While cleaning out my inbox this morning I noticed an email from the CHI-WEB list that I had previously missed entitled Blogs and Netiquette. After the interesting and very welcome response to the previous post on the new-look Uni site I thought it was timely to have another look at it. With the blogs dots usyd stable of blogs growing steadily I thought it might also be useful to look at a few of the issues.
The discussion in the email was related to the pros and cons of starting an in-house blog for employee feedback. If you're interested in starting a blog aligned to an organisation I encourage you to have a look at the email.
The relative issues for the University I see are as follows:
Thinking about the purpose of your blog
If you're thinking about starting a blog you should seriously consider the role you see it as having and how you are going to deal with comments. We all like to think that our blog will generate a lot of intelligent, interesting discussion but this is rare in the blog world. Getting people to comment is hard enough, getting them to take an issue and run with it thoughtfully is another thing altogether. Left unchecked, comments on an organisation-aligned blog could get out of hand. The nature of the blog will assist with the comments process. If you don't want feedback, turn the comments off. If you don't want any dissenting comments, moderate all comments and delete those that do not fit your purpose. If you wish to encourage discussion on all aspects of issues you raise, open comments and stipulate a few ground rules to keep discussion on the level. A comments policy is a good place to start. So if you are
going to allow comments you need to think about...
Anonymity or not?
Blogs have never been places where transparency of identity is everything. People often shield their real identity and sometimes this is for a very good reason, especially in the case of personal blogging. As this blog is part of my job I write it under my real name. Some at the university don't write under their real name and that is quite acceptable. As I see the role of this blog to be mainly instructional I have absolutely no qualms about revealing
my identity. (Although, of course, this doesn't stop me voicing opinions...)
Allowing people to use non de plumes will allow them to express their views freely. However, it also allows commenters to shirk responsibility for views they express. In an organisational environment the benefits of this are debatable and the effects double-sided. Allowing people to comment anonymously can lead to open and vibrant discussion but it can also lead to flaming and abuse. Which leads me to...
To edit or not?
Should you edit the comments on your blog? If you do, will you make the fact that comments may be edited publicly known? What will be edited and what will be deleted? Are you going to allow comments that disagree with your opinion? Are you going to allow comments that criticise your work? If you want to allow all comments without moderation, are you prepared to cope with any fall-out in the case of abuse, possibly defamatory statements or just plain old spam? Can you delete some comments and not others? Which raises the issue of...
Constructive criticism vs flaming
Opening up your work to criticism is not easy. Discussing it on a blog can seem like running around the Quad naked. This is not such a bad thing. (The discussion bit I mean, not the running-around naked bit). If you want to spread knowledge or raise awareness of something a blog is an effective vehicle. If you want people to tell you how much your work sucks, it's pretty good for that too. So how do you deal with it? You could remove comments on some kind of scale. If they disagree but are constructive they're in, if they disagree and are not constructive and/or are abusive they could be removed. If you take this path, think about how your removal of comments may be seen. You may be seen as stifling debate. On the other hand, you may be seen as keeping the squeaky wheels out of the argument and allowing others to speak.
You could allow all comments but require everyone use their real names and provide a real email address. Or you could throw caution to the wind and allow everything from anyone, hoping that those who comment will police themselves. (Surprisingly, this actually happens more than you would think). After all, if you are working with someone and you express a view on a blog that is inflammatory or abusive, chances are it will get back to them, even if done so anonymously. Both blog authors and those commenting on organisation-based blogs need to
consider the effects of their online words on their offline work and relationships with co-workers.
The policy here at Templatedata
So what's our policy? A default Blogs dot USyd policy is available on the Support site. The policy here at Templatedata is based on this with the following clarifications:
- Comments will only be edited or deleted in extreme cases and the author of such comments will be emailed with an explanation as to why this has occurred. Examples of extreme cases include personal abuse, bad language or possible defamatory material. If a person persists in posting inflammatory material they may be blocked from commenting. Please note this will occur in extreme cases only. The decision to block a commenter is at the discretion of the blog owner.
- Those commenting are encouraged to supply a real name but are under no obligation to do so.
- All commenters should supply a real email address. This address will not be published but used only in extreme cases, such as those mentioned above. If a commenter is found to continually supply a false email address they may be placed in a moderation list that will force all comments they make through moderation before being published.