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.

My beloved URLs are back! Thanks for reviewing this policy.

as to why the comments in the Red Robin letter were removed. Bill posted a
link that contributed to the conversation and was helpful.

Sometimes it helps people to see the response is in the spirit of being
helpful, especially if the issue that's being addressed involves a
company's own website, policies, and terms.

Thanks for considering everyone's comments and for the clear communication.

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

I am the founder of PlanetFeedback. I'm writing to share my thoughts
regarding some of our community dynamics; especially "comments".

This site was founded in February 2000 with the goal of respecting and
empowering the consumer voice. Our mission statement makes this clear and
unapologetic:

"We will help consumers reward companies that serve them best. Consumer
feedback positive and negative is inherently productive. Consumers want
value, and they will provide loyalty in return. We are committed to making
that exchange easy,frequent and rewarding."

This remains our goal and I daresay it is more important than ever.
Embracing the consumer is hardly "anti" business. In fact, as a marketer
trained at one of the largest corporations, Procter & Gamble, I can assure
you that businesses today are embracing the consumer voice like never
before. Companies recognize that consumers have greater control and power
and they are beginning to pay attention.

Our "comments" serve the objective of expanding and enriching the
conversation around our letters for the benefit of all visitors. We're not
looking for a pipeline of "happy-grams" nor are we looking for uncritical
consensus. We welcome and encourage debate and we deeply value the power of
diverse voices entering the conversation.

We've received many letters from customer service representatives who've
noted that some of the best suggestions and solutions for how they can
better address the issue raised in the letter emerged in the comments. Some
even use the comments for call center training and brainstorming.

This leads to my request of every community member. Let's keep our great
conversation constructive and value-added - always! Let's also hold each
other accountable for the highest quality dialogue. Criticism is fine but
personal attacks or comments unrelated to the letter at hand have no place
on this site. If you feel compelled to attack because you suspect
letter-writing abuse, excessive "freeloading," or personal identity
manipulation by certain letter writers, hold your fire and just let us
know.

Recently, quite a few first-time visitors have been leaving the site in
total disgust because they've been presumed guilty before they finish
their first sentence. That's not what this site is about. 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".

I absolutely love this site, and like so many of you, want it to be
something truly great -- something we can all be proud of.

Thanks so much for listening.

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.