Blogger Badges of Dishonor

Tim O’Reilly has started a Blogger’s Code of Conduct in response to the Kathy Sierra ordeal of a couple weeks ago. He created two graphical badges that bloggers can display on their sites - one that says “Civility Enforced,” for those blogs that follow the guidelines, and another called “Anything Goes,” meant to be accompanied by text like, “This is an open, uncensored forum. We are not responsible for the comments of any poster, and when discussions get heated, crude language, insults and other "off color" comments may be encountered. Participate in this site at your own risk.”

I quickly whipped up a third, because, well, why the heck not? It is an “Outlaw” badge, celebrating the Wild West-ness of the internet days of yore.


Recommended accompanying text is as follows: “I eat babies for breakfast.”

Here’s another suggestion - let’s start ranking blogs by color-coded “Terror Alert” levels, so internet users will know how much duct tape and bottled water to bring with them. What color would Frivolous Motion be?

This is the thing - I don’t disagree that a code of conduct would be nice, it’s not and end in an of itself. Ideally, it will start a much-needed conversation about blogging ethics, and not be used to create segregated Good Guys and Bad Guys camps. We need bloggers to have comment policies (mine, for the record, is “Anything goes - including me deleting your idiocy if I feel like it.”) and stick to them, and to be open about what kind of space we’re running and what kind of conduct is acceptable. Check out Jeff Jarvis’ thought on the badge on BuzzMachine.

Lead by example. And don’t be a fascist.

And put the “Outlaw” badge on your site!