Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, Inc has followed up on his Call for a Blogging Code of Conduct (below) with a draft proposal based on the BlogHer Community Guidelines.
Of course, the recent furore over Kathy Sierra's blog and associated insults/death threats isn't actually about bloggers: it's about vicious people leaving anonymous comments and/or sending threats via email.
The Code addresses that in its first rule, which says:
We are committed to the "Civility Enforced" standard: we will not post unacceptable content, and we'll delete comments that contain it.
We define unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that: - is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others - is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person, - infringes upon a copyright or trademark - violates an obligation of confidentiality - violates the privacy of others
Bloggers themselves aren't generally a problem because they have some sort of online identity to protect, and because their effects are localised. People who don't like what they write can just not go there. The problems are generated by anonymous commenters who are either jerks who get a kick out of being abusive or just inadequately socialised, either because they are young or because they never grew up.
Which sort of makes the whole thing of somewhat limited value. You can have a code of conduct (as Guardian Unlimited does), but the people who are not jerks probably don't need it, while the ones who are will just ignore it.
A New York Times article asks: "Is it too late to bring civility to the Web?
Yes, it is. However, it's not too late to bring civility to any blog that wants to have a code of conduct and is willing to take the time to enforce it.
My guess is that the Sierra incident will probably lead to more blogs doing that.
