Blogging rules of etiquette have been around since the word blog was first coined.

It is safe to say that much that is written and discussed in the blogosphere is driven by the relative anonymity of the blogger and those wishing to point out their perspectives.

Because I have a deep respect for the power of “words”, I try to fashion a blog by adhering to these basic, blogging principles:

1)       I will resist making personal attacks. In my early days of blogging, I was a real schmoe when it came to trading insults. Not anymore! “Treat others as you would want to be treated” works for me. Argue with what is said in the post and not with who said it. The blog will likely stay on topic, which brings me to my next point.

2)       To keep the blog on topic, let the discussion take a natural course and though it might take the scenic route, it should remain close to the original topic. If you have something completely off topic to say, start another thread or send it in an email to that person. You want the blog to be entertaining and informative; not confusing.

3)       If I am stating an opinion, I will say that I am stating an opinion. If I am stating a fact, I will say I am stating a fact and will have supporting documentation or references to support the fact. I never confuse opinion with fact.

4)       I will make every effort to use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and upper/lower case. I will not shout at the reader by using all caps, but will instead keep to short, concise impact statements to advance my point of view. It isn’t a blog if you have a continuous, run-on conglomerate of words with no upper case, punctuation or conjunctions to connect or separate your thoughts.

5)       As cute as they are, I will not feed the trolls. When you feed them, they just want more. If you ignore them, they will go play with their own poop. Engaging them is the surest way to have your discussion locked down by a website administrator. Don’t give them or the troll the satisfaction.

6)       I have tried to create an identity that is true to my real name and my pseudonym. I will not separate the two and if you haven’t noticed, there is an abundance of fakers and pretenders blogging under the anonymity of their username, hacking away with the confidence that they will not be discovered. They steal intellectual properties from others and will not give their sources credit when it is appropriate to do so.

7)       If I screw up, I will admit it and fix it. If I find questionable material, I will ask the poster for more detail and if they can’t provide it, then I might report it to the web administrator. The veracity of the information is very important in the fire service. It must be reliable and come with a certifiable seal of approval.

       When citing statistical data, I will always cite my references. Because of the many entities that track the same information to different conclusions, it is important for the sake of debate to cite which agency’s stats are being used.

9)       I try to post cyber links that work and I will make every effort to cut down the size of any picture that I use in my blogs for speed’s sake. If I am told that a link didn’t work, I will attempt to fix it as soon as I can. As far as pictures go? If you’re like me, you will trash bin it if it hasn’t been sent email or blog size.

10)   And finally; what’s said on the blog, stays on the blog. If someone calls me “ball-less” for preaching safety, I don’t tell the wife or kick the dog. My family knows very little about my cyber escapades, which is fine with me. You have to remember to keep everything in perspective. It isn’t real until you meet that person.

So, I hope this helps in some way. As more and more people take to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., there will be new users who are unfamiliar with the world order. It might require us to “teach” them…

In a respectful way.

TcSs.

Art

The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author. You may read other works by the author at www.chiefreasonart.com.