Digg This

March 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Far and away the best piece I’ve read so far on the Kathy Sierra situation is Joan Walsh’s “Men Who Hate Women.” Here’s a snippet:

“Ever since Salon automated its letters, it’s been hard to ignore that the criticisms of women writers are much more brutal and vicious than those about men — sometimes nakedly sexist, sometimes less obviously so; sometimes sexually and/or personally degrading. But I’ve never admitted the toll our letters can sometimes take on women writers at Salon, myself included, because admitting it would be giving misogynist losers — and these are the posters I’m talking about — power. Still, I’ve come to think that denying it gives them another kind of power, and I’m trying to sort that out by thinking about the Kathy Sierra mess in all its complexity.”

Read the rest .

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Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Blogging, Feminism 
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We Need A Web Publisher’s Code of Conduct

March 31, 2007 | 2 Comments

A couple weeks ago I turned off comments on my blog. I did it because I have thin skin and I couldn’t tolerate the negative comments, even if they were the minority. Anyone who wants to say mean things about me has plenty of opportunities to do so elsewhere. They can do it in web forums, they can do it on their own blogs, they can do it in email to each other… And the people who say nice things can say those things to me in private email, in MyBlogLog community, their own blog… I thought about it long and hard and finally just turned comments off.

Then the Kathy Sierra death threats occurred and the blogosphere is awash with discussion. O’Reilly calls for a Blogger’s Code of Conduct. I say we should make that a Web Publisher’s Code of Conduct. In my experience, the majority of hate speech occurs within forums, not blogs. In general, bloggers tend to be much more friendly and responsible than the average forum poster. Perhaps that’s changing a bit as the blogosphere grows larger, but still why should non-bloggers be held to a different standard than bloggers? Why are bloggers always so special? It’s ridiculous. A blog is just one of many ways to communicate online. It has it’s appeals but ultimately it’s no better or worse than any other method. It’s all about the people involved, not their choice of web publishing platform. Read more

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Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Blogging, Mason Malmuth 
2 Comments to "We Need A Web Publisher’s Code of Conduct"

March Madness: Search Terms Used To Find My Website

March 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Once a month I review my website statistics and see all the odd search terms people have used to find my blog. I make a list of the most bizarre and funny ones. Here’s the list for March and this time I’ve added some comments and links: