Via Blog Network Watch, I caught a bit of the event at Les Blogs. I was interested to read Mena Trott’s speech and her follow up post because it is a subject that I think often about – civility, responsibility, etc. These things are important to me.
Having read them, I have to say that I completely agree with her. I find it hard to disagree with what she is saying. To disagree with her completely, you must also be saying that you will not post things online in a responsible way. Sticking to the truth, not sensationalizing, not making a story out of a non story, giving people the benefit of the doubt, being accountable – these are hallmarks of responsibly posting information online. If you aren’t doing these, you probably aren’t being responsible. Beyond that, it’s quite possible that you are treating people very poorly, as well.
That brings up another point. Is it your right treat me poorly? To personally attack me and disrespect me? Sure. But, that doesn’t make it right or noble or appropriate. Let’s face it – there are bad people out there that enjoy to slam people and corporations for no good reason, that enjoy hurting people, that treat the internet as a fantasy land where they can do and say whatever they want. But, then, that wasn’t who Mrs. Trott was speaking toward, I would say. Those people will always be out there. You ignore them, you move on and forward.
In an interview at WasWatching.com (a New York Yankees blog) with a handful of other Yankees bloggers (I blog at YanksBlog.com, I was asked “If you could offer one piece of advice to someone wanting to do a blog, what would it be?” The advice given by the others was good, but my answer was as follows:
Patrick O’Keefe: Be responsible. People get online, put a mask on and run their mouth. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Treat people with respect, treat people’s property with respect and realize that everyone – players, bloggers, everyone – is a person and is human. Treat them that way. Again, be responsible.
Everyone is human. Humans have disagreements. You can disagree with civility, however. You can criticize with civility. You can do a lot of things with civility. It is important that you don’t sensationalize, that you give people the benefit of the doubt, that you are responsible. Everyone makes mistakes, myself included, and that’s fine. There is a difference in making a mistake when trying and not trying at all. To assume the worst in a situation where there is doubt is to sensationalize. Will it create more traffic for you? Potentially. Will you lose some users? Probably. Will you lose some respect? Probably. As I said, there are bad people out there that don’t give two thoughts to such things. All they want is traffic or attention – respect, accountability, ethics have no meaning to them. But, they do to me.
I manage 7 communities and I have been managing communities for years. Obviously, I have had to ban a lot of users from my communities. Sometimes they are civil and sometimes they are not. In the latter case, many post a sort of synopsis on their sites of what happened and how much of an idiot I am. The only problem with these stories is that there is rarely any truth to them. I’ve heard some good ones, too. Untrue, but a good story nonetheless. But, does that stop people from believing them or Google from indexing them? No. These lies, intended to harm me and my network, are out there for anyone to see. It’s a shame, but that’s the way it is. There are irresponsible people out there. But, there are also a lot of great, responsible people. And that is the group that I strive to be in and the group that I will read and associate myself with.
