Sunday, September 28, 2008

Ten Commandments of Blogging

The English organization Evangelical Alliance will be posting their Ten Commandments of Blogging on Monday. Ruth Gledhill of the Times
has written an article about this with a slam at American conservatives:
If unwisely moderated by their owners, blogs can generate virtual wars across cyberspace, with right-wing bloggers in America among the most extreme in their postings.
Christian blogs, for some reason, generate most hate-filled comments.

I am not sure if this characterization is accurate. The worst vitriol I have seen was from Lisa Fox (for example here, and here), Anglican Scotist here and Father Jake. I am not linking to Father Jake as he has taken his site down.

Anyway, here is a preview of the Ten Commandments with my personal reflections:

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity. Ironically, in my case, the blog is an effort to maintain my integrity in a hostile environment.

2. You shall not make an idol of your blog. Ouch! I started this blog in April of this year. There have been times when I became so focused on the blog that I lost sight of my purpose -- to write content that supported my relationship with God.

3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin. This is an issue for me as I do benefit from the shield that being Perpetua grants me. I do need to be careful not to abuse this.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog. Great idea!!! One way to be sure the blog doesn't become an idol is to make sure that day off is focused on my relationship with God.

5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes. Oh dear, maybe I shouldn't have dregged up those old posts of some of the progressive blogs. But then, maybe Ruth Gledhill shouldn't have made the accusation about conservative blogs.

6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings. Honor and reputation, yes, but I take issue with "feelings". It is not our job to walk on eggshells to protect the "feelings" of others.

7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind. OK.

8. You shall not steal another person’s content. I love the use of Hat Tip or H/T to acknowledge the origin of content. I think I have meant to include it and forgotten a few times. But usually, I just love to use the link function.

9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger. One great think about blogs is that anyone can check the other blog to confirm or deny what is written about it. For example if I were to give the false testimony that the Midwest Conservative Journal lacked a sense of humor, readers could immediately check it out for themselves.

10.You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content. I like this one because it makes the direct connection of ranking with content. The very highly ranked blogs do a terrific job of providing broad content, I couldn't possibly do what they do, so how can I envy them. And I do admire blogs that have a very particular focus. When I read about controversies regarding canons or lawsuits in the church, I wonder what Anglican Curmudgeon's will write about the legal issues and when I consider the Sunday lectionary, I wonder what Not Another Episcopal Church Blog's will write about his thoughts on the sermon at his church.

2 comments:

Undergroundpewster said...

Moses came down from the mountain and was asked how the negotiations with God over the Blogging Laws were going. Moses responded to the people of the world wide web, "I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is I have talked Him down to 10, but the bad news is that the one about adultery is still in there."

Dr.D said...

The part in #6 about feelings sounds very modern liberal PC to me. This idea that we are now responsible for the feelings of everyone else is a bunch of foolishness, imposed by the PC police, to shackle and hamstring all critical discussion. Just consider that stricken from the list.