Some of you may have seen Brandon ‘s recent post about his experiences with iPhone app review sites that demanded payment in order to review an iPhone app, or to agree to review it sooner. As Brandon mentioned at that time, that ‘s not (at all) the way we ‘ve ever chosen to do things, and likely never will be.
For those who didn ‘t happen to catch Brandon ‘s post, and just for the sake of ‘getting it out there ‘, it seems worthwhile to mention here a few of our policies on this subject:
We do not request or accept any sort of payment – ever – for mentioning an iPhone app, covering an app, or reviewing an app.
The above policy applies to any app that is advertised on this site as well. Apps / apps publishers who advertise here are treated 100% the same as those who don ‘t. No guaranteed mentions or reviews because of an ad placement. All potential new advertisers are told these things right up front.
Here is how we choose to mention an app on this site:
* One of us finds it interesting
Here is how we choose to review an app on this site:
* One of us finds it interesting and / or useful enough to want to review it
We try our best to produce thorough and fair reviews. Hopefully we manage this most of the time. One thing we can guarantee though – all of the time – is that our posts and reviews are *not* paid for. If you see an app covered here, it ‘s because we thought enough of it to want to cover it.
We are also members of OATS – the recently formed Organization for App Testing Standards. Here is a brief description of the mission of OATS:
O.A.T.S. is a group of sites that were brought together with the goal of improving the editorial ethics and standards in the emerging world if iPhone application and game review sites. It’s a new industry, with a lot of people without any editorial experience doing some great work. We want foster that, but for this area to succeed, we need to have proper editorial standards upheld by this new segment of review journalists.
Just above are some mini-banners for the sites currently participating in OATS. And here ‘s just a quick excerpt from the oath taken by all the participating sites:
WE, THE CONSTITUENT SITES OF THE ORGANIZATION OF APP TESTING STANDARDS, have gathered under the auspices of O.A.T.S. with a common goal: to improve the quality of iPhone games and App criticism. While we applaud the great diversity of opinion now available to consumers looking for iPhone App reviews, it is equally clear to us that not all of these sources have put the best interests of the readership first. We hope to combat such unscrupulous journalism by holding ourselves to a higher standard.
TO THAT END:
1) WE PLEDGE to never mix business with editorial. We reject all forms of paid reviews, including "express reviewing" fees. Advertising on an O.A.T.S. site will have no bearing whatsoever on whether we decide to review an App, or on the nature of coverage we give it, when and if we do;
You can read the full oath and check out all the detail on this new organization at its home page, HERE.
I ‘ve also updated our ‘About ‘ page to clearly state our policies on these subjects.
I hope that at least some of you will support our policies in this area, and that even those who don ‘t will be able to respect it. Having said that, we ‘d love to hear your views on this, regardless of whether you agree with our thoughts and policies in this area.
That should be it for ‘site stuff ‘ type posts today “ I ‘ll get back to iPhone posts tomorrow, promise. 🙂
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