A blog is a type of website that is updated with new content on a regular basis, usually daily or weekly. Most blogs are created and updated by a single person, and they develop a tone based on the opinions and ideas of that person. Successful blogs may evolve to the point where the original [...]
Code of Conduct
To promote and legitimize blogging, a code of conduct was developed by Tim O’Reilly, an influential supporter of free and open source software. O’Reilly created the code primarily to enforce civility in what is a largely chaotic atmosphere. The impetus behind the creation of the code was a series of death threats made against computer programming instructor and children’s game developer Kathy Sierra that appeared on several blogs. O’Reilly felt that it would be better if the blogosphere began self-regulation before governments decided to step in. The seven tenets of the Blogger’s Code of Conduct are as follows:
- Bloggers must take responsibility for their own statements and for the comments appearing in the blog.
- Blog users should be notified of the extent to which abusive comments will be tolerated.
- Bloggers should consider disallowing anonymous comments.
- Comments made for the strict purpose of inciting strong emotional reactions should be ignored.
- Inflammatory conversations should be taken offline and dealt with more directly and in private.
- If bad behavior is observed on a particular blog, the blogger should be notified.
- Never say anything on a blog you would not say to someone in person.