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April 09, 2007
Tim O'Reilly: Kill your code idea
Tim:
We know you mean well, but it's time to bag your "blogger code of conduct" idea.
The marketplace of attention and the established laws of slander, libel or criminal behavior are sufficient to govern boorish behavior. Codes of conduct are meant to regulate practices within established organizations. The blogosphere is not an organization.
Just like in Life 1.0, freedom of speech is messy, unpredictable and occasionally crosses the lines of taste or civility. Redress is the solution, not prevention. Anything beyond that is a threat against the First Amendment, whose 45 words we hold sacred.
Scuttle your idea and chalk it up to a learning experience.
Ben
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I don't have time to go read Tim's proposed code of ethics now, but I have no problem with some basic code as a voluntary way to behave online. There's probably no way to enforce it, unless someone steps beyond the limits of the law. But it doesn't hurt for all of us to have this as a reminder of how we ought to behave toward each other online. I don't see it as censorship.
David -- I'm just a strict free speechist, no matter how distasteful, rude or uncivil the speech is. (Slander and libel are another thing.)
I don't want anyone trying to impose social pressure, direclty or indirectly on what is considered "civil" speech and behavior. Besides, there's already a great tool keeping unwanted speech off of a blog: comment moderation. Works like a charm!
Wooooo, Ben! Them's fighting words!
I think you should show up at the next O'Reilly Conference dressed in your best Lucha Libre wrestling mask and call Tim out.
That would give the bloggers something to comment on.
But I agree: The fewer New Rules, the better. The forums and the markets and the cocktail parties all tend to give the cold shoulder to boorish behavior, unless it has some redeeming value--the cry of a true reformer, the compulsive criticism of a moral gadfly, or the dire need to mock ourselves when we take our POV too seriously.
Blog on!
Ben, while I agree with your position, you stretch it a bit when you bring in the First Amendment. This has NOTHING to do with the first amendment because as you cite above, contained in those "45 words" is the pharse "Congress shall make no law...." Last I checked, O'Reilly is not Congress. Nor is O'Reilly suggesting Congress make a law. Thus, it's only a Free Speech issue when government becomes involved. Any private citizen can limit whatever speech they see fit on their blog and there would be nothing illegal about it and it would not infringe upon your "right of Free Speech". Private entities can, indeed, limit free speech.
Dave, is it a stretch? Perhaps, but the risk of ANY of talk of a "code" around speech for the live web is that it eventually picks up unwarranted steam on its way toward local, state or federal legislating bodies. It's precisely this type of "code" proposal that needs to be stopped dead in its tracks.
The idea that anyone can limit speech on their blog is pretty much the point, which is why a "code of conduct" is pointless.
The O’Reilly Saga continues in his comments section. O’Reilly says he knows the person who attacked Kathy Sierra. He gets the victim and the perpetrator together on CNN –then somebody pumps up the NY Times publicity machinery for both the victim and the perpetrator. It doesn’t take a genius to see who may be benefiting from this
little fracas.
Then O’Reilly starts blaming a random responder as being one of the attackers.
And when bloggers respond, most of the track backs lead to O’Reilly’s Radar Website – and (duh! – as an Internet expert!) he is unaware that there are persistent error messages generated in his
responders’ posts, so that it becomes a hit and miss game whether the post actually gets published or not.
Perhaps Tim’s involvement relates to this little gem.
Sierra’s current gig, along with her partner Bert Bates, is developing and producing the bizarre new Head First series of books for O'Reilly.
For further thoughts on anonymous blog comments, please see Who ARE You?? at http://criticalthinkingmasses.blogspot.com.
