for W3c validation

NO – to both questions. The New York Times has an article titled “A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs,” I think after reading Tim O’Reilly’s Draft Blogger’s Code of Conduct post. I 1st read the news on Fred Wilson’s blog and commented that I totally agree with Fred when he said “I do not want to see the world of blogging become more politically correct. Blogging is so great because we get to see people’s opinions without moderation and editing. We get to see people the way they are.” Jeff Jarvis has a great post as well.

The blogosphere can self-regulate. It functions very much the same as real life.  Would I personally post an anonymous comment? No, but that doesn’t mean others don’t have the right to. Anonymous comments are part of what makes conversations interesting. If bloggers write something outrageous — the chances are good (even better than if they said it in real life) they’ll get called on it in the comments. Some of those comments may be anonymous. Every blogger has the choice to ban anonymous comments.

To me, it’s just stupid to attempt to standardize conduct in the blogosphere with a “code of conduct” — isn’t the controversy partly what draws us to blogs? I read blogs BECAUSE they are real, controversial, and opinionated. To me, this code of conduct is an attempt to turn all bloggers into journalists, which is an absurd idea — but hey, that’s just my opinion.