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SUP-OLOGY Ethics Statement

Our goal at SUP-OLOGY is to become the best, most trusted resource for Stand-Up Paddling education and information on the internet. We research, test, and write to the best of our ability and hold ourselves to the a very high ethical standard. We don’t want you to worry if something we are writing is being influenced, coerced, or paid for. Unfortunately, we have not won the Powerball. In order to make SUP-OLOGY a reality, we partner with various companies and organizations in a few different ways.

TL;DR
We’d rather have the website come crashing down than pander to brands who are upset about honest reviews.

Affiliate Relationships — This is how most “review” sites operate. In a traditional affiliate model, a company will send product to the reviewers in exchange for a review. The reviewer has a special tracking link that will affiliate any sales that come from the review back to the reviewer. That sale then provides a commission to the reviewer—anywhere from 2-20% of the sale depending on the industry and arrangement. We view affiliate relationships as the most “trustworthy” financial relationship for a few reasons:

• We set the expectation with brands that we will provide unbiased, data-driven reviews and present them accurately—even if it is not a good review.
• We pick which brands we work with. If we don’t like a brand or their product, or they are not OK with honest, data-driven reviews, we won’t work with them.
• We will, from time to time, purchase our own equipment for review from brands we choose not to work with directly, when comparison and educational content needs dictate it. We hold these reviews to the same standards as any other, regardless of affiliation status.

SUP-OLOGY does participate in some affiliate programs directly with brands and with online retailers like Amazon.com. We will always identify reviews and recommendations of affiliated products, and we never make any decisions for ratings, reviews, rankings, or recommendations based on affiliate relationships.

Sponsorships/Sponsored Content — Sponsored content is when a brand pays an entity to create specific content. SUP-OLOGY will never create sponsored reviews or rankings of products. However, from time to time, we may choose to partner with a brand at our discretion to sponsor specific educational or event coverage content. Any and all Sponsored Content will be clearly marked as such.

Advertising — This is the most traditional form of income generation for a website. While we currently do not have advertising enabled on SUP-OLOGY, we may choose to do so in the future. All Advertisements are independent of content and advertising relationships will never be used in decisions about ratings, reviews, rankings, or recommendations.

Artificial Intelligence — The biggest misnomer on the planet. Seriously, it spits out some truly dumb shit. We will never use AI to generate content—written or visual—for SUP-OLOGY. And yes, we know how to actually use the em-dash. We may, from time to time, use embedded AI tools for spelling, grammer, or other basic tasks like keyword suggestions for SEO purposes. We aren’t SEO professionals, we’re paddlers. But seriously, have you ever tried to use these POS’s for anything niche? They absolutely suuuuuuuck. Plus they are horrendous on the environment.