radar.oreilly.com— Tim O' Reilly comes out with a code of conduct for bloggers. I don't like the look of it. Personally i prefer all slug fests to be out in the open rather than in some private chat.
Apr 9, 2007View in Crawl 4
I don't see the complaints. In a lot of ways, you could narrow this list down to :Don't be an asshat.This is really a response to the recent threats of violence against Mr. Sierra and her family (some of them pretty sick) and posting her address. It provides a pretty simple series of rules that people can/should be living by when making comments on a blog. The issue right now is that people don't like filtering blog comments - I know I don't, but I find it necessary to go in, clean up the spam, and the like.As with so many things, people often claim "Oh, I was only kidding!" when they do something asshatted, like "Your neck is the perfect size for a noose" or "I'm going to come over and slit your throat, hahaha" - then when they get called on being an assh**e, they respond with "What? There's no rules here that says I have to behave like a decent human being!"So, by having these rules laid out in a simple cut 'n paste fashion (OK - the badges are a little silly, I'll grant that), now people don't have an excuse. Want to make threats and publish people's home address to scare them? Just realize that you've opened yourself up to an investigation by the police. Insulting other people instead of making decent arguments? Your account can be blocked/removed/deleted - and if you don't like it, go start your own blog somewhere else.I once read something that went like this: Freedom is not the absence of rules and laws - they are the enforcement of them equally for every person. License is the utter absence of all rules, and that only leads to tyranny of the few over the many.These rules give a framework for free, open discussions. People can still make comments, they're free to have their opinions, they're free to think that other people are idiots - but they're not free to ruin the experience for everybody else. That's all this "Code of Conduct" lays out.
Not only that, but the written word has always been a great way to disarm bullies. It forces them to address your ideas rather than censor them with a threat of force just because they disagree. Personally, I'd rather know what people really think rather than what they're willing to get their asses kicked for.
The irony of posting a blogger code of conduct (which I inherently don't support, any restraints should be imposed by oneself, based on what your Momma taught you growing up) on Digg, is ironic. Unless its a subtle way to remind people perhaps how to behave? :P
If you are being threatened with physical and sexual violence - online or off, no "Code of Conduct" is going to protect you from anything. What you need to do at that point (and why hasn't this been done) is STOP f**kING BLOGGING ABOUT IT and get the police involved.Putting together a code like this escalates the pettier things like harmless, annoying trolling to the level of threats of violence. Why promise to cooperate with the police if someone is actually threatened. Cooperate with them and bust the assh**es who are threatening or stalking or impersonating you. Just do it and quit talking about how you "should".
s**t talking and rude comments is what makes this country great! I don't think a guideline should made, I think its personal preference that should rule. The Nazis made the Jews have a code of conduct!:)
@fyreDude, you are so totally missing the point. If there was a bloggers code of conduct in place, she wouldn't have been threatened at all. You see, people only say controversial s**t because there aren't any conciquences to their actions. What we've got to do is make some sort of law or something, that says unless what you have to say isn't offensive to anybody, then you shouldn't say it. Want to tell a lie? Well, you just can't. Unless it's a nice lie, like Vista is a better OS than Windows 3.1, then you'll get away with it. I don't see why this is such a hard point for you guys to understand - threats are exclusive to the internet. Nobody has ever made a real life threat like that, not ever - in all of the history of mankind. It's obsurd, you've never heard a human being threaten to kill another one. Well, maybe on TV - but that stuff is fake anyways, and if it's not said in jest, then those guys from CSI come in and take care of buisness after it's all said and done.There's this weird disconnect amonst us - like every blog is a store in the old west, and these hoodlems keep running in to town shooting up the place with vicious, vile words that are hate-filled and cruel. I have a right not to be offended, and Tim O'Riley is standing up for that right by making this pinky-swear pact that states that we all have to behave a certain way in order for our oppinions to count.I don't see why it's such a big deal - I mean, I 'know' that online death threats shouldn't be taken seriously - because anybody who has the drive to kill wouldn't sit on his computer and blog about it while he could be out there getting the job done. And I know that in America we have a guranteed freedom of expression, and these are the principals that the blogoshere, worldwide, embrace. I get all that - but it's time for the internet to be controlled by somebody who has a decent pair and testies and a snuggly-wuggly attitude about how all blogs should be written.I salute Tim O'Riley - he's like Thomas Jefferson... but younger.
johnhummelApr 10, 2007
I don't see the complaints. In a lot of ways, you could narrow this list down to :Don't be an asshat.This is really a response to the recent threats of violence against Mr. Sierra and her family (some of them pretty sick) and posting her address. It provides a pretty simple series of rules that people can/should be living by when making comments on a blog. The issue right now is that people don't like filtering blog comments - I know I don't, but I find it necessary to go in, clean up the spam, and the like.As with so many things, people often claim "Oh, I was only kidding!" when they do something asshatted, like "Your neck is the perfect size for a noose" or "I'm going to come over and slit your throat, hahaha" - then when they get called on being an assh**e, they respond with "What? There's no rules here that says I have to behave like a decent human being!"So, by having these rules laid out in a simple cut 'n paste fashion (OK - the badges are a little silly, I'll grant that), now people don't have an excuse. Want to make threats and publish people's home address to scare them? Just realize that you've opened yourself up to an investigation by the police. Insulting other people instead of making decent arguments? Your account can be blocked/removed/deleted - and if you don't like it, go start your own blog somewhere else.I once read something that went like this: Freedom is not the absence of rules and laws - they are the enforcement of them equally for every person. License is the utter absence of all rules, and that only leads to tyranny of the few over the many.These rules give a framework for free, open discussions. People can still make comments, they're free to have their opinions, they're free to think that other people are idiots - but they're not free to ruin the experience for everybody else. That's all this "Code of Conduct" lays out.
kindrobotApr 10, 2007
Not only that, but the written word has always been a great way to disarm bullies. It forces them to address your ideas rather than censor them with a threat of force just because they disagree. Personally, I'd rather know what people really think rather than what they're willing to get their asses kicked for.
missmApr 10, 2007
The irony of posting a blogger code of conduct (which I inherently don't support, any restraints should be imposed by oneself, based on what your Momma taught you growing up) on Digg, is ironic. Unless its a subtle way to remind people perhaps how to behave? :P
fyregoddessApr 10, 2007
If you are being threatened with physical and sexual violence - online or off, no "Code of Conduct" is going to protect you from anything. What you need to do at that point (and why hasn't this been done) is STOP f**kING BLOGGING ABOUT IT and get the police involved.Putting together a code like this escalates the pettier things like harmless, annoying trolling to the level of threats of violence. Why promise to cooperate with the police if someone is actually threatened. Cooperate with them and bust the assh**es who are threatening or stalking or impersonating you. Just do it and quit talking about how you "should".
jshenApr 10, 2007
s**t talking and rude comments is what makes this country great! I don't think a guideline should made, I think its personal preference that should rule. The Nazis made the Jews have a code of conduct!:)
missmApr 10, 2007
I thought it was so we could misspell without correction? ;)
superterranApr 10, 2007
@fyreDude, you are so totally missing the point. If there was a bloggers code of conduct in place, she wouldn't have been threatened at all. You see, people only say controversial s**t because there aren't any conciquences to their actions. What we've got to do is make some sort of law or something, that says unless what you have to say isn't offensive to anybody, then you shouldn't say it. Want to tell a lie? Well, you just can't. Unless it's a nice lie, like Vista is a better OS than Windows 3.1, then you'll get away with it. I don't see why this is such a hard point for you guys to understand - threats are exclusive to the internet. Nobody has ever made a real life threat like that, not ever - in all of the history of mankind. It's obsurd, you've never heard a human being threaten to kill another one. Well, maybe on TV - but that stuff is fake anyways, and if it's not said in jest, then those guys from CSI come in and take care of buisness after it's all said and done.There's this weird disconnect amonst us - like every blog is a store in the old west, and these hoodlems keep running in to town shooting up the place with vicious, vile words that are hate-filled and cruel. I have a right not to be offended, and Tim O'Riley is standing up for that right by making this pinky-swear pact that states that we all have to behave a certain way in order for our oppinions to count.I don't see why it's such a big deal - I mean, I 'know' that online death threats shouldn't be taken seriously - because anybody who has the drive to kill wouldn't sit on his computer and blog about it while he could be out there getting the job done. And I know that in America we have a guranteed freedom of expression, and these are the principals that the blogoshere, worldwide, embrace. I get all that - but it's time for the internet to be controlled by somebody who has a decent pair and testies and a snuggly-wuggly attitude about how all blogs should be written.I salute Tim O'Riley - he's like Thomas Jefferson... but younger.
thevoizdApr 10, 2007
Whats next on the agenda? Cyber Vigilante Squad?