"Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell." - Shana Alexander, American journalist

Question: Would you rather be gossipped about, or never talked about at all?

On one hand, there are things worth talking about - like the absurdity of the school in Sarawak that caned a 10-year-old boy for bringing non-halal sausages in his fried rice for lunch.

On the other hand, to complain about me to a gossip site because you were dissatisfied with your advertising results? What good is that going to do, for you or for me? If you were to e-mail me directly, I would be able to do my best to remedy the situation - I've gone far further before to keep a customer happy, from extending advertisements to writing free ads. But if you prefer complaining anonymously to other people, what can I possibly do? I am not so much hurt as I am disappointed that I miss out on the challenge of giving you the best customer service I could think of.

And no, this isn't the first time I've been gossipped about - professionally or personally. Most of the time, the rumours are completely unfounded, but when it concerns a customer I would really like the opportunity to do right by my own principles.

What can I learn from this? This is the second time in two years that my advertisement spaces have been criticised by a past advertiser - both times on gossip blogs. I've restructured my advertisement plan three months ago and I know the only flaw left is the sidebar ad block. But I made it super duper affordable to compensate for the lower prominence. What more can I do? Perhaps this is an advertiser from a long time ago, from my less experienced and less carefully planned advertisement structure?

I wouldn't know because they never e-mailed me.