A bit off-topic, but I happened to catch a post on O’Reilly Radar that hits home for me. The post is titled “Call for a Blogger’s Code of Conduct” (Link). Up until a couple of days ago I thought such discussions were mostly unnecessary; much of what he says I already employ on this blog. The law seems pretty clear to me. In particular, however, I wanted to focus on two of the bullets on the list.
1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
The relatively recent controversy regarding IAVRT is a good example of how I’ve been handling this, I think. I hope. I received quite a bit of attention when I posted my doubts about that organization, but as should be evident, I made significant effort to not cross the legal boundary separating speculative conjecture from statements of fact.
While some of the people commenting here weren’t as careful, I made an effort to correct them when they, in my opinion, stepped over that line. For me, it just makes sense that if I’m hosting someone else’s words, I bear some responsibility for them. I may not own them, but I do feel an obligation to set the record straight as best I can without being too controlling.
Read my posts regarding IAVRT (reLink 1, reLink 2) and if you feel I’ve made mistakes, feel free to explain where you think I’ve erred. I’m not a journalist by trade, so I’m still learning. And unfortunately, those sites I read whose content is, in fact, managed by “journalists”, don’t seem to me to provide especially good examples to follow.
And just as a matter of disclosure, know that there are some behind the scenes proceedings regarding IAVRT. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. However, I’m glad I made the effort. Hopefully I’ll be able to share some additional information in a future post.
2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
I really like this idea. While I’ve made it clear to others when I consider their comments to be out of bounds – especially when their stated goal isn’t so much to engage in conversation as it is to market themselves – I could see where some integrated statement would make sense. I hope to upgrade this blog in the near future, and when I do I’ll be looking at adding guidelines. In the meantime people should know that I will continue to insert my own corrections in their comments as I deem necessary and prudent to hopefully ensure that while we all express ourselves forcefully, we don’t cross into the realm of defamation and libel.
{Update: Follow-up post on O’Reilly Radar – Link}
{Update: More links that might be of interest:
– Blogger Code of Conduct: the tyranny of good intentions
– Blogger’s Code of Conduct: a Dissection
I won’t post any more links. If there’s more to say – and there may be when I have time – I’ll post another entry.}