Net Code of Conduct vs Flames
p2pnet.net news:- Kathy Sierra, a central figure in the recent Net Code of Conduct controversy, says she’s “still afraid”.
“As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference,” she said on her site, Creating Passionate Users, in March. “But I’m not. I’m at home, with the doors locked, terrified. For the last four weeks, I’ve been getting death threat comments on this blog. But that’s not what pushed me over the edge.
“What finally did it was some disturbing threats of violence and sex posted on two other blogs… blogs authored and/or owned by a group that includes prominent bloggers. People you’ve probably heard of. People like respected Cluetrain Manifesto co-author Chris Locke (aka Rageboy).”
Sierra is a close friend of Tim O’Reilly and the latter decided her experience was enough to encourage him to call for an Online Code of Conduct, an appeal backed by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who quickly followed up with suggestions for his own code.
Now, “I’m still afraid,” said Sierra told the Mercury News, going on that she’s “commented little publicly since the online attacks.
“Someone went to a lot of effort to do it,” the story has her declaring. But, “So far, the online world has rejected calls for change,” the story continues.
“Bloggers say ethics and conduct online are personal issues that are sometimes at odds with the Internet’s Wild West culture. They also claim it is easy for the offline world to blow the problem with online civility out of proportion. There are an estimated 70 million blogs on the Internet, many of which are tame places for exchanging recipes, viewing family photos, finding corporate information, or uncovering tips on sailing across the Puget Sound. Only a few feature angry graffiti, or let vitriol spill from their pages.
“Outsiders often make the mistake of viewing blogs as the online equivalent of newspapers or magazines with newsrooms of reporters and managing editors reviewing copy, said Jeff Jarvis, a blogger and associate professor at the City University of New York’s graduate school of journalism. They are not. ‘No one edits the Internet,’ Jarvis said. Traditional ‘media are things you sanitize, control and put a bow on.’ The Web is not.”
The Mercury News says Sierra has abandoned her blog and says she’ll, “only write online again as part of a broad community of bloggers or in a members-only site”.
Nor is she alone.
“Ed Garsten, a manager of DaimlerChrysler, helps run a Chrysler-sponsored blog that admits only automotive journalists,” says the story, adding:
The exclusive policy attracted a deluge of comments when the site launched in September 2005. Some comments were thoughtful, complaining that the blog ran counter to the Internet’s open nature. Other responses were more spiteful, acerbic. They were picked up by other bloggers and spread across the Net.
The controversy followed Garsten to a BlogOn conference a month later in New York City. “I was booed as if I dropped my pants in front of all these people and mooned them,” he said. “We honestly didn’t expect the firestorm we got.” One attendee spit at him.
A blogger who posted about Garsten’s member-only site was Toby Bloomberg, who publishes the Diva Marketing Blog. “I’ve done my share of flaming,” said Bloomberg. When someone goes against the Internet culture, that will happen, she says. Bloomberg posted a blog entry after she was denied access to the Chrylser site and listed its rules moderating discussions online.
“This blog has always been about optimism, creating better user experiences, helping users spend more time in flow, and learning,” says Sierra’s Creating Passionate Users blog.
“There are 405 posts here. More importantly, there are nearly 10,000 comments from y’all that add so much more to the topics, and from which myself and others have learned a great deal. I don’t want the last thing people remember about this blog to be The Bad Things.
“So, I’ve moved my original ‘threats’ post – something many people find very difficult to look at – to a different web page – rather than keeping it as a post here.”
Meanwhile, “No matter what rules or codes of practice Jimmy Wales, Tim O’Reilly and others try to establish, the blogosphere is always going to be an undisciplined place,” wrote Brian Whitaker in The Guardian.
“But we should have faith in the people who read blogs: they are not stupid, and the more blogs they read the more they will learn to sift the treasures from the trash.”
Also See:
doors locked, terrified – Death Threats vs Freedom of Speech, March 30, 2007
Online Code of Conduct – Killing online freedom of speech, April 13, 2007
Mercury News – Flame on: Hateful discourse in blogs scare some users away, May 7, 2007
The Guardian – Blog and be damned, April 12, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
