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verifying press releases & user accounts

how should i verify press releases submitted to my site?

         

dohs

4:11 pm on Jul 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



i am working on a web site where i plan on displaying press releases for businesses in the widget industry. press releases are not the main aspect of this site but just another feature to complement the site as a whole.

i want to prevent displaying of bogus press releases. so far i figure it would be easiest to create user accounts and only those with the user accounts can submit press releases. that would save verifying the submitter each time but the user would still need to be verified the first time when creating an acount.

what methods do you suggest in order to verify a the person works for and is permitted to release press announcements on behalf of a business and is this press release for real?

some thoughts so far are:

~ verify the given phone number from another credible source or company web site.

~ call the business using a number listed from their web site or another phone book source and ask if the person works there.

~ only accept email addresses that match the company web site and have a response verification.

Syzygy

7:48 pm on Jul 11, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



verify the given phone number from another credible source or company web site.

~ call the business using a number listed from their web site or another phone book source and ask if the person works there.

Yup, double checking the company's credentials is essential if you want to go down this route. You might also want to confirm the job function of the employee.

Bear in mind that many companies use PR agencies and thus releases will come from them.

A point worth raising:-

Who are the press releases for - the press or businesses in the 'widget' sector in general.

If the latter, beware. I would say that the greater percentage of all press releases received into our office go straight in the bin. Why? Because they are pure rubbish. Irrelevant, useless, badly written rubbish drafted with only the author's bosses in mind.

If you do let companies and agencies post releases, you're going to need some sort of quality control...

Syzygy