complicated simplicity

Blogging activity has ballooned since blogging became ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ and ‘in’ over the last few years. But there are those bloggers who remember the dos and don’ts of blogging, while there are those newbies who jump head first in without understanding the implications or intricacies of blogging. 

I have been blogging since 1998(?), and many things have changed since then. Yet many others have not. If you are new, established, or even a laojiao in the blogosphere, here are some things which you might want to remember.

1. Your words are in the public domain. Doesn’t matter if it was password protected, private or hidden. You post it, you are responsible for your words. If you want to keep secrets, keep a leather bound diary. There are no secrets on the internet, thanks to Google. Certain storms have come and gone in the past few years to remind us of this: The Wee Incident, The PSC Scholar Incident and more recently, the Racist Blogger Incident. Write responsibly. If you are drunk, heartbroken, or in other non-stable emotional state, do not blog. You might regret what you say.
2. Acknowledge your sources. As with all content, it is always ETHICAL to cite your sources. Never bloody ever claim credit for yourself. We (the blogging community) will burn you at the stake if we find otherwise. Be honest. Be nice. Cite and acknowledge. Photos, content, link and everything else.
3. We are a community. Before things like Ping.SG, Tomorrow.SG, all we had was AltaVista and Yahoo to find blogs, on Geocities and Angelfire. Now, things have evolved, it’s a communal effort now. Being evil does not help your standing in the group. Be nice, even if you want to critique, say it nicely. Drama doesn’t help, gets you condemned and hurts you in the long term. Good example is Kennysia.com who does things really well. Bad example is the loud Xiaxue. We all love good bloggers who present their case nicely, not  loudmouthed attention seeker. Sure, you might get attention now, but I can assure you in the long run, it hurts your reputation and only yours.
4. Respect the opinions of others. Everyone has the right to their opinions, even if you disagree with them. You can voice your disagreement, but you have no right to impose your moral judgement on anyone. NONE. Homophobes, xenophobes and whatever-phobes have their rights, equal to those of yours. Personal attacks are not welcomed.
5. Blogging is content, not advertorials. Many of us use advertorials to generate passive income, there is no harm to doing it. Blogging to make money to me is nonsense, especially if you load up on adverts. Blogging is generating content, about something. You are not the Classifieds section of the Straits Times.

I may not be a really vocal community member, but I assure you I have seen and seen enough to know what’s right or not right. I write this because I feel that bloggers in recent times have forgotten some basic manners and I hope this is a push in the right direction of the community.

Be a responsible blogger. You are now part of a bigger community.