"A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs" (4/9/07 p. A1)

Blogs made the front page of the New York Times and I almost missed it. I found it though and good news, it involves ethical issues. Added bonus!

The article is what the title says. Blogs don't have many guidelines and that is looking to be changed. Blogs can be an unpleasant place. There are millions of blogs people aren't going to agree with and because of this, they may leave inappropriate comments that can be harmful on many different levels.

According to The Times, Tim O'Reilly, a conference promoter and book publisher who is involved with the creation of Web 2.0 began working with Jimmy Wales, crater of the communal online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to create a set of what to many would be common sense- though already controversial - guidelines to shape online discussion and debate.

I am in total favor of this. Unwanted, inappropriate comments and blogs are something that I don't see as necessary. I believe that it would be extremely ethical to have some sort of blogging guidelines.

In addition to my way of thinking, the article went on to state that chief among the recommendations for bloggers is that they consider banning anonymous comments left by visitors to their pages and be able to delete threatening or libelous comments without facing cries of censorship. Some would say that this tactic would interfere with free speech, however, civility backs up what free speech really is.

Mr. O'Reilly posts his recommendations on his company blog, which is very well written and full of useful information and excellent points. It is definitely a blog worth visiting and looking around. Mr. Wales' proposed guidelines can be found on his blog, another very interesting blog that stems out in many different directions. The proposed code of conduct these two highly experienced bloggers have put forth are very practical and appropriate. The information and ideas they express are highly ethical and something every blogger should take the time to read and consider. Their whole proposed system would, of course, be voluntary and the community would be expected to police itself. To me, this (right now) seems close to impossible, however, I truly believe with enough effort and publicity this could and hopefully will begin to take place. The publicity has already begun and has many supporters including David Weinberger, a well-known blogger. Weinberger's blog is another worth taking time to look at and explore.

Of course, meeting a common ground for such a code of conduct will be a rather difficult task. It is really impossible to get even a decent sized portion of the millions of bloggers to come to a common consensus.

However, people are getting harshly harassed over their blogs and it is more than ethical that someone is at least attempting to put an end to this. Kathy Sierra , a high tech book author reported getting death threats over a dispute over whether it was acceptable to delete the impolite comments left by visitor to someone's personal Web site. She considered giving up blogging all together. This has gone too far. Death threats? Someone should be able to delete whatever comments they wish. I know that myself, for example has an online profile both on facebook and myspace. I have gotten several unwanted comments that I have deleted because they either upset me or they were something I didn't want others to see. In my mind, facebook and myspace are both personal, like a blog, and if I don't want something on there, I am free to delete it without getting grief (or death threats) for doing so.

Deleting comments aren't the only thing people are harassed for. If someone disagrees with the blogger's beliefs they are also tormented through emails and other means of contact. Some people, a majority of which are female bloggers, also have stalkers that create blogs about them and torment them that way. Cyberbullying (which sounds ridiculous, by the way) needs to end and I'm so glad that people are standing up to help solve this problem.

Bottom line: blogging can be a great hobby (or career?) if handled and maintained appropriately. Bloggers are responsible for what is on their blog, whether it be comments and personal opinions. I know that if someone posts something profane on my blog, they can expect I'm not going to tolerate that and will delete it. It is my right to get rid of it as much as it is yours to post it.


**Other blogs mentioned in the article that someone that is interested in this topic, or anyone for that matter should check out:
BlogHer
Richard Silverstein's Blog (He was one of those mentioned that was harassed because of his views. Someone actually created a blog with Silverstein's picture in pornographic context.)

Article by: BRAD STONE