Civilizing the Blogosphere
A couple of leading Internet personalities, including the creator of Wikipedia, have proposed a set of voluntary guidelines to help rein in the nastiness and abuse that can thrive in the blogosphere. Critics say the proposal would limit free expression, while supporters argue that "free speech is enhanced by civility."A couple of leading Internet personalities, including the creator of Wikipedia, have proposed a set of voluntary guidelines to help rein in the nastiness and abuse that can thrive in the blogosphere. Critics say the proposal would limit free expression, while supporters argue that “free speech is enhanced by civility.”
Click here for Arianna Huffington’s take on blog comments and civility.
Your support matters…New York Times:
Chief among the recommendations is that bloggers consider banning anonymous comments left by visitors to their pages and be able to delete threatening or libelous comments without facing cries of censorship.
A recent outbreak of antagonism among several prominent bloggers “gives us an opportunity to change the level of expectations that people have about what’s acceptable online,” said [Tim] O’Reilly, who posted the preliminary recommendations last week on his company blog (radar.oreilly.com). [Jimmy] Wales then put the proposed guidelines on his company’s site (blogging.wikia.com), and is now soliciting comments in the hope of creating consensus around what constitutes civil behavior online.
Mr. O’Reilly and Mr. Wales talk about creating several sets of guidelines for conduct and seals of approval represented by logos. For example, anonymous writing might be acceptable in one set; in another, it would be discouraged. Under a third set of guidelines, bloggers would pledge to get a second source for any gossip or breaking news they write about.
Bloggers could then pick a set of principles and post the corresponding badge on their page, to indicate to readers what kind of behavior and dialogue they will engage in and tolerate. The whole system would be voluntary, relying on the community to police itself.
Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Journalists from press clubs around the United States selected the finalists, and winners will be announced June 26 in downtown Los Angeles.
Bloggers' deaths are buried in the language of terrorism, but it's much more complicated than that.
The president of the European Union's Parliament calls on Saudi Arabia's king to free Raif Badawi "so he can accept the prize."
The U.S. blogging company LiveJournal is showing an error message to users inside Russia who try to read the blog of Alexei Navalny, a prominent politician and critic of the Russian government.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Yahoo's board has approved a deal to buy social media site Tumblr for a whopping $1.1 billion in cash. But there's a good reason that not everyone is enthused.
Truthdig prevailed over stiff competition in an election year to take home a Webby Award on Tuesday as best political website.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.