Following on from my earlier post about the Kathy Sierra affair:


Call for blogging code of conduct

The support for a blogger hounded by death threats has intensified with some high profile web experts calling for a code of conduct in the blogosphere. The female blogger at the centre of the row has been shocked to discover that hers is not an isolated incident. It has led her and others to question some of the unwritten rules of blogging. It could force a re-examination of the way the tight-knit blogging community behaves.

Lets leave aside the apparent 'shock' that Kathy Sierra felt when she discovered she wasn't the only blogger being abused (and she's a cutting edge blogger?!) because these calls for action stem directly from Sierra's recent complaints. I don't remember seeing Tim O'Reilly or Robert Scoble declaring a blogging moratorium or calling for the blog police until this particular series of incidents occurred. Let's also remember that Kathy Sierra is a contentious blogger who elicits strong reactions, positive and negative. Chris Locke, someone Sierra mentions, some might say points the finger at, in her complaints, says this about her:

I did write two comments on the "Bob's Yer Uncle" site, which I am happy to repeat for the record: 1) "Kathy Sierra is a hopeless dipshit."; and 2) "The only 'passionate users' I know are crack heads." I do not like Kathy Sierra. I like her even less after her post of Monday. If she is waiting for me to apologize for something I did or said, she is going to have a very long wait...

...given that half the human race consists of women, it should not come as a newsflash that some of them -- in about equal proportion to men -- are stupid, venal, dishonest, or just generally annoying. Expressing such an opinion may be distasteful to some and vehemently argued by others, but last time I checked, having a negative opinion of a public figure was neither a federal offense nor an expression of misogyny.

So we have a blogger that many people dislike and a few nutters posting sick images and statements about her (including threats) in comments and on websites. There are over 60 million blogs out there and many more people just reading. What percentage of them are responsible for these attacks on Sierra and others? By any reckoning 1% should be borderline sociopathic/psychopathic so it's hardly surprising that you're going to get some sick shit turning up somewhere.

The solution is fairly simple. If these people are posting abusive remarks on YOUR website put a stop to it by prohibiting anonymous comments. Demand registration. If your readers can't be bothered to spend a few seconds verifying their identity then they can piss off and comment elsewhere. Those abusive comments that do get through should be binned. If they persist there are perfectly good criminal laws in the US and the UK which can be used against them. Death threats are a matter for the police not for a blogging code of conduct.

If these nutters are posting on websites they are almost certainly breaching the terms of their contract with their webhosting company. Have the site taken down.** Again, if they persist get them traced and prosecuted.

The, frankly, ludicrous over-reaction to all this from Sierra and others ('I'm afraid to leave my yard...I will never feel the same. I will never be the same') makes me wonder if there isn't a hidden agenda here somewhere. The interwebbysphere is like the real world in one respect at least. It has its share of nutters, creeps, misogynists, saddos and arseholes. You can't get rid of them but you can minimize their impact on your life. But you have to choose to have a life in the first place.

PS: "It could force a re-examination of the way the tight-knit blogging community behaves." The 'blogging community' doesn't exist. There are groups of bloggers who know each other or share an interest. Sometimes they like each other sometimes they don't (see above). And bloggers are no more a 'tight knit' group than scrapbook keepers or home dressmakers are.

** Well blow me down if that isn't what Wordpress.com have done with the site in question (http://unclebobism.wordpress.com/)


It's not rocket science.

UPDATE: It gets worse. This may all have been a giant set-up. So which group has come out looking bad?

Mitch Ratcliffe: "Trolls created the impression of a crime and sat back to watch human nature show its worst side."

Doc Searls: "If Alan is right, everybody on this giant thread has been taken for one of the oldest rides in the park."