Yesterday, I received an e-mail from someone who I’d mentioned in this blog. It was a very nice e-mail, but it rubbed me the wrong way.

I’d written about this person’s website and book a few days ago saying I found them hilarious. But, because I had encountered malware via an ad on his site that I accidentally clicked on, I declined to link to him.

Instead of leaving a comment on that post asking for specifics, he chose to e-mail me privately instead. So no one could see that he was actually a nice guy trying to make things better. And, no one could see that he asked me to remove what I said about malware on his site.

By asking me to edit what I wrote–which is ridiculous because this is a personal blog and no one has power over me–he was suggesting that I wasn’t telling the truth. That what I said couldn’t be believed unless he could confirm it.

I am not a liar. Nor do I exaggerate.

If I were feeling obstinate, I would have left my post up. I never linked to his website directly AND since I was linking to the Amazon listing of his book, I was giving him free advertising. Instead, I decided to remove all reference to him, his website, and his book.

Blogs function with transparency and good faith. If you ever find yourself in the same situation as this guy, leave a nice comment for the blogger asking for ways to correct the situation. But NEVER NEVER NEVER ask them to censor their post.

Learn to harness the power of blogs to promote you and your product.

ETA: Liz disagrees.