Mostly agreeing with Jeff Jarvis on the proposed 'blogger code of ethics'

BuzzMachine » No twinkie badges here

These pledges are all the more dangerous because big-media people think they are ethical and we’re not because they have pledges and we don’t. Let’s not fall in that trap. You have to make ethical judgments every day with every thing you do and no pledge is going to help you do that. Your mother either did that job — or didn’t.

I think Jeff more or less does a great job of calling bullshit on the silly concept of a ‘blogger code of ethics,’ but I disagree on the anonymous commenting issue. I don’t know much about whether it’s possible to achieve any kind of accuracy when tracking down a vicious and anonymous comment, but forcing people to enter some kind of credentials - bogus 60-second Yahoo! address or otherwise - is a useful hurdle that I don’t believe should be tossed aside so easily. Yes the internet and blogosphere are great because it levels the playing field and gives nearly everyone a voice, but that voice still needs to easily be tied to a person (again, fake ID or not). In the real world, someone can’t join a conversation without sitting down at a coffee table, peeking their head around a cubicle or raising their hand. Even if that person has a fake ID and tell us his name is John Doe, we still have words and a voice that we can attach to a face, which means that person, even at a basic level, has to think about what they’re saying and the consequences of saying it. 100% anonymity on the web is cute and all, but it removes that vested interest when tossing one’s $0.02 onto the table, and I’m not so sure that elimination is such a good idea.

If something is worth saying, it’s worth tying at least some kind of identity to it. Even if a person goes to all the trouble to use a fake username with bogus ID credentials that can only be revealed by law and only take us so far (if anywhere) when tracking them down, adding a layer of credibility to the conversation won’t hurt anyone. It can, however, help cut down on the signal to noise ratio, and really - isn’t that the best we can hope for?

[via Daring Fireball]