Note: This post was guest blogged by me, Mitchell Harper of www.HarpzOn.com. I’m filling in with a few posts while John’s out and about on his well deserved Canadian holiday 😉
Tim O’Reilly (cited as the founder of the Internet) has put together a blogger’s code of conduct. It includes 9 modules and can be seen here:
1. Responsibility for our own words
2. Nothing we wouldn’t say in person
3. Connect privately first
4. Take action against attacks
5. a) No anonymous comments OR b) No pseudonymous comments
6. Ignore the trolls
7. Encourage enforcement of terms of service
8. Keep our sources private
9. Discretion to delete comments
The thing that gets me is that blogs started out as a way for people to start a personal journal online, and now that they’ve become serious business tools Tim and his working group feel that there’s a need for us bloggers to abide by a code of conduct.
Personally I wont be following a bloggers code of conduct. I write my blog in whatever way I feel like and I’m sure that’s how many of you are as well. I know that when I don’t like a comment I’ll reply back. The replies wont always be nice, so that defeats #4 from the list above. I’m also happy for people to leave comments anonymously so there goes #5.
What are your thoughts on the blogging code of conduct? To me it seems as though it’s a way to voluntarily limit the free speech impact we’ve come to expect from bloggers.