The desk
Sponsored content
The rule is simple: anything paid for is labelled where it appears, and never inside a rule, a course description or a welfare passage.
At the time of writing this record carries no paid placement of any kind. This page exists so that the rule is published before there is anything to apply it to, rather than written afterwards to justify something.
What would be labelled
Any content that somebody pays for is marked as paid, in the place where it appears, in plain words a reader sees without hunting: at the head of the entry if the entry is paid for, and beside the link if the link is paid for. Links that are commercial are qualified in the markup as the search engine guidelines require, and a label is never made to look like an ordinary editorial note.
Where a placement could not go
- Inside a regulation. If an entry describes what the rules say, no part of that description is for sale.
- Inside a course, class or judging description. The parts of a sheepdog course and the marking of a working test are facts, and facts do not carry advertising.
- Inside anything about a dog’s welfare: minimum ages, temperature limits, fitness, water safety, harness fit.
- Anywhere it would read as a recommendation from the desk, when the desk has not tested the thing being recommended. This record does not test equipment.
What would be considered
A clearly labelled placement from a supplier or organiser whose work is genuinely part of these sports, placed outside the passages listed above, and written so that removing it would leave the surrounding entry intact. If a placement could only work by bending an entry around it, the answer is no, and the entry stays as it is.
Why it is written this way
A record of rules is worth reading only while the reader can tell that nothing in it was bought. That is the whole value of the thing, and it is cheap to keep and impossible to restore. The rest of the working method is on the editorial policy page, and enquiries go to the contact address. The general conditions of the site are on the terms page.
The current position
At the date of this page no placement of any kind has been accepted, and no entry in the record carries a paid passage or a paid link. If that changes, this page changes first, and the entry concerned says so at its head. A reader who finds a label missing where one should be is asked to write to the desk, because a missing label is the one fault this page exists to prevent.