Unjournalism

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When was the last time you heard any serious discussion about this blogger’s code of conduct that Tim O’Reilly whipped up this summer? I must admit, I was never a huge fan of the idea. I figure that if a person is of the hate-commenting nature, a code of conduct isn’t really going to slow them down. Same goes for any Web site operator who would let a hate-filled comment go uncheck. You think they’d really implement — let alone follow — a code of righteous and fair conduct?

Of course, the ideas behind the code came from the right place: a desire to clean things up and keep the best parts of the Web just the way we like them. I guess my general aversion with regard to the code of conduct stems from whatever causes my political ideology of a similar nature: an aversion to “big government,” or in this case, a bunch of big-wigs working to implementing any sort of guidelines or suggestions or codes.

Still, who the hell am I? Let’s continue to have the discussion. If a decent amount of people think this code of conduct is a good idea, I’m open to hearing about it. So where’s the discussion? Most of the recent posts I’ve seen about this issue are junk posts. There are some good ones, but the serious discussion about this issue — once considered to be quite serious — has died down. Does that reflect the true bigness (or smallness) of the matter?

Tags: blogging //