There’s been lots written out there in the general blogosphere about how to control people who post offensive remarks on blogs. This all stems from someone called Kathy Sierra getting “death threats” on her own blog after she managed to tick off members of her particular online community. This gives me much food for thought, as I don’t think I am too offensive on this blog, nor do I suffer such nastiness by those few people who visit and post messages. However, on another site I am not so nice and for a while, deliberately set out to piss off as many people as possible – the rationale being that it was my site and if I put a big enough warning on the door, you could express yourself as you wanted. The whole thrust of the net is that should be able to express yourselves freely, as long as you stay within the limits of the law.
However, offending people is subjective and once I remember calling someone “a big girl’s blouse” in jest and then found myself being accused of being a homophobe. So there you go. The thing about words is that if you string enough of them together, you can offend just about anyone. Sure – death threats, racism, sexism and all manner of -isms are bad, but a good old fashioned slanging match never hurt anyone. But like most things in this world, the march of the feminisation of the media marches onwards, now coming to the net. While I have never wished physical harm on anyone, I have been threatened myself and I scoff at it. It’s all just words.
The downside is that there are many people out there who can’t distinguish between reality and this ‘ere virtual reality. When I first started on the web, I got talking to someone who gave me a lesson. They basically said that none of this was real and to trust none of it. For all I knew, the person I was chatting to at the time could have been a prisoner on death row or an eleven-year-old at the library…such is the blurring of reality. I took this lesson to heart and subsequently have taken none of this too seriously.
Unfortunately, later users of the net have increasingly swapped the real world for the virtual one and now the lines are truly blurred. They see every posting on a blog as reality and true. Every word, line and sentence is the equivalent of a real action or deed. I find this incredibly bizarre. For example, when you read an opinion column piece in the newspaper, do you really believe that the writer is 100% committed to those words. No, many writers delliberately heighten their experience to make their opinions even more reactionary, to get a response, to shake things up a bit.
For example, I tend to listen to Iain Lee on the radio when I do the evening meal and he can be quite sharp when he wants to be. I remember one night an irate caller got on the line and berated him for something he said and Iain Lee replied something like: “Do you really think I am like this? Do you really think this is what I am like? This is a performance because if I was really me, it would be incredibly boring.” And that kind of sums up many webusers contributed to the blogosphere. Some are genuine, while others create personas are somewhat removed from their own real life. That really is the insidious nature of the web and I am guilty of being a contributor.
Now what you get here is 99.9% me. But on that other website I run, I play up a bit. It is deliberate. Yes, it is childish. Yes, it is immature. But so is becoming reliant on the Internet for your social network and many other strange character traits the web seems to nourish. But I don’t get easily offended by words. I think it is because they are the tools of my trade and words are cheap and virtuous actions are like spun gold. I can understand why people might get offended at certain things I’ve posted, but the Internet isn’t a place for the weak minded. I wouldn’t even let my own children use the web without adult supervision because I believe it is an open sewer.
But this new “Blogger Code of Conduct” that has been proposed just makes me shake my head in disbelief. You can’t control people. Dictators and fascist regimes have tried and (mostly) failed. So this code of conduct is a supreme waste of time. It is really simple. All you need to do is delete what you don’t like and make sure posters stay within the laws of the land. Easy. I agree with maybe posting warnings, but you won’t be able to root out fake accounts and anonymous posters. It is an impossible task. Now to end on a quote:
“The Internet is not for sissies.” (1994) Paul Vixie, computer programmer

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