Tim O'Reilly, a fellow blogger, has shared a draft of his Blogger's Code of Conduct. This is a response to the Kathy Sierra affair. Sierra suspended her blog in March because of death threats on her blog and threats of violence posted on other websites. Here are the six parts of O'Reilly's code.
- We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog.
- We won't say anything online that we wouldn't say in person.
- We connect privately before we respond publicly.
- When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.
- We do not allow anonymous comments.
- We ignore the trolls.
I don't want the blogosphere to become a police state. I blog according to two simple rules.
- Everything I publish must pass through my "acceptable for the public domain" filter.
- Comments that cross the line will be deleted.
These two rules are intentionally vague. The "acceptable for the public domain" filter prevents me from revealing anything too personal, sharing something about another that shouldn't be shared and posting anything that could jeopardize a job, safety or anything else that matters more than this hobby. There's a line, and I know it when I see it.
I believe O'Reilly's Code of Conduct for Bloggers could have stopped after the first item. "We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog."
That says it all.
