A website called
Everyday Hogwash just launched. File it in your ideas list under "citizen journalism"-related.
The concept is simple: Hogwash collects "rants" from people about
various annoyances and things they've had to endure from companies:
"Hidden fees. Really tiny fine print. Overbooked airplanes. Hypnotic
hold music." We've all had bad experiences with various companies, so,
the website's concept goes, let's share them and "have some therapeutic
yuks at the millions of little ways companies stick it to us."
To encourage submissions, the site is very
contest-oriented, giving away cash to daily prize winners as selected by a panel of
judges.
The concept seems a bit thin for a website -- it's more like a feature
of a larger site. Indeed, the idea of using contests to solicit citizen
submissions is a good one. A Hogwash-like contest could be a nice
addition to most media websites.
Those adsense ads were much more problematic when they started....
