Review & Sponsorship Policy

Contents

• Sponsorship Policy
  • Disclosure To Audience
  • Editorial Independence
  • Sponsor Approval
• Review Policy
  • No Payment for Reviews
  • Relevance to the Channel
  • Editorial Independence
  • Negative Reviews
  • Errors and Corrections
  • Commercial Consequences

Sponsorships and reviews are two different types of content, and have different policies. You cannot buy/pay/sponsor a review video.

Sponsorship Policy

Disclosure To Audience

All sponsored content will be clearly disclosed to viewers.

Sponsored segments may include an obvious visual indicator for the duration of the sponsorship, such as a visible border, on-screen label, timer, or similar graphic, making it clear when sponsored messaging begins and ends.

Figure 1: Example of visual indicators of a sponsored segment

Any additional disclosures required by advertising regulations will also be used.

Editorial Independence

Payment for sponsorship purchases advertising space, not my opinion. Sponsors may provide key information, talking points, links or specific factual claims they would like communicated during their sponsored segment.

Sponsored segments will not be presented as independent reviews.

Sponsor Approval

Sponsors may review the sponsored segment only before publication where agreed in advance, for the purpose of identifying factual errors or ensuring agreed sponsorship requirements have been met.

This does not provide editorial approval over the remainder of the video.

Review Policy

tmuWolverine creates content primarily focused on electronics, 3D printing, making, engineering and related technology. I am happy to consider products and services for review, demonstration or inclusion in project videos. However, accepting a product or service does not guarantee positive coverage, and all reviews are conducted independently.

No Payment for Reviews

tmuWolverine does not accept payment in exchange for product or service reviews.

This policy exists to maintain editorial independence. Companies may provide a product, service, sample, loan unit or review unit for evaluation, but payment cannot be conditional upon reviewing the product, publishing a video, reaching a particular conclusion or presenting the product positively.

Relevance to the Channel

Products or services submitted for review must be at least tangentially relevant to the subjects covered by the channel

Examples of suitable products and services include:

• 3D printers, scanners and related equipment
• CNC machines
• Electronics tools, sensors, or boards

Products do not need to fall precisely into one of these categories, but there should be a reasonable connection to the channel and its audience.

Examples of products that would generally not be appropriate include:

• Handbags, clothing or fashion accessories
• Pool cleaners
• Health, wellness or lifestyle products
• Insurance of any kind

(yes, these have all been suggested in the past)

Editorial Independence

Companies providing products or services for review do not receive editorial approval or editorial review of the video before publication.

I retain complete control over:

• The content and structure of the review,
• Testing methods and comparisons,
• Opinions and conclusions,
• The video’s title, thumbnail and any metadata,
• The timing of publication,
• Any recommendation, criticism or purchasing advice

Technical information may be requested from a company where necessary to ensure factual accuracy, but this does not provide the company with editorial control.

Negative Reviews

Providing a product or service does not guarantee a positive review. If testing identifies faults, shortcomings, poor value, misleading claims, design problems, reliability issues or other concerns, those findings may be included in the published review. A negative conclusion does not invalidate the review and is not grounds for requesting that the video be removed, altered or suppressed.

Where practical, I may contact a company before publication regarding significant technical problems to determine whether an issue is a defect, configuration problem or other identifiable fault. Any response may be taken into consideration, but the final editorial decision remains with tmuWolverine.

Errors and Corrections

While opinions and conclusions will not be changed simply because a company disagrees with them, factual accuracy is important. If a company can demonstrate that a published review contains a specific, objectively verifiable factual error or materially misleading information, I will investigate the issue.

Where an error is confirmed, I will take reasonable steps to correct it. Depending on the nature of the error, this may include adding a correction, amending associated information, or temporarily removing and amending/replacing the video where the error materially affects the review.

Good-faith opinions, subjective assessments, testing results and conclusions with which a company disagrees are not factual errors.

Commercial Consequences

By providing a product or service for review, the company acknowledges that the resulting coverage may be positive, mixed or negative. tmuWolverine does not guarantee any particular commercial outcome from a review and, to the extent permitted by law, accepts no liability for loss of sales, revenue, reputation, business opportunities or other commercial consequences arising from the publication of honestly held opinions, testing results or accurate information contained in a review.

Companies should therefore only provide products or services for review if they are comfortable with them being independently evaluated and the results being published regardless of the outcome.