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Blogging code of conduct - or anything goes?
As a blogger, you have to have teflon skin when you lay your words down and push the publish button. You know at any moment the comments posted can range from "great piece" to "you are a dimbulb" to the worst ever - death threats. Who can say what makes some in the blogosphere as mean, if not meaner, as the high school girls named Heather in the movie, Heathers? In any event, the present state has become so riotous that a call for blogging guidelines is gaining some traction.Masters of the Internet, Tim O'Reilly, (radar.o'reilly.com) and Jimmy Wales, of Wikipedia fame, have both taken up the cause proposing civility standards in the online community. As a starting point for discussion, they recommend banning anonymous comments left by visitors, as well as the ability to delete threatening or libelous comments without being judged a censor. My personal favorite is not to say anything online that you wouldn't say in person. They also discuss the possibility of having different codes of conduct bloggers could adhere to with corresponding seals of approval represented by different logos which in turn, would be displayed on the blogger's page.
What do you think? Should the online community work to self police towards a civil discourse, or should anything goes prevail?
[via NYtimes.com]
Comments
3
Subscribe to commentsEricApr 9th 2007 5:27PM
I think there needs to be a stronger "Person-screenname" connection. People, of all ages, are using the Internet as an anonymous playground where they can treat each other like five-year-olds, weaving in and out of the, again, people of all ages, acting like adults.
I've filtered through hundreds of posts forums and blogs of people double, even quadruple my age that act like my friends' elementary school siblings.
I'm seventeen, and there are people online that should start acting my age, let alone their own.
notatoadApr 9th 2007 6:14PM
i think it's important for a blog to clearly indicate its tone. some blogs are inflammatory or chaotic by nature, and the comments should follow that. other blogs are professional, and the comments left on those blogs should be professional in return.
any comment that does not add to the discussion of the blog post is spam, and should be deleted. if bloggers want to delete comments for other reasons (profanity, rudeness) this should be clearly stated near the commenting form.
i think that guidelines for all blogs to follow would remove some of the diversity that makes the blogosphere so interesting. if you don't like the tone of a blog, stop reading it.
AndrewApr 9th 2007 7:54PM
I think part of this came about because there are bloggers receiving death threats. And I'm not talking about controversial figures in the world, I'm taking about one who is a librarian who had to back out of a conference because someone threatened to kill her. To many people have started to take the amenity of the web as a place for them to be complete jack asses, and I think it has to stop. People need to start thinking.