VOIP etc > Voice Over IP - VOIP > VOIP Tech Chat > How honest is VoIP blogging?

How honest is VoIP blogging?

FYI, Jeff Pulver runs FWD. I believe he is friendly with Packet8 and Vonage, given that he has peering relationships with both providers.

I don't think anyone is trying to disguise this as pure & unbiased journalism.

reply to voipblogger
AT&T CV support has slipped and told members that they are on BBR, yet they won't register openly as AT&T.
Voip2 has had many threads here Locked by mods.
Packet8 is know as member P8Support here on BBR.
An Rep. of Broadvox direct posts here as an Rep.
Others are or have tried but are generally pointed out.

If anyone can add to this list please do.

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Edit: I goofed between owner and rep w/ broadvox direct.

reply to voipblogger
Vonage used to frequent this site as vonage_rep but I don't think they're doing that anymore.

reply to voiplover
schnauze used to post for Packet8 back in December 02/January 03.

reply to voiplover
Just as a correction to your post. I am not an owner of Broadvox. I do however work for and represent the company.
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Jeffery Williams
CIO
Broadvox, Llc

reply to voipblogger
People read me? Cool.

For my work at least, I try and keep it real. I am a human that makes mistakes, though, and I try to own up to them.

It might not be a bad idea to do a full disclosure on myself as a future blog entry in case there is any question of my intentions and motivations.
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The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of anyone else, including the poster.

PhoneBoy - I find your site invaluable - especially re: BVX stuff

reply to The Way Out
3 days since Schnauze has been around.
4 weeks 4 days for Vonage_rep
43 weeks 2 days since a big shot from my ISP has been back
1 hour for jeffpulver
19 weeks 6 days for another Vonage person

As the 4th most popular forum on DSLR, there must be other lurkers around, . . .

BTW, I have much respect for the bloggers mentioned.
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Jim -- USA2K
SEE: |DCWU |FAH |PICS |BVX REVIEW |
FWD, Vonage 01-28-03, & BVX 07-05-04

reply to voipblogger
Achen: "pure & unbiased journalism" -- I'm not sure what pure and unbiased journalism is, but each area of journalism has certain standards. For example, in news reporting the reporter is generally supposed to report both sides of a story. Whereas, in an opinion column, it is fully expected that only one side will be represented. Both are valid forms of journalism. Blogs are a form of journalism as well, with their own emerging set of standards. To me, blogs are at their best when they are opinionated and represent the views of one person. I think blogs are less successful as sources of news, because they lack the infrastructure needed to provide complete news coverage even in a specialty niche, but that doesn't mean they're useless as news sources. Very often, as mentioned by voipblogger, the blogs report stories that don't make it into any of the traditional news sources.

PhoneBoy: "full disclosure" -- Good luck! Full disclosure is essentially an unattainable goal. The best you can do is disclose significant conflicts of interest. Beyond that, disclosure has the potential to become a red herring, or worse it can be like the Super Fun Ball commercial with its endless disclaimers. Far more important than disclosure is to remain independent and true to oneself.

reply to voipblogger
There is always going to be some "biased" reporting in a blog.

For a while (not a blog but...) I ran a list of "all" the Israeli ISP's. It contained all the "big" ones and a couple smaller ones. There was one big one I refused to include however because their service is just so inferior to the competition (pings with them to P8 would standardly range from 250ms-1000ms with a promise of at least 1-2% dropped packets (pathetic)). I disclosed I may not include everyone by error or because I just didn't like them but I didn't list specifically who I choose not to include (cover my rear end in case the ISP tried to send a lawyer).

I am thinking soon of posting a new site with info on all the various ISP's in Israel and "all" the VOIP players. I am sure with VOIP many of the "smaller" providers will get ignored which I am sure will tick off some people but...

reply to voipblogger
I find it somewhat interesting that someone posts here and on my blog about an issue yet hides behind the cloak of being anonymous.

Here are the facts: The posts on my blog mentioned are still there, and are still viewable even though they were from someone who used an email address user@user.net twice. The desire to remain annonymous by that person gave me a reason to be concerned about the accuracy of the comments. My error. I was wrong on that point, but heck, I'm human.

Following my request for that poster come out of the annonymous closet, I was hit with three or four successive comment spam type posts, none of which was on topic, and what's worse some were sexually suggestive in nature.

While I don't get time to edit everyone, those were all so close in timing that I blocked the IP addresses and deleted those posts of the sexually objectionable comments, leaving the two from "Mr. Anonymous" on the site. I also turned comments off.

The issue that night with AT&T is still a mystery to me. Like some other bloggers and reporters I seek to maintain good relationships with the PR directors of all the companies I cover, and enjoy that type of rapport with Vonage, AT&T, BroadVoice, Packet 8, etc. That's why readers who have privately messaged me with serious issues get in front of those people and usually get their problems addressed, if not solved. The CallVantage PR contact I usually reach out to is on vacation until Monday, and I'm sure, just as with all my other questions I'll get an answer that's accurate dealing with what caused the outage, not some reported comment from a tech support person.

Like so many people here, I've learned not to trust the support person fully, and have even been critical back to the PR contacts at a few VoIP companies based on my own experiences.

The difference is I can and do have access to the PR people because of my role as co-host of KenRadio.com's World Technology RoundUp and as a blogger. Six years of being on the air and years more of being in the PR profession, something I don't hide, also gives me the ability to relate to them on a professional peer level.

Given I was on the road without my ATA, I could not validate the problem. I did have "locate me" working and fully functional so initially my reaction was it was and could have been a likely scenario.

My only mistake was not checking this board before I replied on the blog to the anonymous user. My error. I was wrong.

There was an outage. I make mistakes just like everyone else and admit them.

The great thing about this country is that everyone is entitled to an opinion, just as the person who started this thread has expressed.

That said, the differnce between a comment on a blog and a reply to editorial content in a local newspaper has one big difference. If the person does not supply a real address and name in the reply to news article that about guarantees the circular file and kills any chance of the comment being published. On a blog, with comments permitted, anyone with access can post away, anonymous or otherwise.

A few weeks back at BloggerCon and then at dinner with other bloggers I discussed the point of anonymous comments versus those that are commenting with a true identity.
While this is not the right forum to discuss that, even before this thread I have given thought about deleting all "non-valid email" address comments, and remain unsure to this day about that.

However, this thread has given me ample food for thought, for I consider my VoIP blog journalism, not a watercooler for rumours and inuendo....and even though I, like other bloggers express opinion, I do seek to "report" and "comment" on stories or tips, and draw what I hope are the right conclusions long before others do.

I'm glad this issue was raised, as it is what keeps me on the mark and dedicated to delivering the kind of journalism many of your want to know about, just as PhoneBoy, Leonardo, Om, Jeff Pulver, James Enck, Martin Geddes and others do day in and day out.

reply to voipblogger
I personally hold all of those VoIP bloggers in high regard. As for completely unbiased journalism...that doesn't and never has existed. But I think these guys do a good job. I read Andy's blog often and I think he just enjoys his service but does take a critical look at and has posted about problems in the past. How often do you actually read his blog?

I think a better title for your thread would be "How honest and unbiased are anonymous posters?" I have yet to see one that is....why do you remain anonymous?
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bryan | website

*Sigh* There you go again...

On this board at least, the distinction is not between "anonymous" and "non-anonymous", as you imply. Instead, they have registered and unregistered users (it's unfortunate that they print the word "anonymous" next to the posts of unregistered users, because that clouds the issue in people's minds). And either type of user may choose to reveal very little detail about themselves, or quite a bit (an anonymous user could do so by including a tag line).

We have some people on this board who are registered, and who are very biased, or at least one would assume they are, because they are in management postions at various VoIP companies. But in some cases one would never know that abut them, unless they had chosen to reveal it. Note that a person could be a registerd user and still be a paid representative of a VoIP company, and none of us would have any way of knowing that if they did not choose to reveal it (or slipped up in some way and let the cat out of the bag).

I think there are two reasons some people don't register. One is simply that it takes a small amount of time and effort to do so, and some people just don't like filling out forms, even if they are online forms. The other is that there are some sites, and we've probably all seem them, where you fill out the first page of a registration and think you are done, and then they take you to a second page where they want a lot more personal information (and even if you bail out at that point, they still have the info you gave on the first page). So once you've hit a few of those kinds of sites, you tend to not want to sign up with a new site until you've actually used it for a little while.

I notice that nowadays some newspaper sites are requiring free registration before you can read articles. If I follow a Google link to such a site, and I haven't already registered there, I'm probably going to have to want to read that article really badly before I bother to register (at least that used to be true, until I discovered BugMeNot - there's even a BugMeNot plugin for the Firefox browser now!).

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you've brought up this issue about anonymous users before, but as I've pointed out before, what you're really looking at is the "anonymous" tag that really should say "unregistered", and the fact that a person is registered doesn't mean they can't be biased. I mean, look at you, you're a registered user and yet a lot of people feel you're pretty biased toward AT&T. (Note, I am NOT saying you're an employee or are being paid by them or anything; people can have biases for all sorts of reasons. I suppose I even have biases, given that there is a VoIP company or two that I would never do business with under any circumstances, primarly because of what I've read about them in this forum or other places).

Thanks WhyADuck for the explanation of the difference, you haven't told me that before. I still stand by initial assumption that most of the "non-registered" users abuse the fact that they're not registered....or at least all the ones I've seen.

And yes, I admit that I'm biased toward AT&T because I really like the service, but at least I don't try to hide it (nor have I ever denied it lol). That's why I'm registered because then you know who you're dealing with. The problem with unregistered users is that they could constantly be changing their "name" and posting in different threads and most people would never know.

I also have to say that I think there is a big difference in registering to participate in a public discussion type setting and registering to read content.
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bryan | website