The Blogger's Code of Conduct was a proposal by

Tim O'Reilly Timothy O'Reilly (born 6 June 1954) is an Irish-American author and publisher, who is the founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates). He popularised the terms open source and Web 2.0. Education and early life Born in County Co ...

for

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

gers to adopt a uniform policy for moderation of comments. It was proposed in 2007, in response to controversy involving threats made to blogger

Kathy Sierra Kathy Sierra (born 1957) is an American computer programmer, programming Teacher, instructor, video game developer, game developer, author, and the curator of Intrinzen Education and career Sierra attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a major in ...

. The idea of the code was first reported by

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, who quoted O'Reilly saying, "I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable behaviour, I would hope that it doesn't come through any kind of regulation it would come through self-regulation." In Ireland, a proposal for a code was raised in an article in

Sunday Business Post The ''Business Post'' (formerly ''The Sunday Business Post'') is a Sunday newspaper distributed nationally in Ireland and an online publication. It is focused mainly on business and financial issues in Ireland. Founding to Irish financial crisi ...

in 2009 by Simon Palmer, a radio presenter and PR consultant in Dublin, after false details in relation to a client had appeared on Irish blog
Time To Raise Above Blog Standard
After his comments he was subjected to sustained on line abuse from Irish bloggers and anonymous trolls and even received death threats. In Nepal, 10 prominent bloggers signed a Code of Ethics for Bloggers, first proposed by Ujjwal Acharya and finalized after discussion among bloggers, on July 27, 2011. According to ''The New York Times'', O'Reilly and others based their preliminary list on one developed by the

BlogHer BlogHer is an American media company founded by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory des Jardins, and Lisa Stone in 2005. It is an online blogger community and holds a yearly conference for women bloggers. BlogHer is owned by SHE Media which is a division o ...

women's blogging support network and, working with others, came up with a list of seven proposed ideas: #Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog. #Label your tolerance level for abusive comments. #Consider eliminating anonymous comments. #Don't feed the

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

s. #Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so. #If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so. #Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.

Reception

Reaction to the proposal was internationally widespread among bloggers and media writers. According to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', the

blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...

described it as "excessive, unworkable and an open door to censorship." Author Bruce Brown approved of the code, reproducing in his book on blogging.

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

founder Michael Arrington and entrepreneur and blogger

Dave Winer Dave Winer (born May 2, 1955, in Queens, New York City) is an American software developer, entrepreneur, and writer who resides in New York City. Winer is noted for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management, and web service ...

were two notable Americans who wrote against the plan. Technology blogger

Robert Scoble Robert Scoble (born January 18, 1965) is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, ''Scobleizer'', which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. He later work ...

stated that the proposed rules "make me feel uncomfortable" and "As a writer, it makes me feel like I live in Iran."

References

External links

"Draft Blogger's Code of Conduct"
by Tim O'Reilly

by Tim O'Reilly Blogger Content PolicyCode of Ethics for Bloggers by Bloggers Association of Nepal
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