Fat Bloggers, Lies and Libel

September 13, 2007

I received an irate comment by an anonymous poster yesterday on this post. The commentor said Shoemoney’s claims that he was defrauded by DMOZ were untrue.

Well I don’t usually take much notice of anonymous posters. And I still think DMOZ are a bunch of tossers for not including my sites in their directory. But I decided to check out Shoemoney’s post again. I also went back to another Shoemoney post - “I used to be fat.” But was he really ever fat?


Both the “fat” post and the “DMOZ” one have this disclaimer underneath them: “I am not a lawyer or an accountant. Any legal or financial advice I give is my opinion based on my experience. Always seek the advice of a professional before acting on something that I might say.

You should assume everything written on this blog is a lie. You should assume I have motivation for linking to everything on this page and will benefit from it somehow. You should assume I am no better then you are and your opinion has just as much weight as mine. You should question everything. You should come up with your own thoughts and opinions and not trust some stupid blogger.”

-Jeremy Schoemaker

It’s funny how readers never noticed the disclaimers on the original blog posts - just shows how blind people can be, including me. Mind you, I didn’t noticed the red haired guy making obscene gestures behind Shoe’s back in this picture either. Did you?

So what can YOU learn from this?

1) Well for a start, don’t believe everything you read on blogs, and use the word alleged a lot, as you run the risk of being sued, if you repeat something defamatory that isn’t true.

2) Use your own legal disclaimer on your blog or website. Here’s a great example of a legal disclaimer.

3) A great link baiting technique would be to tell huge fibs like this one: “Google employee demanded sexual favours in return for PR7″.

And make up a rags to riches story to inspire your readers to empathise with you. It could go something like this. “I was so short that all the kids at school used to tease. My life sucked and I had a rubbish job shovelling shit all day. Then I had a special stretching operation, and now I’m making millions on the internet.”

If you do this, you’ll need to use a disclaimer similar to Shoemoney’s. Just be careful to post the disclaimer after most people have read your post. Your readers might be more alert than Shoe’s and you don’t want them seeing something like that, as they might begin to wonder if anything on your blog or site is true at all. And you could lose your credibility.

Disclaimer: Do your own research before trying out the above techniques. I am just a blogger, not an expert.

This post contains ideas, not facts or suggestions and I won’t be held responsible for any unforseen problems you manage to get yourself into, as a result of reading this blog.

Catherine Lawson

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Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Planning 

Comments

5 Responses to “Fat Bloggers, Lies and Libel”

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  2. Ian on September 14th, 2007 9:00 am

    So true! Not got a disclaimer on mine, but have been very careful not to name the people I was angry at!

    While it’s all true, I haven’t got big pockets to hire a lawyer if the organisations I have talked about were upset by my comments about them.

    And I am now aware that one of them was reading the blog. And I’ve noticed they check in regularly.

    I must have a point, because they did agree to our final offer, even though I’ve not been very kind to them at times.

  3. SEO Optimization on September 14th, 2007 5:01 pm

    Okey now thats a good find. Personally i haven’t actually found that disclaimer but mainly because I rarely read that blog (it’s something I always have had, when i don’t like something since the very beginning it will be hard to like it later, unless that person can prove me he deserves my sympathy) aside that, I don’t find anything interesting to read or learn there (with exceptions of some of the posts).

    But with that disclaimer now I wonder how much often I will have to read on that blog.

    By the way Catherine, thank you for the blogroll ;)

  4. JoLynn Braley on September 14th, 2007 5:41 pm

    Very interesting Catherine….I read about the DMOZ topic on another blog, pureblogging.com, and an editor left a comment with his side of the story….hard to tell which is the truth because I wasn’t there, but it’s all very interesting.

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