If bloggers learned nothing else from the Michelle Malkin / SAW incident last month, it should be that providing personal information for purposes of attack or intimidation has no place in an ethical environment.
I’m glad to see a burgeoning ethics movement for the blogosphere, and I’ve signed on. Read the entire statement.
This statement is nonpartisan and nonideological. It is open to participants and adherents left, right and center. In an era when online activism and community have more impact, promise and peril than ever, it is essential that we seize upon the best aspects of the internet — its self-policing, democratic nature — and use them to set an example of reasoned restraint and considered civility.
And if you have a blog, you can sign, too.
Fascinating blog….which I found tjhrough your connection to chron.com. I’ll be back from time to time to read more. I’m a former Houston resident myself, now living in the UK. I will enjoy keeping up with “home”, via your blog, as I have time.
Thanks for all you work you put into this.
Janet
[ lordcelery.blogspot.com ]
While I agree in a general sense to the principles, I do however reserve the right to continue to “out” online scammers on a site I am affiliated with, the MMF Hall of Humiliation. I think this is consistent with Principle #3, which says:
Persons seeking anonymity or pseudonymity online should have their wishes in this regard respected as much as is reasonable. Exceptions include cases of criminal, misleading, or intentionally disruptive behavior.
As committing fraud (online or anywhere else) is illegal, I think it is perfectly OK to publish the scammers’ personal info. Especially when they are the ones who post it! At the same time, I will continue to insist that the site policy, which exhorts people not to harass the scammers (one phone call or email or letter, politely worded, delivered during normal waking hours) be followed.
~EdT.