Blogger's Code of Conduct (?)

You know a blogger is going through Writer's Block when he actually writes about Blogging (or writes about Writer's Block itself). Of course, it may also be because he is too busy to come up with something for his/her blog and has to write something he just stumbled upon to maintain a respectable blogging frequency. And then, perhaps he might just have seen something of interest to share with his readers, who are usually bloggers (I assume not many people outside of bloggers themselves read blogs).

Irrespective of whether I am the recipient of your benefit of doubt or not, I present to you  the Blogger's Code of Conduct. While it may already be common knowledge amongst many of you, I'll confess that I recently came to know about it. Tim O'Reilly, active supporter of open-source and free software movements (or Free culture movement), and famous for coining the term 'Web 2.0', came up with this set of rules as a response to another blogger's complaint, about being targeted by a series of increasingly violent and disturbing anonymous comments on her blog and a series of weblogs that appeared to have been created for the purpose of celebrating cyber-bullying. O'Reilly and others came up with a list of seven proposed ideas:

1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
   
2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
   
3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
   
4. Ignore the trolls.
   
5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
   
6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
   
7. Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.
   

For detailed description of each of the guidelines, do refer to the original Call for a Blogger's Code of Conduct. An alternate code of conduct has also been suggested:

• Be courteous.
  
• Give accurate information in the spirit of being helpful.
  
• Respectfully disagree.
  
• Use the correct venue for your post.
  
• Admit the possibility of fault and respect different points of views.
  
• If you screw up, take responsibility for your actions.
  

The code is under further review with the aid of a wiki. Doubts have been expressed over its fairness and feasibility. A comment management proposal has also been given by Jon Garfunkel, and endorsed by O'Reilly.

Of course, whether to follow these or not is a personal choice, and I personally feel that Blogosphere is too free from any power to heed any commandments. Your call!!

Peace...