Everyone seems to be talking about it today.
I made this comment on Ann Althouse's blog where commentators (Oh gross... the spell check wouldn't take "commentors",) seem to be coming down strongly on the side of "Code? I don't need no stinkin' code!"
Come to think of it... that should have been, "There *do* seem to be blogging..." Humph. Grammar? I don't need no stinking grammar!
Anywho... the fact that sock-puppets and changing posts is easy to do may be *why* there is a general agreement that it's unacceptable.
I'm reminded of reading Westerns where a person's reputation and word, the prohibition on lying or allowing someone to call you a liar unchallenged, are assumed. It was vitally necessary in a situation where people might make a contract verbally with a handshake for good measure.
And I just thought of another similarity... anonymity. Read a Western and what is described is a place where people could and did reinvent themselves, refuse to identify themselves, yet would not lie.
To the extent that genre Western fiction represents something that was real as a concept (I'm sure people *did* lie) it's interesting to see the parallels with this new Wild Wild West. Not very refined are we, with a whole lot of shooting from the hip going on, but to say there isn't standards isn't true.
What's more, the standards that exist are genuine and organic because they have developed as the result of people rubbing against each other.
(And do I really have to say that criminal behavior, death threats or stalking, are wrong? But that's not a voluntary code of conduct, it's against the law.)
I made this comment on Ann Althouse's blog where commentators (Oh gross... the spell check wouldn't take "commentors",) seem to be coming down strongly on the side of "Code? I don't need no stinkin' code!"
"There does seem to be blogging community standards, just not on language or insult. Sock puppetry is soundly denounced. Changing posts without making a note of it is soundly denounced.
Interesting that those two things are trivially easy to do on blogs."
Come to think of it... that should have been, "There *do* seem to be blogging..." Humph. Grammar? I don't need no stinking grammar!
Anywho... the fact that sock-puppets and changing posts is easy to do may be *why* there is a general agreement that it's unacceptable.
I'm reminded of reading Westerns where a person's reputation and word, the prohibition on lying or allowing someone to call you a liar unchallenged, are assumed. It was vitally necessary in a situation where people might make a contract verbally with a handshake for good measure.
And I just thought of another similarity... anonymity. Read a Western and what is described is a place where people could and did reinvent themselves, refuse to identify themselves, yet would not lie.
To the extent that genre Western fiction represents something that was real as a concept (I'm sure people *did* lie) it's interesting to see the parallels with this new Wild Wild West. Not very refined are we, with a whole lot of shooting from the hip going on, but to say there isn't standards isn't true.
What's more, the standards that exist are genuine and organic because they have developed as the result of people rubbing against each other.
(And do I really have to say that criminal behavior, death threats or stalking, are wrong? But that's not a voluntary code of conduct, it's against the law.)
Comments
Uff da.
Low blood sugar, you think?