It's Bloger-$!&*-rific!

With about 70 million blogs on the Web nowadays, people are bound to push the envelope in an attempt to stand out. Like people, blogs come in all different colors, shapes and sizes (so to speak). But in many cases, it’s not the blog that grabs your attention, it’s the comments left by readers, which can range in eloquence from, “Hhm, that’s interesting,” to, “I can’t #$@&^ believe you’d write that you $#@& little @#*&!”

Thanks to the latter variety, some technology tycoons are proposing a [blogger code of conduct]. Of course some are screaming censorship—after all, the blogosphere is one of the few remaining places devoted to unedited ranting, that and the subway. But sometimes it’s hard to remember that while sticks and stones can break your bones, names can never hurt you.

From [The New York Times]: “Last week, [Tim O’Reilly](http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/call_for_a_blog_1.html), a conference promoter and book publisher who is credited with coining the term Web 2.0, began working with Jimmy Wales, creator of the communal online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to create a set of guidelines to shape online discussion and debate.”

Of course the blogosphere is not alone in assisting the world in becoming mannerless, tactless and vitriolic. But the steady decline can at least be controlled in print, even online. One popular recommendation on how to do so is that bloggers [ban anonymous comments] and delete threatening or libelous comments. Outraged by the notion that someone might take away your forum for being a faceless $#*&!? Just remember, however the code evolves, it would remain voluntary, meaning the blog community would police itself.