the Conservative Progress: Blogging Code of Conduct?

Last week, Slashdot pointed out a NYTimes article on the growing idea of a Code of Conduct for bloggers. Slashdot also linked to a discussion on Blogging Wikia where a potential code is being discussed and developed.

While dozens if not hundreds of examples of blogging and commmenting misbehavior can be presented (including, but not limited to threats, misrepresentations, & mis-/non-attributions), I worry about the talk of enforcement of any such code of conduct. Not that it can be enforced, but that it would be. There are obvious cases are legal action is not only available but fully warranted, but there are already laws for that, such as libel and identity theft and even harassment, if necessary.

My real concern is the idea of clamping down on the blogsphere, chaining it with rules. As I sadly had to learn in my Press, Law, and Ethics course during college, there are few forums of truly free speech left even here in the land of the free. The blogsphere is the best forum for free speech that we have. Government restrictions are few (libel, etc.), there is limited to no corporate restrictions (don't have to worry about pissing off publishers or advertisers), and virtually anyone can participate. Of course, this leaves the door open for both outstanding actions and undesirable exercises of this right to free speech. But is another set of rules really the answer?

Paul Harvey said, "Self-government does not work without self-discipline." Self-government is how the blogsphere should work, and self-discipline should be it's law. Granted, not everyone is going to act accordingly at all times, that's a part of being human, and there will be varying degrees of this. But trying to force others to follow your set of acceptable behaviors doesn't solve anything; think about what happened with prohibition, which was repealed in part at the behest of some of the same groups that started it.

In my time in the Auburn University Marching Band, we had to go over the handbook at the start of each year, which of course included the rules and guidelines the members of the AUMB were expected to follow. The AU Director of Bands Dr. Johnnie Vinson (who is retiring at the end of this academic year) used to always wrap up this discussion by saying "If I could get away with it, this set of rules would be only three words: Do what's right. I've found that's a pretty good rule to live by."

In order for the blogsphere to function as the free medium it is now, it should not encumber itself with a uniform Code of *anything* but should embrace the discussion of such principles and encourage the individual adoption and development of such codes by each blogger. There will always be those who choose to defy to do as they please with no regard, trying to chain everyone down will not stop that.