On vacation — but not on a beach where I should be — and have been reading different posts about Tim O’Reilly’s draft proposal for a Code of Contact. Most other bloggers are saying a resounding “no thanks” to the concept.

Let me line up behind this group. I don’t want, need or have to put up somebody else’s badge saying this site belongs to some empty consequence civility club. The best question those in opposition are offering is:

Who is policing code of conduct violations?
If you answered nobody then take the first door prize. If you answered public scorn then welcome to what we already have when bloggers do something stupid (like propose a Blogging Code of Conduct), so why need some badge and credo to post our beliefs? Some might think bloggers live to air the dirty laundry in public and maybe some do. I take several things private that never get blogged and will continue to do so.

Frankly I like the fact that blogging some things that need to get an answer in a timely manner work better than email. I’ve been able to write about some important things (to me and others) here and get responses from authors, CEOs, owners of companies and more. I’ve had a much lower rate of response sending well crafted professional emails.

Power to the people
Here’s one example of being ignored using private communication. MLB.com charged me twice for the MLB Gameday subscription this year. I emailed them about it and sat on hold for over 40 minutes and never got anybody to respond. Unacceptable. Now if I blogged about this (guess I just did huh?) I probably wouldn’t receive a response either but at least it would make me feel like I’ve warned others that they too could be doublecharged and have a problem getting somebody to respond to the issue. Also, maybe I’m not the only one. This opens a forum for others to chime in on the web for others that have the same problem. Suddenly, we’re not alone. This is power to the people. This is what makes blogging strong and useful.

BTW if I don’t receive a response soon to this issue (original support email was sent on Friday), I’ll call the credit card company and ask for a chargeback. I like the MLB Gameday audio subscription, but I don’t like being double charged.

Comment policy on site by site basis
Other bloggers have wisely pointed out that a comment policy on a site by site basis handles the Kathy Sierra problem more directly. So does the police and bodyguards at public events.

We didn’t have to have a comment policy here for over three years and most of the other blogs I’m involved with don’t have one, so my advice to bloggers remains: worry the most about creating good content and creating a warm environment that encourages others to share at your site. No website lives in a vacuum. You are publishing to somebody, somewhere and it’s human nature to want to hang out somewhere that they feel comfortable.

Worry about writing material that will live well beyond the trolls that stop by comment areas and don’t let people who attack the material get to you personally. Just this morning I see one of my friends rated my Spiderman post a 1 out of 5. Ouch. There wasn’t much skin on those bones, I see why he might have done that and the ratings are there for that very purpose. Send me a message about what you like and don’t like. He did. It worked. Hopefully there’s more meat in this post.

That’s part of the beauty of blogging, we take one down the center of the plate looking for a strikeout. But the next time at bat we can hit the out of the park. There’s always another post, always another day.

Home where the heart is
I consider the Hmm blog to be one of my homes on the web. I have a home IRC channel (on our IRC server), a home radio show and other home sites. Everybody that wants to behave like they would my home and offices offline is welcome at these places. Those who dislike me and can’t maintain some basic level of civility (e.g. can avoid making the experience at these places worse for others) are welcome to stand in the street and mock me from afar in their own cars and homes and using their own bandwidth. I believe our comment policy covers most of my concerns in the comment area which boil down to:

1. not using for selfish purposes. No spam or links to spammy/sploggy sites, don’t use keyword-laced nicknames, don’t post only to send readers elsewhere (these comments are very transparent), one way trackbacks, etc.
2. stay on topic. No, you can’t write about how much a post three hours, days, weeks or years ago sucked in a different post. Keep those comments in the post that sucks. They’re welcome there. If you think this post sucks, then those comments are welcome here.
3. make us go hmm, not WTF. Add something to the post, the discussion, the content of the overall page. This means posts in all capital letters suck, posts with extra!!! exclamation!!! points!! suck, posts talking in a foreign language comments usually suck (sorry, I speak English, so if you want to comment here then you need to speak English too). Don’t leave personal information like phone numbers or email addresses. Don’t use a multi-line signature (there’s already a signature).

You get the picture: use common freaking sense. That’s what I try and use when I enter other people’s homes online. Still, even I get comments nuked here and there. I’m going to continue to bring and keep issues that make me go hmm and I think will make you go hmm out in the open. Others that want to take these things privately can make those choices. I enjoy living in a Democracy, not behind some iron gate where I have to fall into line with what some worthless code dictates.

If I wasn’t on vacation this would be a good post to collect what others were saying and maybe I’ll come back to it later. In the meantime follow the link at the beginning of this post because there are some really well written thoughts from fellow bloggers. While yesterday I wrote about disappointment of fellow tech writers today I’m proud of what I’ve read on the whole. This code of conduct, at least by current consensus, appears to be a lead balloon.

I’m not saying that those who choose to follow this code are bad people, but they are misguided if they think it will be worth any more than toilet paper. Reminds me of the AttentionTrust.

Update 7:11pm PST: Shortly after posting this my wife reminded me of the Drama Queen shoes I wrote about during our fifth family vacation. I had to update the top of this post with the picture of those shoes. The Kathy Sierra situation was/is serious but in light of O’Reilly’s overreaction by apparently being serious about this code of conduct it’s fast becoming a farce. The shoes fit, we must not acquit.

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