For those that listen to the show regularly you will know that one of my huge concerns about online content is that it can be tough to tell content based on fact and credible sources from personal opinion that can be about as valuable as the mutterings of that crazy person you walked by on the street this morning.

Case in point, I offer up a recent scenario that played out on one of my favorite videogame sites Cheap Ass Gamer (www.cheapassgamer.com).  Recently on the site’s podcast CheapyD and Wombat complained that “major gaming blogs seem to post any and all gaming rumors with little consideration given to the credibility of the source or the plausibility of the story.”

As a test they offered up a contest to their users.  If someone posted a completely unfounded rumor in their forums and it was picked up by another videogame site that user would receive a free game.  Out of this contest two rumors surfaced.  The first was Rock Band receiving Beatles content via download, the other was Xbox changing its name to Xbox Pure.  What happened?  In Cheapy D’s words:

“Somehow, the silly one about the Xbox name change spread through the internets like crazy. Even though; the story makes very little sense and this particular user blog has no other legitimate entries, the photo of this “leaked memo” bears no resemblance to any corporate memo that I’ve ever seen, and the memo is devoid of any corporate letterhead, this source was deemed reliable enough to be posted on many big gaming news sites.”

What ensues is a unique exchange between Cheap Ass Gamer and one of the sites that picked up the story Kotaku.  I encourage you to read all of Cheapy D’s post here http://www.cheapassgamer.com/?f=408, but I will summarize.  Kotaku is told the story is part of a contest and rather than admit it was a little quick on the trigger, it says that Cheap Ass Gamer blew their credibility by having the contest.

What does all of this mean for advertisers.  Well how many brands do you know that are dying to get into the Tabloids?  Exactly, other than an ancient Myan remedy allowing me to pole vault with my manhood not many.  So is user created content and blogs actually slowing the internet from becoming the dominant ad medium for many brands?  While that is a bit of an overstatement, my opinion is that it is having an effect and probably a larger one than we are really aware of.  I will also say I don’t belive Sean shares this belief as much as I, so look forward to healthy debate on upcoming shows.

For those of you out there yelling hypocrisy since I am making this point on a blog.  I refrence Val Kilmer in the immortal role of Doc Holiday, “My hypocrisy only goes so far.”  Ad bastards is an opinion based show…we are sports talk radio if you will.  Now if we ever get to the point of trying to break big news such as Dolly Parton’s death we will make sure Sean is at the funeral to verify she will never be pouring a “cup of ambition” again.