Website woes

[Sgt Badass]

Not this one, mine.

I've run a village website for years now. For the last six months it's been a one pager, but before that it used to get a lot of visitors. A couple of years ago a couple of people moaned because I refused to advertise a local acupuncturist. It turned into quite a funny tirade against all types of woo - Hodgy was there, he knows all about it.

Anyhoo, I'm about to liven up the site again and one of the features will be a map of the village. I can't really miss out the acupuncturist site and I hear there will be another 'alternative therapist' moving in to another shop soon too.

So, I've had an idea.

They can advertise as long as the following disclaimer is displayed at the bottom of each advert:

"Visitors should be aware that alternative therapies are not sanctioned or recommended by NICE (National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence) and are not subject to strict government regulatory controls. You should seek advice from your GP before embarking on any course of alternative medicine"

I want to say that I'm protecting consumers as there are 'plenty of rogues' out there (cough).

Whaddya think?

[vbloke]

Interesting idea.

However, with a lot of GP's apparently now sending people off to alternative practitioners, it might be a roundabout way of giving them custom anyway.

I'd say something like

"Visitors should be aware that alternative therapies are not sanctioned or recommended by NICE (National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence) and are not subject to strict government regulatory controls. Alternative therapies have never been proven effective for treating disease and should be treated with caution."

[chillzero]

Yeah - I like VBloke's version.

[Sgt Badass]

I'd have to alter the 'never been proven' bit so they don't come back with 'yes they have' and then quote the Bristol homeopathic trial or some crap. Remember, woos have smaller brains.

How about "Have never been proven in clinical peer-reviewed trials"?

I'm trying to close off all avenues so I need to quote absolute facts that can't be refuted.

[vbloke]

in that case, I'd probably go for something like

"Have never been proven effective in independently conducted scientific peer-reviewed clinical trials."

Saying just "clinical peer-reviewed" still brings up the Bristol Study. Every independent study done shows nothing above placebo.

so:

"Visitors should be aware that alternative therapies are not sanctioned or recommended by NICE (National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence) and are not subject to strict government regulatory controls. Alternative therapies have never been proven effective in independently conducted scientific peer-reviewed clinical trials for treating disease and should be treated with caution."

[Ginger Rogers]

a bit long winded no? what about 'at your own risk' ::)

[Physiotherapist]

That is not true though, as some herbal remedies have been proved to be effective in clinical trials.

[Sgt Badass]

That is not true though, as some herbal remedies have been proved to be effective in clinical trials.



OK, so I prepend with 'Some' alternative therapies. Also, I'll add 'at your own risk' at the bottom too.

I'm not bothered about them reading it, I just want to make sure my own pedantic self is happy with the words. I also want to make sure that sCAMmers know they can't just use the site to peddle their views unchallenged.

[Admin]

Not this one, mine.

I've run a village website for years now.....I can't really miss out the acupuncturist site and I hear there will be another 'alternative therapist' moving in to another shop soon too.


If it's your website why can't you call the shots? Surely you can choose who can and can not advertise on it.

Having said that I wouldn't worry too much about it. Being an acupuncturist isn't illegal and as Skeptics, I hope we'd rather educate people about acupuncture rather than ban it.

I would check out their claims and as long as they're not advertising that they can cure serious illnesses let them and their customers get on with it.

A disclaimer such as "You should seek advice from your GP before embarking on any course of alternative medicine" or something along the lines of not using alternative medicine as the primary source of healthcare should cover you against those who do (and suffer the consequences).

[vbloke]

Another alternative would be to have the link to the acupuncture clinic and a list of links of skeptical sites debunking acupuncture next to it, along with the disclaimer.

[Sgt Badass]

If it's your website why can't you call the shots? Surely you can choose who can and can not advertise on it.

Absolutely and it used to be my policy, but there are a lot of woos in the village and I end up upsetting a whole street. Normally this doesn't bother me in the least, but the site isn't my own soapbox and I want to be as inclusive as possible.


A disclaimer such as "You should seek advice from your GP before embarking on any course of alternative medicine" or something along the lines of not using alternative medicine as the primary source of healthcare should cover you against those who do (and suffer the consequences).


Thanks for that bit of text. I'll consider them all and come up with an uber-disclaimer...



Edit: to fix quotes.