#Blog post eroneously marked sponsored

7 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

random cliff
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My blog post has been marked as sponsored even though it does not contain "sponsored content, affiliate links or commercial advertisement."

The post does contain a personal review of a commercial product, Noël Studer's course, but that review isn't sponsored and no affiliate link is given. I know that I can just turn off the setting again, but I don't want to risk a ban or shadowban for stupid reasons.

Is there some obscure rule that I fell afoul of? Should I just remove the links (they have no affliate codes in any case). I also link to a Substack newsletter that has a monetized option. Is that off limits too?

I write things as honest reviews and having my blog erroneously marked as sponsored risks people thinking that I'm selling things when I'm not. I literally explain in the blog how not to buy Nöel's course, so I'm a bit baffled by this.

The blog post in question: https://lichess.org/@/MatthewKCanada/blog/looking-back-at-2025/N982M8Tg

brittle blaze
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Did you mark it as sponsored by mistake?

random cliff
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I did not. I intentionally wrote it so that I could avoid toggling that switch.

brittle blaze
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I guess you’re sort of promoting the product… email [email protected] if a mod doesn’t respond here within 24 hours

random cliff
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It’s the “sort of” that’s not clear to me. I’m very happy to comply with the rules, but I don’t know what they are. The reasonable person test clearly failed for the provided instructions because I didn’t think I was anywhere near going over the line. Anyway, I’ll see if anybody responds here by tomorrow and email otherwise.

brittle blaze
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I’ll ping a mod in 12 hours if one doesn’t respond before then

river salmon
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We've removed the tag for now, and will try to get some clearer guidance published on what counts for the tag