Shawn I want to recommend a very valuable book I checked out at the library today. If you don’t already have it you need it.

The title is BLOG RULES A Business Guide to Managing policy, public Relations, and Legal Issues by Nancy Flynn. I picked it up and even for the solo blogger not writing for a major corporation I found this book very useful. On my main site I have a policy structure laid out that includes my privacy policies as I am a weight loss site and even though I am not practicing I do still believe in adhering to the HIPPA rules and regulations set forth for health care practitioners. I also have included a policy on how I handle dealing with children on my site.

You can find a copy of my policy structure at

http://wildheart14vr.tripod.com/id5.html

I feel it is one of the best policy structures out there for an online weight loss community.

You can find a copy of the template I used at WOrkz.com and alter it to fit your needs.

Have a great day.

That should read Workz.com sorry.

I think do/don’t online is a lot like offline. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Don’t break confidences. Keep a lid on your anger. Use words you wouldn’t mind your gran reading. Don’t gossip. Do have something to say. Be truthful. Be honest. Be helpful. Stuff we learn early on in life but some choose to forget

[…] else who mailed me was asking me about blogging ethics, a subject which covers a wide range of blogger behaviour. To get a feeling from the community, […]

I would say.. just be honest.. dont lie and it works for blogging.. because people will know you are lying.. when you do

Full disclosure and transparency in everything is the cornerstone of blogging ethics, I think.

i’ve been blogging slightly more than a year and i value honesty and transparency.

DON’T break the law. DO be interesting - any way you can!

I would like to thank everyone who has posted so far! The results are comming in via email and comments on this post, either is fine. A common theme going through most responses is that people generally mirror their online behavior with their off-line behaivor. Normally I would find that surprising given the annanimoty of the web, but bloggers need to be precived as honest and truthful, otherwise why follow them and their blog? Keep things up! I wonder, does the ever expanding reach of technology make you slide the bar of what’s acceptable? The Do Follow is an example. People are passionatly for or against it. Does anyone see any slippery slopes out there?

Thanks!
Shawn

I’ve been blogging for almost two months. From what I’ve experienced and seen…

1) Don’t plagiarize material from other websites. Even if you are linking, make sure you don’t quote too much of the text. For some reason, even if you cite the section of text… if there’s too much quoted into your own post, there’s backlash. I’m still not sure how much or how little to quote.

2) Most bloggers will say that they appreciate comments. But if you write criticism some will get mad at you. I think some people just want their egos stroked and affirmed.

Honesty and transparency is important. Settling disputes in private instead of publicly hurling insults and accusations would also be recommended, largely because these public attacks can seriously damage the online reputation of the bloggers in question.

Since we’re essentially talking about websites, any blackhat SEO against another blogger would probably be ill-advised as well.

This may be along the lines of what A Tentative Personal Finance Blog said. But, give credit where credit is due. If a post from another blog gave you the topic for yours, say so! And, give them some traffic by linking to them! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but a blogger with original ideas and unique perspectives should be recognized.

The medical blogosphere has been discussing this recently. To view the current state of our efforts, see here: Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics.

I’ve also written about this on my blog:
The Trust and Credibility of Healthcare Blogs
The Medical Blogosphere and the State of Healthcare Blogging

Thanks for you for suggesting I mention my post on the subject of Blog Etiquette at Betiquette

I will be interested to read the results of your research.

[…] we’ll get that sorted out.  To see who said what, check out the comments on the original Project: I, Blogger […]

A bloggers “code of ethics” is something that has been raised before. It’s an interesting idea (possibly), but personally, I don’t see how something like it could ever be “enforced”, even if some “voluntary code” were introduced.

Sure there are certain things you should NOT, or do not, do… don’t take what isn’t yours, credit your sources, watch your tongue, and treat others as you hope they would treat you. (but then that doesn’t always happen in “reality”, so why would it in the blogosphere?)

How long have I been “blogging” since 1997 you could say, before the word blog, and the term blogging existed. Hehe, in “those days” you had online journals and personal websites.

Not sure if that’s what you’re looking for, but I hope it helps

[…] at Desty Online is running the very interesting Project: I, Blogger, which is well worth reading and participating […]