http://boztopia.com/?p=56bloggers, BlogHer, codes of conduct, Don Imus, Kathy Sierra, Lisa Stone, Robin Catesby, Statement of Principles, Sunfell, Technorati, Tim O'Reillyhttp://boztopia.com/?p=56#comments

In response to the Kathy Sierra hatefest and renewed calls for policing of trolls and abusers online, Tim O’ Reilly has created the first draft of a blogging code of conduct, based off principles used for the BlogHer women’s bloggers community.

</a></strong></a>sunfell has an excellent post summarizing much of how I feel on the issue, as well as more background. As an aside, BlogHer’s Lisa Stone and the dastardly </a></strong></a>deedop had a spirited discussion on the incident and its repercussions, which I found to be most informative.

A few things I’d like to add:

* It’s depressing beyond words to me that we have to consider formal codes of conduct for the entire blogosphere, due to the apparent inability of people to control themselves and not act like asshats the moment they feel like they can’t be touched. It says a lot about what we teach–or don’t teach–our children in our homes, schools, and communities.

* I don’t think such a code is feasible for the blogosphere, because it’s simply too large to be enforced. There are millions of blogs out there, with new ones created every day. How can we possibly keep track of them all? Not even blog monitoring services like Technorati are
completely reliable. There will always be incidents happening, no matter how hard you try to hunt them down and root the offenders out.

* With that said, I think community-based conduct codes are absolutely essential and necessary. If your blog is anything bigger than you and a few friends posting (as mine was originally), you need to set guidelines, because you will not be able to account for the integrity of everyone who posts there–especially if you allow anonymous posts, as I have been doing over the last year or so. I have my own statement of principles as well, which I do my best to adhere to, and I recommend such for communities or big group blogs.

* Community policing standards are not fascist, and they don’t infringe on your free speech rights. If people turned that kind of hysteria towards the many egregious abuses of our freedoms by the Bush junta, that guy would be on the short list to board the Impeachment Express. And if you are so easily willing to accept curtailment on your behavior in a workplace, how is someone else’s blog or community any different? Put more simply, when you visit someone else’s house, behave appropriately.

* If you think collective social pressure to get people to face up to bad behavior doesn’t work, well, just ask Don Imus.