What Are Blogging Ethics? Are You A Blogger Bully?
Do you have any blogging ethics? Or another way of putting it would be what is your "Blogger's Code of Conduct".
I feel the need to write about this today due to the way someone, in a group I'm part of, is currently being treated.
But first, let's talk about a Code of Ethics for Bloggers, that was proposed and finalized in July 2011.
I bet you didn't know about this, did you? Well, you're not alone. I didn't either.
Apparently, this discussion started after threats were made to blogger Kathy Sierra in 2007. And in 2009, Simon Palmer, a radio presenter, was subjected to online abuse from bloggers and trolls.
I don't know the details of what either of these people may have done to be treated this way. But whatever the reason, it brought prominent bloggers together to discuss what should be done.
Seven ideas were proposed...
- Take responsibility for your own words, and for the comments you allow on your blog.
- Let your readers know you won't tolerate abusive comments.
- Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
- Don't allow anyone to start inflammatory of divisive comments on your blog.
- Take the negative conversation offline, and talk directly to the person, or find an intermediary who can do so.
- If you know someone is behaving badly, tell them so.
- Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.
I especially like the last point. It's way too easy to be a bully when you're not face to face.
So this is why I'm writing this...
A young lady in this group has been receiving very negative comments on her Facebook and Pinterest pages. She has a beautiful blog and social media pages yet is so downhearted that she wants to give it all up.
To have people say things like "your writing is horrible", "no one will read your blog", and a few other things I won't mention, is unbelievable to me.
I looked at her site and it's amazing. She's worked hard on everything and it shows, yet she's been made to feel that it's all trash.
Many of us have surrounded her to help lift her up. To tell her truths and not lies. And I pray she feels better and will continue.
But why is this happening to her? To anyone?
Personally, I honestly feel a lot of it comes from jealousy. Just like I used to tell my kids that the bullies were often jealous of their talents, and would try to knock them down to make themselves feel better.
As bloggers, I'm sure there is a lot of the same thing. Especially from people within your niche, trying to best you.
We are all doing our best to make our blogs beautiful, valuable, and welcoming for our readers, no matter the niche.
And as business owners, we should all be held to the same code of ethics...
Treat Others The Way You Want To Be Treated
I truly hope that most of you would agree with me. If we stand in solidarity against blogger bullies and hold each other up to higher standards, we can make the whole online community a safer place.
Your friend and fellow blogger,
Suzanne
Recent Comments
12
This is a great piece and I love seeing people put their head above the parapet to challenge these kinds of behaviours. Digital bullying in its worst form in many countries is an indictable crime and we should shoulder to shoulder to stamp it out. This for many of us is a livelihood we owe it to self regulate where appropriate.
Good Job Suzie
Suzanne, that is so bad. I am disgusted to hear this and I totally l agree with you that it is s op easy to hide behind a computer screen and bully someone. Please tell this poor girl not to give up, to hold her head up high and carry on. Giving up is just letting the bullies win and she is better than them.
I agree with you that you should treat people how you want to be treated yourself. Xxxx
Suzanne,
I had never heard of the code of ethics, thanks for sharing this info. In my view it comes down to 2 things:
1. The Golden Rule
2. If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything.
Thanks again for a wonderful post. I hope your friend finds encouragement among her peers. With friends like you, I'm sure she will.
Greg
Hi Suzanne, in the early phases of any online venture it can be so easy to have the wind deflated out of our sails, it takes a little bit of time to build the confidence to weather any storm.
A while ago we were helping a young girl with her e-commerce venture, would have been one of the best businesses I have seen, it was totally amazing and making money.
She basically got trolled out of business, in hindsight it was competitors that were doing the trolling no matter what was presented she couldn't overcome and so just let it slip away.
Introduced, second-guessing can be crippling when we are not equipped to be able to overcome things.
I totally agree we need to conduct ourselves like we ourselves like to be treated, and in all cases, it is the same for us all.
Unfortunately, people will have agendas, dealing with that can make or break some people.
One of the great things about WA is that we have this inclusive community, that is very supportive.
My winner take all is not to buy into other's issues, they may not like what I promote or propagate online, I have plenty of boxes of tissues for their issues, go cry a river somewhere else.
You guys are being really kind to your friend, when we get trapped in that situation it can be really hard to push through.
I hope that you can help her to see the light.
Alex.
The Internet has really shown how money-obsessed people are. You're right about competitors doing crap. It's all a big game. Even the big companies do that stuff. Having their employees leave negative ratings & reviews about their competitors and leave positive ratings & reviews about their own company.
In game dev this is very common too. Groups of people will 1-star rate games of their competition with comments like "no good", "buggy", "didn't like" etc.
Also is common that people will contact developers and offer promotional services to get more people to see a game. If the developer said no thanks those people will then 1-star and negative review the game.
It's kind of weird really because people talk about how fantastic it is to be able to see ratings and reviews by other people and they just don't understand how much of those are completely nonsense. They don't know the background story only see the end result.
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No, I hadn't heard of the code of ethics for bloggers.
I'm very new to all of this, blogging, social media, etc..
I appreciate you writing this post. Number 7 is great and spot on.
I came to your profile after you replied to my question in the training comments. You replied back super fast and with a very informative and useful reply.
I 🧞♀️ wish you much success with all your endeavours.
Louise