More rules of blogging Jul 4, 2005

Since I posted a "rule of blogging" in my last entry, I thought I'd codify a few more of my long-held but until-now-not-written-down beliefs about what a blog should be like. I'm not asking anyone else to follow these rules (although I certainly wouldn't object. My primary purpose in posting them is to tell everyone what they can expect from this journal.

Use of cut tags. If I go on and on about a particular topic (and I sometimes do), I'll put it behind a cut. Just like, for example, these rules.

If you don't have anything nice to say… I strongly feel that blogs should not be used as a means of manipulating/hurting/getting revenge on people. Therefore, I'm not going to post anything negative about a person without talking to them about it first, at least to let them know I'm doing it.

Turn down the angst. This one should be fairly obvious to most people who have ever read a personal blog before. Posting angst once in awhile, IMO, is all right, as long as you make it clear that it's angst and put it behind an appropriate cut. I will try to keep angst posts to a minimum and instead rely on my existing (offline) support network if I need to.

Don't name names. This is the rule from the previous post. I will not use anyone's name or LJ handle without their explicit permission. If you want me to use your name, let me know privately and I'll make the appropriate edits. Why this set of rules? I've become increasingly convinced that blogs are essentially a form of journalism, albeit with somewhat different subject matter than traditional news journalism. As such, I feel that blogs should follow a code of journalistic ethics (even if the "real" media doesn't, but don't get me started on that). Possibly even more so, because although bad journalism can cost jobs, bad blogging can cost friendships.

[gets off soapbox]

Again, I'm not really trying to preach to anyone else about how to write in their blog. This is the way I intend to blog. If you catch me breaking one of my own rules (and I'm human, so it will probably happen), please let me know and I'll do my best to rectify the situation.