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Is the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence something worth including on this page? It is discussed extensively at Robin Goldstein, where numerous references to quality independent sources are available. - tucoxn\ talk 23:09, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
In response to User:Sassycatt who deleted their own comment, and removed Readers Favorite Awards from the article. I'm not convinced because look they offer "Four award levels plus a finalist level in each of our 100 categories." In other words each year they hand out over 600 awards and honors (For each category there is Gold/Silver/Bronze/Honorable/1 to 4 Finalists. In 100 categories.) It has the hallmarks of a vanity award. Not to say they are crooks, or awards are guaranteed, but they say on their homepage: "Become an Award-Winning Author!", because that is what they do, they make people award-winners. Not guaranteed but the bar is very low and the interests of the author and Readers Favorite Awards are aligned with money passing hands. The money may pay for the prize, but the point is the author can use that award to market their book, the prize money is a side show. -- Green C 04:52, 12 May 2014 (UTC)
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Cheers.— cyberbot II Talk to my owner:Online 05:46, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
A number of users with no other Wikipedia contributions are removing content in the "List of vanity business awards controversy" section, content that only relates to AI Global Media, which tells me that some of the company's stakeholders are bothered by the content written there. I invite them here to discuss any issues they may have before removing content that they don't agree with.
One should take into consideration the following when assessing the validity of the sources:
Plinuxs, you may be right about AI Global Media being the source of the deletions. There is concurrently something going on over at Talk:Europe_Business_Assembly which is among the same list of companies. Someone representing EBA has been engaged in heavy editing of that article over the past 24hrs. -- Green C 13:17, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
Hi all,
I work for Ai global media and I would like to ask you to please remove us and all our magazines from the listing as a vanity award scheme.
I understand that from your comments you believe from sources that we are vanity award scheme and a ‘to pay to win’ company. This is completely not true and I would like to put our evidence forward to show you an insight into our company so we are hopefully able to solve this matter.
Ai Global media is a publishing group and whilst this means we are dedicated to creating interesting and meaningful content for readers it also means we are a way for businesses and companies alike to reach out to those readers, in essence, an advertising platform. Offering these services isn't an unusual practice within the publishing industry. The magazine is digitally produced and is available on our websites and on ISSUU the digital platform we use to publish our magazines. These are available for the general public to read and are sent to our circulation.
While a vanity award is a pay to win service, this is not what we are at Ai global media. As stated on your page ‘Vanity award’ “A vanity award is an award in which the recipient purchases the award to give the false appearance of a legitimate honour”. All of our awards are free there is no fee at all to receive the award and this is mentioned throughout the process.
Throughout out time open we have worked with many reputable companies that happily accept our awards, many of whom work with us year after year. Recently we have worked with Puma, BT and Ernst & Young a company that on your Wikipedia page is named as ‘one of the largest professional services firm in the world and is one of the "Big Four" accounting firms.’ If all our awards are illegitimate why would these companies even bother with us?
As previously said, all our awards come with a free option which allows winners to use their accolade to help promote themselves and the work that they do. All winners are determined prior to any commercial opportunities are discussed. Those companies who win our awards do so on an entirely free of charge basis. This is not a ‘pay to play’ opportunity, all winners win their award entirely on a free of charge basis, there is merely an option available to them to purchase trophies, logos, advertorial etc., this is not obligatory.
Our award programs are run though nomination forms, where a company or peer can nominate someone for an awards programme which is being ran at the time, AI Global Media will also put forward some companies found by our in-house research team. Our research team then considers all the nominations and will then award the nominees who are deemed to have excelled in the field that they work within.
Though like any company, bad press does occur. We have had criticism from people relating us to the vanity award scheme, I understand that this is a scheme with a lot attention recently but it is not what we are. We have had to have articles removed in the past by google as they are falsely accusing us and damaging our company brand. We are trying to solve these issues as they arise though obliviously this takes time. I have turned my attention to Wikipedia as now clients and some colleagues have presented me with this page and also the Ai global page which both listed us a ‘scam’ which is now beginning to damage our reputation and name.
I look forward to your reponses and apologies for only just replying. If you have any questions please let me know hopefully this can be resolved.
Regards,
Aiglobalmedia ( talk) 14:57, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
Ai Global media is a publishing group and whilst this means we are dedicated to creating interesting and meaningful content for readers it also means we are a way for businesses and companies alike to reach out to those readers, in essence, an advertising platform. Offering these services isn't an unusual practice within the publishing industry. The magazine is digitally produced and is available on our websites and on ISSUU the digital platform we use to publish our magazines. These are available for the general public to read and are sent to our circulation.
While a vanity award is a pay to win service, this is not what we are at Ai global media. As stated on your page ‘Vanity award’ “A vanity award is an award in which the recipient purchases the award to give the false appearance of a legitimate honour”. All of our awards are free there is no fee at all to receive the award and this is mentioned throughout the process.
Throughout out time open we have worked with many reputable companies that happily accept our awards, many of whom work with us year after year. Recently we have worked with Puma, BT and Ernst & Young a company that on your Wikipedia page is named as ‘one of the largest professional services firm in the world and is one of the "Big Four" accounting firms.’ If all our awards are illegitimate why would these companies even bother with us?
Those companies who win our awards do so on an entirely free of charge basis. This is not a ‘pay to play’ opportunity, all winners win their award entirely on a free of charge basis, there is merely an option available to them to purchase trophies, logos, advertorial etc., this is not obligatory.
Our award programs are run though nomination forms, where a company or peer can nominate someone for an awards programme which is being ran at the time, AI Global Media will also put forward some companies found by our in-house research team. Our research team then considers all the nominations and will then award the nominees who are deemed to have excelled in the field that they work within.
Though like any company, bad press does occur. We have had criticism from people relating us to the vanity award scheme, I understand that this is a scheme with a lot attention recently but it is not what we are. We have had to have articles removed in the past by google as they are falsely accusing us and damaging our company brand. We are trying to solve these issues as they arise though obliviously this takes time. I have turned my attention to Wikipedia as now clients and some colleagues have presented me with this page and also the Ai global page which both listed us a ‘scam’ which is now beginning to damage our reputation and name.
Hi,
Our awards are completely complimentary; the advertising which is offered to the winners of our award, and is in no way compulsory, is a way for the company to promote their business and reach a range of potential clients they wouldn’t have necessarily reached before, using our brand and website as a platform. We are not classing this as a ‘honour’, more as an opportunity to promote through our publication; the honour is the award, which is free. Every client is offered the complementary free packages in which they receive a digital certificate and use of the award title. Though as a business we create our revenue through the use of advertising, this isn’t a scam nor a poor ethical choice of a way to run a business. We offer a service in which people will pay to be part of, we write articles and conduct interviews creating a magazine and featuring businesses alike. No one is forced into this nor is anyone forced into paying for the advertisement for the award, As I stated before the awards are all free, and this does not form the entirety of our revenue; we have to charge for the marketing materials simply because of the cost involved in producing these items. You use articles from the Better Business Bureau, a reliable source which you have quoted before. As stated on the website on https://www.bbb.org/pittsburgh/news-events/news-releases/2017/07/vanity-award-scheme-targets-local-businesses/
As stated previously, we charge no fee for the award, any one of our winners is able to walk away after winning the award without spending any money and will receive proof of winning the award which they are able to use in any way they like. Our company is growing and expanding with our awards gaining more recognition, and we have testimonials showing people pleased with the service they have received. In addition, we also receive sponsorship on some of our awards which shows companies beginning to recognise us. All of our nominees receive votes through an online submission form which companies are encouraged to enter, these are then thoroughly researched before being passed to our judging panel, who select only the very best winners to receive an award. Therefore, I feel the description of the vanity award stated by the better business bureau, does not fit our company and thus does not define us as a vanity award scheme.
Aiglobalmedia ( talk) 10:59, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
There has been a concern expressed at VRTS ticket # 2017091810009946 that the " List of..." section is potentially biased because the main list is sourced to only one entity ( OCCRP). Should we provide secondary/other references to corroborate the statements made, or do we simply assume that OCCRP has enough of a reputation to validate their information? Primefac ( talk) 14:20, 11 October 2017 (UTC)
There are many sources saying AI Global Media is a vanity or scam who give awards without merit for the purpose of garnering fees as a business model. A few examples on Google: [3] [4] [5]. There is also an ASA Ruling on AI Global Media saying the company was engaged in advertising and not award-giving that it has not been entirely truthful/ethical about it and was sanctioned as a result. -- Green C 14:32, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
Foreword Reviews is a paid review service. For $499 they will review your book. The word "Foreword Reviews" occurs in over 6,000 Wikipedia articles. The disclosed paid editor SPA User:0b10011 has been adding some, though I'm sure there are many other accounts involved given the volume of links on Wikipedia. Likely the paid review gets marketing services included, such as through social media ie. Wikipedia. Not sure how to approach this looking for initial feedback. -- Green C 21:23, 12 November 2018 (UTC)
References
Hi Wikipedia editors. My name is Hoary, and I don't work for any of these outfits. Really. Check my contributions list.
I'm well aware of the existence and number of vanity awards. I'm sure that there are a lot that still aren't listed here, and that make a significant amount of money for the people who run them (and that are solemnly cited in various Wikipedia articles on non-notable people).
But I can't list an award as "vanity" just because it looks or smells like one, and neither can you. We need reliable sources that say this. So where are these sources? -- Hoary ( talk) 07:43, 22 June 2021 (UTC)
Better Business Bureau A+ rating is listed as a "vanity award" and we are asking that it be removed. BBB Accreditation and ratings are not vanity awards. Companies have to apply for and earn it. Also, businesses need not be BBB Accredited to earn an A+ rating.
The source is a 13 year old news article.
Correct Source: https://www.bbb.org/all/faq 71.186.146.63 ( talk) 17:51, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||
|
![]() | The following Wikipedia contributor has declared a personal or professional connection to the subject of this article. Relevant policies and guidelines may include conflict of interest, autobiography, and neutral point of view. |
Is the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence something worth including on this page? It is discussed extensively at Robin Goldstein, where numerous references to quality independent sources are available. - tucoxn\ talk 23:09, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
In response to User:Sassycatt who deleted their own comment, and removed Readers Favorite Awards from the article. I'm not convinced because look they offer "Four award levels plus a finalist level in each of our 100 categories." In other words each year they hand out over 600 awards and honors (For each category there is Gold/Silver/Bronze/Honorable/1 to 4 Finalists. In 100 categories.) It has the hallmarks of a vanity award. Not to say they are crooks, or awards are guaranteed, but they say on their homepage: "Become an Award-Winning Author!", because that is what they do, they make people award-winners. Not guaranteed but the bar is very low and the interests of the author and Readers Favorite Awards are aligned with money passing hands. The money may pay for the prize, but the point is the author can use that award to market their book, the prize money is a side show. -- Green C 04:52, 12 May 2014 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to one external link on
Vanity award. Please take a moment to review
my edit. You may add {{
cbignore}}
after the link to keep me from modifying it, if I keep adding bad data, but formatting bugs should be reported instead. Alternatively, you can add {{
nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}}
to keep me off the page altogether, but should be used as a last resort. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{
Sourcecheck}}
).
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— cyberbot II Talk to my owner:Online 05:46, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
A number of users with no other Wikipedia contributions are removing content in the "List of vanity business awards controversy" section, content that only relates to AI Global Media, which tells me that some of the company's stakeholders are bothered by the content written there. I invite them here to discuss any issues they may have before removing content that they don't agree with.
One should take into consideration the following when assessing the validity of the sources:
Plinuxs, you may be right about AI Global Media being the source of the deletions. There is concurrently something going on over at Talk:Europe_Business_Assembly which is among the same list of companies. Someone representing EBA has been engaged in heavy editing of that article over the past 24hrs. -- Green C 13:17, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
Hi all,
I work for Ai global media and I would like to ask you to please remove us and all our magazines from the listing as a vanity award scheme.
I understand that from your comments you believe from sources that we are vanity award scheme and a ‘to pay to win’ company. This is completely not true and I would like to put our evidence forward to show you an insight into our company so we are hopefully able to solve this matter.
Ai Global media is a publishing group and whilst this means we are dedicated to creating interesting and meaningful content for readers it also means we are a way for businesses and companies alike to reach out to those readers, in essence, an advertising platform. Offering these services isn't an unusual practice within the publishing industry. The magazine is digitally produced and is available on our websites and on ISSUU the digital platform we use to publish our magazines. These are available for the general public to read and are sent to our circulation.
While a vanity award is a pay to win service, this is not what we are at Ai global media. As stated on your page ‘Vanity award’ “A vanity award is an award in which the recipient purchases the award to give the false appearance of a legitimate honour”. All of our awards are free there is no fee at all to receive the award and this is mentioned throughout the process.
Throughout out time open we have worked with many reputable companies that happily accept our awards, many of whom work with us year after year. Recently we have worked with Puma, BT and Ernst & Young a company that on your Wikipedia page is named as ‘one of the largest professional services firm in the world and is one of the "Big Four" accounting firms.’ If all our awards are illegitimate why would these companies even bother with us?
As previously said, all our awards come with a free option which allows winners to use their accolade to help promote themselves and the work that they do. All winners are determined prior to any commercial opportunities are discussed. Those companies who win our awards do so on an entirely free of charge basis. This is not a ‘pay to play’ opportunity, all winners win their award entirely on a free of charge basis, there is merely an option available to them to purchase trophies, logos, advertorial etc., this is not obligatory.
Our award programs are run though nomination forms, where a company or peer can nominate someone for an awards programme which is being ran at the time, AI Global Media will also put forward some companies found by our in-house research team. Our research team then considers all the nominations and will then award the nominees who are deemed to have excelled in the field that they work within.
Though like any company, bad press does occur. We have had criticism from people relating us to the vanity award scheme, I understand that this is a scheme with a lot attention recently but it is not what we are. We have had to have articles removed in the past by google as they are falsely accusing us and damaging our company brand. We are trying to solve these issues as they arise though obliviously this takes time. I have turned my attention to Wikipedia as now clients and some colleagues have presented me with this page and also the Ai global page which both listed us a ‘scam’ which is now beginning to damage our reputation and name.
I look forward to your reponses and apologies for only just replying. If you have any questions please let me know hopefully this can be resolved.
Regards,
Aiglobalmedia ( talk) 14:57, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
Ai Global media is a publishing group and whilst this means we are dedicated to creating interesting and meaningful content for readers it also means we are a way for businesses and companies alike to reach out to those readers, in essence, an advertising platform. Offering these services isn't an unusual practice within the publishing industry. The magazine is digitally produced and is available on our websites and on ISSUU the digital platform we use to publish our magazines. These are available for the general public to read and are sent to our circulation.
While a vanity award is a pay to win service, this is not what we are at Ai global media. As stated on your page ‘Vanity award’ “A vanity award is an award in which the recipient purchases the award to give the false appearance of a legitimate honour”. All of our awards are free there is no fee at all to receive the award and this is mentioned throughout the process.
Throughout out time open we have worked with many reputable companies that happily accept our awards, many of whom work with us year after year. Recently we have worked with Puma, BT and Ernst & Young a company that on your Wikipedia page is named as ‘one of the largest professional services firm in the world and is one of the "Big Four" accounting firms.’ If all our awards are illegitimate why would these companies even bother with us?
Those companies who win our awards do so on an entirely free of charge basis. This is not a ‘pay to play’ opportunity, all winners win their award entirely on a free of charge basis, there is merely an option available to them to purchase trophies, logos, advertorial etc., this is not obligatory.
Our award programs are run though nomination forms, where a company or peer can nominate someone for an awards programme which is being ran at the time, AI Global Media will also put forward some companies found by our in-house research team. Our research team then considers all the nominations and will then award the nominees who are deemed to have excelled in the field that they work within.
Though like any company, bad press does occur. We have had criticism from people relating us to the vanity award scheme, I understand that this is a scheme with a lot attention recently but it is not what we are. We have had to have articles removed in the past by google as they are falsely accusing us and damaging our company brand. We are trying to solve these issues as they arise though obliviously this takes time. I have turned my attention to Wikipedia as now clients and some colleagues have presented me with this page and also the Ai global page which both listed us a ‘scam’ which is now beginning to damage our reputation and name.
Hi,
Our awards are completely complimentary; the advertising which is offered to the winners of our award, and is in no way compulsory, is a way for the company to promote their business and reach a range of potential clients they wouldn’t have necessarily reached before, using our brand and website as a platform. We are not classing this as a ‘honour’, more as an opportunity to promote through our publication; the honour is the award, which is free. Every client is offered the complementary free packages in which they receive a digital certificate and use of the award title. Though as a business we create our revenue through the use of advertising, this isn’t a scam nor a poor ethical choice of a way to run a business. We offer a service in which people will pay to be part of, we write articles and conduct interviews creating a magazine and featuring businesses alike. No one is forced into this nor is anyone forced into paying for the advertisement for the award, As I stated before the awards are all free, and this does not form the entirety of our revenue; we have to charge for the marketing materials simply because of the cost involved in producing these items. You use articles from the Better Business Bureau, a reliable source which you have quoted before. As stated on the website on https://www.bbb.org/pittsburgh/news-events/news-releases/2017/07/vanity-award-scheme-targets-local-businesses/
As stated previously, we charge no fee for the award, any one of our winners is able to walk away after winning the award without spending any money and will receive proof of winning the award which they are able to use in any way they like. Our company is growing and expanding with our awards gaining more recognition, and we have testimonials showing people pleased with the service they have received. In addition, we also receive sponsorship on some of our awards which shows companies beginning to recognise us. All of our nominees receive votes through an online submission form which companies are encouraged to enter, these are then thoroughly researched before being passed to our judging panel, who select only the very best winners to receive an award. Therefore, I feel the description of the vanity award stated by the better business bureau, does not fit our company and thus does not define us as a vanity award scheme.
Aiglobalmedia ( talk) 10:59, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
There has been a concern expressed at VRTS ticket # 2017091810009946 that the " List of..." section is potentially biased because the main list is sourced to only one entity ( OCCRP). Should we provide secondary/other references to corroborate the statements made, or do we simply assume that OCCRP has enough of a reputation to validate their information? Primefac ( talk) 14:20, 11 October 2017 (UTC)
There are many sources saying AI Global Media is a vanity or scam who give awards without merit for the purpose of garnering fees as a business model. A few examples on Google: [3] [4] [5]. There is also an ASA Ruling on AI Global Media saying the company was engaged in advertising and not award-giving that it has not been entirely truthful/ethical about it and was sanctioned as a result. -- Green C 14:32, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
Foreword Reviews is a paid review service. For $499 they will review your book. The word "Foreword Reviews" occurs in over 6,000 Wikipedia articles. The disclosed paid editor SPA User:0b10011 has been adding some, though I'm sure there are many other accounts involved given the volume of links on Wikipedia. Likely the paid review gets marketing services included, such as through social media ie. Wikipedia. Not sure how to approach this looking for initial feedback. -- Green C 21:23, 12 November 2018 (UTC)
References
Hi Wikipedia editors. My name is Hoary, and I don't work for any of these outfits. Really. Check my contributions list.
I'm well aware of the existence and number of vanity awards. I'm sure that there are a lot that still aren't listed here, and that make a significant amount of money for the people who run them (and that are solemnly cited in various Wikipedia articles on non-notable people).
But I can't list an award as "vanity" just because it looks or smells like one, and neither can you. We need reliable sources that say this. So where are these sources? -- Hoary ( talk) 07:43, 22 June 2021 (UTC)
Better Business Bureau A+ rating is listed as a "vanity award" and we are asking that it be removed. BBB Accreditation and ratings are not vanity awards. Companies have to apply for and earn it. Also, businesses need not be BBB Accredited to earn an A+ rating.
The source is a 13 year old news article.
Correct Source: https://www.bbb.org/all/faq 71.186.146.63 ( talk) 17:51, 6 November 2023 (UTC)