An ethics question, of sorts.

I also do reviews for other companies besides Eden Fantasys and I do write reviews that are published on Eden Fantasys on products that I received from other companies. I asked Jenn, the off-site review chick, about posting reviews on Eden Fantasys of products that I received from other companies or that I bought from other companies and she said that it was fine. I do, however, change up my reviews. If I publish a review of a product for a company on my blog and review the same item for Eden Fantasys, it is not verbatim, although some parts may be similar because you can only say "this toy is made of plastic" in so many ways, and most of the time my reviews for Eden Fantasys wind up coming out much better than my originals, although I'm not sure why.

The way I see it, you are an active part of the Eden Fantasys community and you have knowledge and insight into a product and have something to add to the conversation, so why not? I ultimately decided to ask about reviewing products on Eden Fantasys that I received from other companies because I am so, incredibly in love with the community here and everyone has so much to add to a conversation and it's a general happy and awesome time and when there are people with that passion in a community, I think they should use any and all tools they have and should be encouraged to do so.

I was just wondering this same question.. Thank you for asking in the forum!
I'm very curious to see what everyone says. I'm heading over to the Q and A pages to refresh my memory. Right now. You may want to ask eden and submit a support ticket.

I totally disagree. If you receive a toy in exchange for a review on your blog or on their site and you submit your review, the commitment is honoured. You can do what the hell else you want with the toy then, including using it for another review. With that said, EF policy states that you cannot use the same review content here and on your blog so you would have to write another review.

Personally, I do not review toys both here and on my blog but there is a site I review for which only expect a review on their site so I will sometimes review the same toy onsite on EF.

And if you buy the toy? It's even moreso yours to do with whatever you want. After all, many toy sites don't even have a review platform.

You can do two different reviews that come to the same conclusion. Think about fairytales. How many different versions of Cinderella/Jack and the Beanstalk have you seen? The ending is the same (usually), but they're different stories with different words.

That said, you should first do a very good review for the other company and put it up. The you can use the toy a bit longer and let it "sink in" a bit more, then do a rewritten review from scratch for EF or your blog or whatever.

I've done a few on my blog that are revisits of products I've reviewed on EF. Usually my conclusions are the same, but I start off again from my notes (which may be edited to reflect new experiences) so that they are "new" reviews. I let EF have "exclusivity" for a few months to a year.

If there are explicit agreements you've entered into they should be honored, including no more reviews on the toy.

It is VERY unethical to do so. It also violates most companies conditions for you to review. You can potentially be removed from reviewers lists for doing this. Again, HIGHLY unethical.

What should be done if you review an item for one company, then another company offers to send you the same item for review? (most likely to be tempting if the item is something that gets used up, like lube) Where does that sit on the ethics line? Both companies would be paying for the review, but they would have no way of knowing that the other company had paid for it, instead of the reviewer just re-writing the review.

There is some gray area here. I would say don't do anything to violate either companies policies and be fair.

This. As long as you're not violating the TOS that you agreed upon for that company (if they explicitly state that they'd like the toy to remain exclusive to their site for review) I see no problem. Even then it's a little hard to prove, which goes into morals, ethics, and what not.

I don't think it's unethical as long as you're taking the time to rewrite your review for the product in a different standard (no duplicate text). For some of the companies I review for I will do around 300-500 words on my experience and minimal specs of the toy. If I chose to do a review for EF I would expand upon my initial review and go into a lot more detail. Same opinion, just in a different way.

I agree with this entirely. I've done it several times. I don't copy and paste the reviews, but on a few occasions I've written two different reviews on the same two for different sites. Say, one that was humorous and one that was more straight-forward and 'dry.' I don't see anything unethical about it; I'm not ripping anybody off, I'm just expanding the community, and my opinion remains the same. I never did it to make myself "look better" or to improve my rank, because those were not important to me and they STILL aren't. I did this a lot when EF didn't have offsite reviews because I wanted that information on my blog, but couldn't duplicate it. I don't do it anymore, though, because I just don't have the time.