Now begins the usual back-tracking. “What I actually meant was…” “I think you got me wrong there, I wasn’t saying” “No, what I was saying is different.” Abort, Retry, Fail.
So who doesn’t like the code of conduct idea? Here are just a few from my own feed reader:
I can personally promise that I will never subscribe to a site or will unsubscribe to one that has this crap displayed.
Whatever happened to freedom of speech. If I don’t like you I will let you know and I totally subscribe to Shel Israel’s living room policy rather than this police state bull.
I am on the side of anarchy in this. It comes down to the individual how they run their domain. So long as it is legal I don’t want interference from any party. It is the readership that decides what they read.
While we’re at it, how about an ombudsman, required ethics courses at J-school, and regulation by the FCC? Because that’s worked so well for America’s breathtakingly turgid daily newspapers, and bland network news
I suppose if it makes some people feel better about their lives, then that’s a good thing. Whatever.
And whenever someone, no matter how much I respect them, tries to tell me what I can and cannot do by defining “civility� around their own ideals, I tense up. It feels like a big angry mob is arming itself to the teeth and looking for targets, and I need to choose whether I’m with them or against them.
This effort misses the point of the internet, blogs, and even of civilized behavior. They treat the blogosphere as if it were a school library where someone — they’ll do us the favor — can maintain order and control.
If you want to reform the blogosphere, here’s where to start. Have a brigade of people whose job it is to put out fires when they start. To defend the people who no one wants to defend. That, imho, would be a very positive first step.
When you take the lyrics of John Lennon, or for that matter even some of the early Bob Dylan, civility is not the word that comes to mind. They’re passionate to the point of being irascible.
Blogs are the epitome of free speech. Let’s not take an iota of freedom away from them.
There has to be a mechanism for anonymous comments, even if they need to be approved before being posted. As the EFF says, “anonymous communications have an important place in our political and social discourse”.
Twenty Major (In the comments on O’Reilly’s blog post):
A blogger’s code of conduct is the biggest load of simpering bollocks I’ve ever heard in my life.
Nobody is clear to the exact words from Ben Franklin but this is close enough to what he said:
Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
I like this variation: Those who would sacrifice Internet freedoms for some pieces of silver deserve to be called money grabbing cunts.
Well, maybe we need to go with this idea.
First we’ll set up a Blogger’s Union. The Blogger’s Union of Ireland (BUI). Then anyone who wants to set up a blog has to be proposed and seconded by another blogger. And anyone who wants to comment on a blog has to be a subcriber to the BUI Pamphlet issued bi-monthly and which only cost €29.99 a month to join with only €9.99 a month to pay afterwards.
Anyone who joins must submit their PPS number, fingerprint and a DNA sample and then if anyone dares leave a nasty comment which makes somebody cry then we can lock them up forever for typing nasty words on the internet – which, let’s face it, is the biggest crisis the world faces today.
Obviously it’s a €29.99 joining fee and not €29.99 a month. Don’t want to put anyone off.
Your company will easily be worth 400Million in no time. Stinking Pete said so.
I think if a blogger code of conduct is to go ahead you may as well just pull the plug out of the machine that runs that internet thing.
Sure, a little common sense goes a long way, but how can one redefine the freedom of speech or the freedom of the internet? Next thing you know, bloggers will be hunted out of sweet shops in case they rob a packet of Mentos, they won’t get a seat at a restaurant in case they write a bad review, and no blogger will be allowed take a train or a bus as big transport companies get wind on the blogosphere that they’re not a very liked bunch…
Well, wait till the Bloggers Code of Conduct is challenged by somebody who writes the Code of Conduct for Bloggers and they’re further confronted by somebody who writes the Code of Blogging Conduct.
Like your many and varied forms of Christianity each with their leader, each believing theirs is the one true path to righteousness.
Bunch of fucking morons, the lot of them.
Do they honestly think making some pathetic document which means as much as the Boy Scouts promise will have any impact whatsoever on someone who would threaten to kill somebody on a website?
Idiots. These cunts need a terminal disease or a more productive hobby to fill their time.
My company is already a €500m company. It’s just that nobody wants to give me €500m for it.
Tut tut Damien, you are trying to mentor people again aren’t you. I offer 20 Euro to the first person to spot the word sycophant or some derivative used in the debate 🙂
I can see loads of money making ideas in this Code for Conduct. Make it like ISO 9000, 9001 900…to infinity.
Set up a training company to certify auditors.
Once your certified auditors are out auditing you can have annual assessments of the auditors, blogs training centres etc.
Once everyone gets to standard (not necessarily a good one) change the code of conduct.
Repeat until rich.
Charge a nominal fee for “Code of blogging� logos.
Charge less nominal fee for “Hosting company supporting Code of Conduct�
At any time feel free to employ teams of monkeys to scrutinise blogs and make a big PR fuss when you evict some hapless blogger who didn’t censor their comments.
Meanwhile as your Code of Conduct changes year on year feel free to accept “donations� from lobbyists who think that mentioning Darwin to a minor is a mortal sin, that Shell is really a lovely company etc etc.
You could retire inside two years and sell the rights on to anyone or any group you want.
Easy.
I get 10% of all business ideas discussed here. John, we need to bring this conversation offline. So much potential!
Blogging code of conduct? what is this?
There is notting that puts a bee up my arse more than a blogger telling every other blogger how to run their blog. To me another blogger who does not write for for the limerick blogger is just an ordinary member of the public. the fact that they have a blog does not make them special.
If they don’t like what is on my blog, they can shag off and read something else. and they can take their code of conduct and ram it.
[…] I don’t think there’s any need to delve into the details, as to what exactly is wrong with the code of conduct, since I’d probably be preaching to the converted. Damien has a good summary of the response around the place, and it is refreshing to see that there aren’t so many people kitting out in their camouflage and sheriff’s badge just yet. I particularly like this guy’s response. […]
Let them set up a code. Then ignore it. How on earth do they think they will enforce a blogging code of conduct? Will they shut down your site? Leave comments, telling you that you’re a bad blogger and should join their union?
The great thing about the internet, is that free speech is protected already, by the fact that it is impossible to police. China may stop someone googling on altavista, but unless they either have a list of allowed sites, or block them all they can’t control the content. They can control what some one msn’s on google, but they can’t manage all the sites that would have been linked to. There are too many to police.
Fuck the code of conduct, just move ISPs. If your ISP shuts down your blog for not joining a union, use another ISP and your old one will go out of business as it haemorages customers.
If the bloggers code of conductors could police and manage the internet, well there’s a group of Americans would possibly like to stop Al Queda websites. There’s a group of children would like to stop paedophile sites and there’s me who would like to stop that site with the picture of me and the goat. All photoshopped, honestly.