|
 As
usually, numerous interesting topics were kicked around the table at
this week’s Thursday
Berkman Blogger’s Meeting.
The main event was a review and discussion of Blogger’s codes of ethics,
civil rules and power laws, etiquette, statements of purpose, ground
rules for blogging, manifestos and correction, attribution and deletion
policies. Lisa
Williams was
organized enough to put together a
working list of a variety of existing
policies to start us off.
The general concensus was that although the individuality
and iconoclasm which is the essence of blogging argues against the
evolution of any universal or generally accepted codes, it can be extremely
useful for individual blogs to develop codes or site rules, primarily
so that they can be pointed to after someone has violated them and before
they are irredeemably banned from your site.
Of course, we were inspired by the discussion to elaborate
an expanded policy to replace the blanket two sentence disclaimer which
we currently use in a comically vain attempt to cover our ass. Here they
are:
- This
is MY blog, I am responsible for all of the creative effort and
good taste
that goes
into
its elaboration
and I refuse to share the credit with anyone.
- The Dowbrigade is a fictional character and the Dowbrigade
News is a humorous blog; therefore the author should not be held
responsible for any inaccuracies,
exaggerations, insults. potential
slander or insider
information which it may
contain.
- We firmly believe (the Dowbrigade and I that is, we know
it gets confusing at times) that tolerance and willingness to at
least listen to other viewpoints is the essence of civil discourse
and democracy.
Therefore, all reader’s opinions and comments are welcome.
- We zealously reserve the right to flame, ridicule, edit
and expunge anyone who is rude offensive, overly idiotic or in terminally
bad taste in our space.
- We will not publish or post graphic images of cannibalism,
incest, necrophilism or bestiality, unless they have redeeming social value. The
Dowbrigade has certain standards. They may be very low,
but they exist.
- We NEVER second guess or after-edit, except when survival
instincts take over. For example, we recently took down a photo
of Usama Bin Laden sodomizing George Bush when we realized that it
was posted directly above a photo of our 8-year-old niece on Christmas
day
we knew would be viewed by most of the family.
- Whenever authentic mistakes are pointed out by alert readers,
we endeavor to make corrections and apologies immediately, always
on the original posting and sometimes at the top of the queue as well.
- However, since many of our mistakes are actually on purpose,
by way of humor, or irony, or clever red herrings designed to be
intentionally misleading, or to protect the identity of original sources,
it is difficult
to tell
which
are real
errors, even for us.
- Once an image is flying around the internet, it is fair
game, at least for educational and non-profit purposes.
- If you like what you read in the Dowbrigade News, hire
me to do some paying work. If you don’t like what you read
in the Dowbrigade News, go away and don’t read it.
- If you don’t have a sense of humor, may God have mercy
on your soul.
We reserve the right to amend, alter, interpret, temporarily
suspend or intentionally or inadvertently violate these principles as
the situation demands. Because of our proven mental instability, creative
licence, educational fair use and probable brain damage due to psychopharmacological
experimentation incurred during an early and abortive career as an ethnobotanist,
we cannot be held responsible for any actionable postings. We still aren’t
sure this isn’t all an extended flashback.
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