Living in the Scuttlebutt World

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
I had a recent email exchange about Scuttlebutt credibility, which I am overly sensitive about. I hate thinking that people would question our motives, with the back and forth below:

PERSON: Is that newsletter story editorial or advertising?

ME: All stories considered for Scuttlebutt are based solely on editorial value.

PERSON: Please, I’m very used to seeing articles by sailmakers, which I’m sure are paid. We don’t need gaslighting just now.

I am now googling gaslighting, which I learn is a psychological manipulation technique… yikes!

ME: There is a difference between advertisements and editorial content. The advertisers for each newsletter are listed at the top of each newsletter. We are very transparent about that, which is critical as we never want our readers to question our integrity. While you might not agree with our editorial decisions, they are based solely on merit and not payment. I hope this helps.

I do appreciate these exchanges, as I typically receive criticism from people more eager to gripe and run.

Now, other sailing sources do publish “advertorials” in which they are paid for content that is dressed up as a legit report. It might offer some enlightenment, but the words are trying to sell you something. This trend has muddied the waters of credibility for us.

While we don’t publish paid editorial content, we do frequently receive requests to do so. For April 1st this year, the newsletter will have only spoof stories and no paid ads, but I may say yes to some of these offers which will be clearly marked. I hope they are super cool too, like promoting robot pool cleaners.

A final note about Scuttlebutt content as it pertains to Artificial Intelligence. I can assure you that all our content is produced with real intelligence, though it may not be sufficient at times. But we try…

Another recent email came from FeedSpot which proclaimed how Scuttlebutt Sailing News had been selected by their panelist as one of the Top 80 Sailing Blogs on the web. I am not sure I could name eight sailing sites, and while not loving the blog reference, I did find we were #2.

Since I have no time or patience for the amount of internet manipulation done by others on the list, it was gratifying that just focusing on being a source for sailing news – with a North American focus – can get us nearly to the top. I’ll take that prize ever day!

For those of you waiting for winter to end, there are sock burning events on the March calendar from Evolution Sailmakers. This annual tradition is to celebrate the approach of warmer days by sacrificing the well-worn socks that won’t soon be needed. The events also promote beer, oysters, and music, which seems like good training for the upcoming sailing season. Bring it on!