out and buy right away.

Cry or laugh Part2 - Medication and a Movie. And a pitcher.

Cry or laugh Part3 - a 5 out of 5