Rules for Review

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Apparently, I'm drawing enough of an audience through this blog that various folks
have started to send me press releases and notifications and requests for... well,
I dunno exactly, but I'm assuming some blogging love of some kind. I'm always a little
leery about that particular subject, because it always has this dangerous potential
to turn the blog into a less-credible marketing device, but people at conferences
have suggested that they really are interested in what I think about various products
and tools, so perhaps it's time to amend my stance on this.

With that in mind, if you are a vendor and have a product that you'd like me to take
a look at and (possibly) offer up a review here, here's the basic rules:

1. No guarantees. Sending me something will in no way guarantee that I will review your
   product, for several reasons, two of which being (a) I get really busy sometimes,
   and (b) I may have no interest whatsoever in your product and I refuse to pretend
   to do so. (Readers can usually tell when the reviewer isn't all that excited about
   the subject, I've found.)
2. If you're not going to send me a "real" version (meaning not the time-locked or feature-crippled
   demo), don't bother. I have no idea when I will get around to a review, and I have
   no desire to review something that isn't "the real deal". I will in turn promise that
   the licensed version you send me (if necessary) will not be used for any purpose other
   than my own research and exploration (signing contract if necessary to give you that
   "fresh-from-the-lawyer's-office" warm and fuzzy feeling).
3. I say what I think, pro and con. I will not edit my review to suit your marketing
   purpose, and if you ask me to do so I will simply note in the review that you have
   asked me to do so. I retain full editorial control over what I say about your product.
4. Having established #1, I will try to be as fair as I can about your product, and point
   out things that I liked and things that I didn't. (Of course, if I hated it from top
   to bottom, I may end up with the only positive thing being "It didn't set the atmosphere
   on fire when I started the app", but hey, that's something positive, right?)
5. Also in the spirit of #1, if you send me mail answering questions or complaints in
   my review, I will of course amend the review with your comments. You are always welcome
   to post comments to the blog entry itself, too. Unless you insult my grandmother,
   then I will have to get all DELETE-key on you.

The reason I'm posting this here is twofold: one, so my faithful audience of four
blog readers will know the rules under which I'm looking at these products and (hopefully)
realize that I'm not financially vested in any of these products, and two, so the
various vendor folks can read this and know what the rules are up front before even
asking.

I know it sounds a little cheeky to lay this out. The image I get in my head is that
of the kid at Christmas declaring to his grandparents as they walk through the door,
presents in hand, "Make sure it's not a scratchy sweater, I hate scratchy sweaters.
And G.I. Joe was only popular when my Dad was a kid. And if you give me another lunchbox
I will scream until you buy me something cool, like a new GameBoy." Ugh. But I value
the trust that people seem to have in me, and so I risk the perception of cheekiness
for this tiny window in time in order to (hopefully) establish full disclosure over
the reviews that come to pass (which, by the way, will always have the category "review"
applied to them, so you know which is an official review and which is just me exploring,
like the LLVM and Parrot posts of recent time).

We now return you to the regularly-scheduled blog.

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