We've received a lot of thoughtful and passionate feedback regarding the
ban on URL links in letters and comments. As a result, we've made the
decision to once again allow URL links in letters and comments under the
following guidelines:

1. The only links which should be placed in letters and comments are those
which contribute to the conversation in a positive manner and are helpful
in nature.

2. Links to other blogs and websites for the purposes of advertising are
not allowed. This is a very subjective area and we will make the final
decision what constitutes advertising and what doesn't.

3. The practice of digging up everything someone has ever said either on
this site or other sites and posting into a new letter or comment for the
purpose of embarrassing them or trying to discredit them is no longer
allowed.

Back when there was a Mr. Helpful's TipJar Podcast, we got several emails
that asked where the opening music came from.

It came from my son's band at the time, The Jezebel Diary. My son was the
drummer in the band.

I decided to feature the whole song on here for those who're interested and
what better way to do that than to show the guys playing it live. So that's
what you see in the top half of this blog...The Jezebel Diary playing the
song Ribbon Candy live at a club in Seattle, Washington that used to be
known as Graceland.

-Greg
PlanetFeedback's Mr. Helpful

We'd like to make the following points:

1. Actually, there IS harm done when PFB letter
writers choose not to share their letters publicly.
PFB's "leverage" on behalf of letter writers comes
directly from the implied power that's associated with
sharing that letter writer's experience with the
internet. Companies are scared to death of negative
publicity, especially when it comes from one of their
actual customers regarding an actual incident. If
there were no shared letters then the effectiveness of
PFB would be drastically reduced. And the simple fact
is the percentage of shared letters to overall letters
has dropped significantly in the past year.

In addition, the presence of shared letters allows for
discussion of the issues contained therein. This is
where comments come in. If there are no shared
letters then there is no commentary.

2. When letter writers send "venomous, demanding,
ridiculous" letters, those letters are being sent to a
company. When a commenter leaves a similarly situated
comment on that letter, they are writing to the person
directly. There is a WORLD of difference between the
two and that difference forms the basis for our
request that commenters leave constructive feedback.

Companies are in the business of receiving feedback of
all kinds and in all shapes from their customers.
They are perfectly capable of deciding which PFB
complaints are worthwhile and which aren't. In fact,
we respect their ability to do so. PFB exists to
enable consumers to share their feedback, in all shapes and forms,
with companies; ESPECIALLY when that
consumer feels the company hasn't been listening to
them.

To quote Pete directly: "Our site's default behavior
is to respect and listen to the consumer voice. If any
of you have issues with this approach, the beautiful
diversity of the web presents many other options like
"CustomersSuck.com"."

3. We appreciate the concern that some members of the
community have for PFB's reputation amongst
businesses. Every letter sent through PFB goes into
a queue and must be physically sent. Those letters
that we believe don't do us justice are not sent on to
companies even though they may appear on our site. If
companies view us with trepidation, it's NOT because
of the occasional silly letter which may pass through
the gate...it's because we give their customers power
that might not normally be there (Voice Of One...The
Power Of Many). Letters that are whiny, demanding or
ridiculous are not an affront to the PFB community in
the least...they are an example of PFB letter writers
using their voice in the manner they see fit. The
ability for other users to comment is an opportunity
to provide balance to the letter and we encourage
folks to do so in a constructive fashion.

Finally, we think Compliment Week is an excellent
concept. The thought occurs to us that why limit it
to a week? Why not use it as a guiding principle from
here on out? Why not respond only to positive letters
and those which have a complaint but are well written?
And, in the process, just leave those bad, crazy
letters alone. Much has been said about how the Top
Twenty Five letters list is filled with controversial,
over the top silliness. Well, the only reason they're
there is because PFB users are responding to them. If
you dont respond to them then they will not show up in
the Top Twenty Five list. If you only respond to
letters that are positive and good then only those
letters will appear there (assuming there's twenty
five of them, of course).

Over the past couple of days, we've seen several comments from
community members which talk about how good they feel seeing this
burst of positive energy. So let's continue compliment week, forever,
shall we? And, as we do, those letters that the community finds
offensive will sink to the bottom of the pond of obscurity; weighed
down by their own irrelevance.

Are you with us?

Our ShopperCast
blog is hosted on the TypePad platform.

TypePad is the second largest pure
blogging service on the internet today (LiveJournal and MySpace are
considered hybrids). Google's Blogger is the biggest however a lot of that
is because they are free. TypePad charges a small monthly fee however, in
return for that payment, you get a much more robust application.

PlanetFeedback's ShopperCast has been chosen as a featured blog on TypePad.


On Friday, February 23, ShopperCast will be highlighted on TypePad's main
page for the whole day and will be listed in their directory of featured
blogs. Only one blog, out of thousands, is chosen for each day.

We're very excited about this opportunity to expose ShopperCast to an even
larger audience and thank TypePad for their choice. Jeffrey's posts have
been awesome so far and are a big part of the reason we were chosen for
this honor.

ShopperCast truly is the inside track on shopping!

We've created a blog called PFB's ShopperCast which highlights consumer
issues in the context of PFB letters as well as the world beyond our
planet.

Here's a link to the blog:

http://planetfeedback.typepad.com/shopping/

Even better, it's authored by one of our own, Jeffrey, a PFB regular who
always has something interesting to say. Jeffrey's posts are slightly edgy
yet always helpful.

We want to build a network of ShopperCast bloggers who'll create posts on a
regular basis. If you'd like to join Jeffrey as a ShopperCast blogger, send
a short blurb to greg@planetfeedback.com telling us why you would make a
great addition to the team! We'll review all submissions and let you know
if you make the cut.

There's been renewed speculation that the Top 25 lists are being
manipulated by PFB admin so as to keep controversial letters and blogs in
the forefront in order to drive traffic.

We do have several strategies in place to drive traffic however
manipulating the Top 25 lists and lying to users about it is not one of
them.

We placed the blurb about both lists being generated by computer under the
list titles for two reasons:

1. It's true
2. We thought it would help end speculation that somehow we were playing
around with the list.

Here are the things that PFB admin are able to do with letters:

1. Hide letters from public view
2. Delete letters completely from the database
3. Edit letters
4. Tag letters so they appear in the 15 Minutes Of Fame
5. Untag letters so they no longer appear in the 15 Minutes Of Fame
6. Send the letters to companies from the queue.

That's all we can do with letters. Even if we wanted to play around with
the Top 25 lists (which we don't), we couldn't. We simply don't have a
mechanism for doing so.

We were as surprised as anyone that a couple of inactive members had blogs
which showed up in the Top 25. We've made the assumption it's the
combination of a lot of posts along with a lot of replies which has kept
them there. Earlier today, we asked our IT guys for an explanation for how
this might happen. When we get that explanation, we'll pass it on to the
site users.

Based on previous suggestions by previous PFB users and, most recently, PFB
user Eunice and aided by an excellent suggestion from PFB user Calm, we are
proud to announce the Letter Writing Help blog! This will be a place where
letter writers can "test drive" their letter before sending it to
companies. PFB community members are welcome to offer tips and suggestions
on how to improve the letter for the benefit of the writer.

Here is the link to the blog:

http://www.planetfeedback.com/index.php?level2=account_public&user_id=
651510

Because this is to be a supportive and colloborative effort, it's only fair
to ask that everyone check their snark at the door when entering the Letter
Writing Help blog. Thanks!

Over the course of the weekend, a comment was removed from a PFB blog
because it was considered vulgar. Since then, we've had an internal debate
about whether we really wanted to do this since we've tried to allow the
blogs to be "hands off".

What caused this debate was the appearance of the Top 25 Blog list. This
list makes it a lot easier for folks to randomly access the blogs so there
was some concern that folks might get easily offended.

We've made the decision to keep the "hands off" policy with regards to the
PFB blogs.

Therefore, all PFB users are cautioned that they may find content and
language in the blogs which wouldn't be allowed in the letters and
comments.