I might not have mentioned it, because I asked him for a design for me to wear for Christmas. Once he was so gracious to design it, I got it on Cafepress and bought a shirt. A shirt I am happily wearing at this very moment, in fact.

Here is the design he did, and a fine bloody piece of work it is, too. I think it perfectly captures that attitude that’s the heart of Bear tanking for me.

Now, that’s pretty darn awesome for Bear tanks, and my Cafepress Store has other fun Bear tanking shirts… but what about Paladins? Or Warriors or Death Knights?

Well, never say I’m not a generous Bear.

I’d be happy to link to any other site that has fun tanking shirts for sale, to give you some more options. If you know of some, just let me know, I’ll add tlinks to them here.

At this time, the only other tanking specific shirts I know of are on the Maintankadin website store, some pretty nice Paladin tank shirts with cool sayings, too!

So here you go. If you have some sporty threads to show your love of tanking… then send those links in!

Someone says to you, “Hey, if you tell people how much you loved my product or service ‘X’, I’ll give you something. Money, a free product, whatever. Something. A free WoW Account. Just… don’t tell anyone that you’re getting this. Just act like you loved it and wanted to talk about it all on your own, spontaneously.”

That’s wrong. It’s misleading, it’s unethical, deceptive BS, and here in the US, if you’re a blogger, it’s actionable.

Here in America, the Federal Trade Commission, also known as the FTC, published new guidelines last October that makes it absolutely clear that such deceptive endorsement practises aren’t allowed, even for bloggers on the internet.

You can always endorse whatever you want… but you have to admit up front that you’re getting a kickback for doing it. That you were paid, whether in goods or in services.

For us WoW bloggers, if you want to talk about how much you love a particular mouse, ventrilo service, headset, a Ferrari, book, etc… you have to be clear to mention whether or not you have received anything for providing your opinion in favor of that product.

Per the posting;

The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.

How will this affect the Big Bear Butt going forward?

Well, it won’t.

Despite what people who email me sometimes think, I’m not paid by anyone to write here, I’m not given anything at all by anyone. I don’t have ads, I don’t have paid link throughs, I don’t do paid endorsements, I don’t get services, nothing.

I did talk favorably about, and review, the book by Christie Golden called Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, but I didn’t even get anything for that. I received an advance copy to read to review, and as soon as I was done I gave it away. I also was alotted a certain number of books to give away as part of a promotion, and I was happy to do so, to benefit my readers, and I thought it great fun.

Doesn’t matter whether I got anything or not for that, of course, since I was up front about the whole arrangement. :) I be good with the FTC, dawg.

I write here for fun, and as I’ve said before, the day it’s no longer fun is the day I close up shop.

If someone were to ever wish to hand over any money to me, they don’t even get to hand me money for nuthin’… they have to get something for it, by buying a shirt or mug over at the Cafepress Store on my sidebar. :) And even if you decide you don’t like me anymore, at least you’ve still got a shirt to cover your naked bod or a container with which to hold your hot, steaming beverage. That’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

So, there shall never be any secret money-making shenanigans here at the BBB.

That being said, however… if anyone out there IS a Ferrari dealer and wishes me to endorse your product, you can reach me at tigerlordgm AT yahoo DOT com.

Just sayin’.

Cassie wants to know what I want for Christmas.

So, as I try and come up with something that I could possibly want, I return once again to shirts with funny messages.

My first thought, of course, is a Lewis Black shirt, but his store doesn’t have black t-shirts over XXL. And I really do like shirts that are a little roomier, XXXL just fit in the shoulders and arms a bit better. I know from past experience, I’ll buy the shirt at XXL, but I won’t wear it.

That led me down a dark and stormy path of thinking about what Druid related shirt I may like to wear.

Hmmm… you know, I’ve got a Cafepress store. It’s been known to have Druid stuffs.

But I GOTS all those!

Why not design a shirt I’m really in the mood to wear?

And I’d really like it to be moderately evil and a little snarky, I’m in that kind of mood.

And thus do such things begin. In idle boredom.

So I had this idea;

Do I do WHAT, WHERE?!?

Listen, I do it wherever the heck I want.
Do I LOOK like I wear Plate?

Okay, so it may not appeal to everybody. But at least it has the virtue of irritating the heck out of all the other tanks, which is always a plus.

Is there anyone out there that could take this idea and make a graphic that is actually cute for a shirt? I’d love to put it in the store so I could buy one and wear it. :)

If so, just let me know at tigerlordgm AT yahoo DOT com. I’d sure appreciate it.

Yes, you can haz t-shirts!

It has taken me a while, and I apologize, but I wanted it done right the first time, and I am slow….

But the button on the sidebar that says ‘Cafepress’?

That button takes you to my store page on my website, that has each image that is available on a shirt, and clicking the image will take you to the correct store.

If you go look, you will see that both of Kody’s winning contest images, Neo Geens’ awesome ferocious bear, the beautiful image Andrige did for me and the original, proud, 100% Feral image Nightravyn created for me are all represented.

I actually already have the Andrige and 100% Feral t-shirts, in black of course, and wear them all the time.

Cynra‘s image is coming, but it’s not quite ready yet. The image is in .jpg, and I need a version with a transparent background or else dark shirts get a big white square on them when printed. But it’s coming!

I am quite proud of figuring all that stuffs out on my own.

Oh, and did you happen to notice, the images are centered? And side by side? With text where I placed it?

You guys ROCK, your advice helped Cassie fix my theme! I can haz images on the blog now, too!

Oh wait… now I gotta go get images for my posts. Oh, nuts.