Freakshow, a new blog that provides honest, insightful and critical reviews of Web 2.0 websites, just launched today. The authors of the blog, who all work in the industry, have chosen to remain anonymous in order to maintain a high level of purity of their reviews and eliminate potential bias.
Freakshow is nothing more than a Web site that reviews other Web sites. There is an abundance of industry news and punditry out there, but few complimentary sites dedicated to offering honest opinion and constructive criticism in review form. This is Freakshow’s intent.
The writers here use pseudonyms. They (we) feel they (we) must remain anonymous because they (we) all work inside the industry; either for large web companies, start-ups, or in the investment community. It’s important to note that opinions will not be influenced by the affiliation of the contributor. Inside information or company secrets will never be revealed by the contributing members about their employers or affiliations. This is taken very seriously. All reviews, comments, opinion, features, and other content will be about publically accessible user experiences. Freakshow believes that by being anonymous, there will be no question about the purity of a review or feature. The contributor can maintain complete honesty and offer criticism or praise without speculation of bias or influence.
Calabash Biggles kicked things off with their first review featuring the Ask.com redesign, which he give an above average 7.1. What other websites would you like to see them review?
Full disclosure: Laughing Squid is a Freakshow media sponsor, in fact we are currently the only non-mega-corporate sponsor.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Okay, so they remain anonymous, and not disclose their ties to companies? How do I know if someone isn’t writing about their own company or project in a flattering light? And if anonymous, why not divulge insider secrets? I’m not sure I understand.
Nice company you’re keeping – Coke, McDonalds and Pepsi.
Jackson: To answer this question… we’re bound to be found out someday :) But you’re going to have to trust us. If that’s possible.
I know it seems odd, but we are not doing this for any kind of glory. We want people to just read the reviews and commentary and react to them. We are often at shows, conventions, and industry whatevers, we’d rather have real conversations than be pitched sites to review… plus we just don’t want that kind of attention…
We promise that we will be responsible. This is one reason why we chose laughing squid as our provider. It’s about having fun but with integrity.
As far as us writing about our own projects, it’s not going to happen. That may be a way for people to discover who we are… by observing what we don’t review. :)
I hope this makes sense. I understand your skepticism, I would be too. But we’re going to do our best to keep things real.
Thanks for commenting and take care.
CB
So, if they’re remaining anonymous, should we assume that doing a whois on the domain will give some anonymous name and contact info?