April 9, 2007

code of conduct

Tim O' Reilley's new blogging "Code of Conduct" is getting a lot coverage at the moment. Exactly why, I'm not sure. I suppose if it makes some people feel better about their lives, then that's a good thing. Whatever.

I much prefer Johnnie Moore's Code of Conduct. With only three points to it, it much shorter. And it's far closer to something I would write, myself.

1. If you look that entire content of this blog, you'll get some notion of how I conduct myself. It varies a bit.

2. You'll also see how visitors conduct themselves. It, too, seems to vary.

3. The past is not necessarily a guide to the future.

Johnnie's one of my favorite bloggers at the moment. And he's even more interesting to hang out with in real life.

[UPDATE:] Jeff Jarvis is not impressed with Tim's efforts to "play hall monitor".

Posted by hugh macleod at April 9, 2007 4:58 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I'm a golden rule gal myself.
Try to do no evil.
Of course you being even more evil than Microsoft (are you still?) would have to tweak this.

Posted by: Kimber at April 9, 2007 5:56 PM

I liked Codepope's reply on The O'Reilly radar blog:

"But then this entire discussion is basically about the best way to nail jelly to the ceiling to stop it being used in a food fight. It's going to be a messy failure and even if you do manage to do it, there'll still be enough jelly around to start a food fight, and now there's a hammer and nails which can get thrown around."

Posted by: Keith Handy at April 9, 2007 6:49 PM

Can't people just moderate comments?
If some comment is crappy, don't okay it.
No matter what, a blogger can't do much against someone who is seriously deranged outside of what can be done in reality: Contact the police.
Or don't I get it?

Posted by: asdf at April 9, 2007 8:42 PM

I read every post from gapingvoid and The O'Reilly Radar. Tim's posts are always informative; I hear of a lot of neat tech projects by reading them. I was surprised to see this lame "code of conduct" thing show up.

I know of the background situation with Kathy Sierra that is prompting all of this discussion and that much is unfortunate. This code idea seems an overly simplistic self-congratulatory pat on the back, though. It's odd, coming from such an intelligent web guy. It's with good intentions I'm sure, but it's not effective at all and is generating a lot of noise.

At least the badges rock!

dot dot dot

Posted by: Chad at April 9, 2007 9:57 PM

I follow Emily Post's Etiquette. But, everyone once in a while the white gloves have to come off!

Posted by: RKR at April 9, 2007 10:59 PM

For the record, I had nothing to do with the Code of Conduct (except for the obvious -- that I made that-post-I-now-regret), was never part of any discussions or "efforts" as a result of my post, and I don't think the Code of Conduct makes any sense (or would ever work).

That a blogger should be allowed to have their own comment policy (without fear of censorship cries) seems more than enough, and probably all that *could* or should be done. This is a people problem, and nothing will prevent people from hate, harassment, threats, sexual intimidation, whatever...on either your own or someone else's blog-- and it grows in direct proportion to your visibility. It's easy enough to hide one's identity, spoof the identity of another, anonymize your IP address, etc., and I think the ability to be anonymous is too important to discourage.

So, you either can take it and give as good as you get -- something Hugh can do ; ) or you get out and take another path, which I'm doing (path unknown, I just know it won't be me as a (virtually) lone blogger/speaker, etc.)

I just wanted to get the word out that I was not part of this Code of Conduct--or any other attempt to *do* something that may have been prompted by what happened to me.

Posted by: Kathy Sierra at April 10, 2007 6:57 PM

I still prefer my personal code of conduct, which I've used for several years, online and off: Don't be a Jackass.

Posted by: J Wynia at April 12, 2007 1:29 PM