Blogger Ethics
I noticed this in the Times this morning. I suppose I wasn’t on it before because I don’t traffic techie blogs, where this seems to have started. It’s not really a Blogger Code of Ethics, but rather a Blogger Code of Conduct. It seems they want to make people nicer, or more [...]
I noticed this in the Times this morning. I suppose I wasn’t on it before because I don’t traffic techie blogs, where this seems to have started. It’s not really a Blogger Code of Ethics, but rather a Blogger Code of Conduct. It seems they want to make people nicer, or more responsible for their words when they are mean. This project will include a sort of seal of approval, as described by the Times:
Mr. O’Reilly and Mr. Wales talk about creating several sets of guidelines for conduct and seals of approval represented by logos. For example, anonymous writing might be acceptable in one set; in another, it would be discouraged. Under a third set of guidelines, bloggers would pledge to get a second source for any gossip or breaking news they write about.
Bloggers could then pick a set of principles and post the corresponding badge on their page, to indicate to readers what kind of behavior and dialogue they will engage in and tolerate. The whole system would be voluntary, relying on the community to police itself.
“If it’s a carefully constructed set of principles, it could carry a lot of weight even if not everyone agrees,” Mr. Wales said.
I’m wary of any kind of regulation of the Blogzone. I am on record believing ideas, and not especially political ideas, grow best when they grow wild, uncontrolled and unpruned. This is not to say that I disvalue civility. Alas, in this age of the Bush lie, revealing the truth and then bringing that to the forefront sometimes requires shocking prose. When people use deliberate lies to change and poison the discourse about important policies, as the Bush Administration and Republicans have done, there are few civil ways to confront that, at least on the internet. And we can count many, many examples of stories that eventually made the mainstream “civil” press, stories about Bush lies, that originated in the rather uncouth underbelly of the Left Blogzome.
Hmm. I like some of this Code of Conduct, though. Seriously, though. . . “Ignore the Trolls?” Nah. Delete the fucking trolls when their entertainment value has run its course.
Fine. How about we institute a TV journalist code of ethics whereby people like O’Reilly don’t get to scream at and insult their guests. Oh, wait a minute… We already do?
Tsk, tsk! Didn’t you mean ” Delete the bothersome trolls…”?
Tsk, tsk, tsk! Did I use coarse language there?
fuck that. i’m not a child who needs protection from words i don’t like. and with the online equivalent of stickers yet.
gimme a fuckin’ break.
As long as it’s my site, I’ll make the rules and the rules at MM are that there are no rules.
As the publisher of Brendan Calling (From the Underground), I don’t need the fact-challenged NY Times to give me lectures about civility. My readers are grown-ups, and those that ARE under the age of 18 (hopefully 0, but you never know) already know those words anyway.
What a fucking pile of fucking crap.
Where is my Easter Bonnet?
While some may see the blogosphere and the behavior of its participants as a new phenomenon, it isn’t difficult to find an appropriate predecessor model. That model is found on the streets of any metropolitan area and it is called traffic and the prevalence of road rudeness…or in its extreme…road rage.
Granted, personal attacks and snark on the internet are not likely to lead to fatalities, but if computers had wheels, it certainly would.
Read more on the relationship between blog civility and Easter Bonnets…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
Brendan, the NYTimes were not the ones making up the rules. And the link to the rules was not to the Times. I think it is instructive that the rules come from techie communities, rather than from political ones.
Where is my Easter Bonnet?
While some may see the blogosphere and the behavior of its participants as a new phenomenon, it isn’t difficult to find an appropriate predecessor model. That model is found on the streets of any metropolitan area and it is called traffic and the prevalence of road rudeness…or in its extreme…road rage.
Granted, personal attacks and snark on the internet are not likely to lead to fatalities, but if computers had wheels, it certainly would.
The problem on the highway or the internet isn’t going to be resolved through a badge system. Did anyone attend Easter mass yesterday and witness the value of symbols…no not the crucifix behind the altar or the statue at the entrance; I’m talking about the pretty new Easter outfits…complete with bonnets and bow ties. These are the outfits worn by the same people who also attend Christmas mass every year without fail…and then get into their shiny clean vehicle and race out of the parking lot without ever yielding to the old woman walking to her car that is parked in the back row because she forgot that it was Easter Sunday and foolishly arrived at the same time she does each and every Sunday.
Read more on the relationship between blog civility and Easter Bonnets…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com/2007/04/web_civility_and_easter_bonnets.php