ePluribus Media Community || citizen journalism, for the people, by the people

Blogging Standards

by harcourt

Sat Aug 06, 2005 at 06:33:58 PM EST

[editor's note, by Cho]
cross posted from Pyrrho's diary at DKOS, as Harcourt indicates with a link to the original DKos diary below. -- additional update, a little cleanup on formatting.

For debate...

If you say it's a fact, you need give a list of primary sources, don't be surprised if one isn't enough
If it's an opinion from an expert... state all relevant affiliations such that someone can find out about this organization's work.
If it's pure speculation, use phrases like, "there is no evidence of this, this is pure speculation"
if you quote someone, include the context, especially a link to the article
give people respect in the comments and in general
ranting is OK, but don't think you can't be held to account for it... oooohhhh scary voice.
it's just a blog, ideas, intellectual exercise... hmmm, actually, that's quite a bit, take your words seriously if others are supposed to (i.e. humor excepted)
When you're wrong, admit it.
If you have any personal associations which bias your point of view, err on the side of disclosure.

ethics :: :: :: buzz-it!

Replies to this and other opinions on rules of thumb by dkos commenters here.

Btw, the last two above I added from a comment by acbonin.

Blogging Standards | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 hidden)

ok, call me pyrrho again (5.00 / 1) (#15)

all right... to avoid confusion I've signed up as pyrrho... heh.

by pyrrho on Mon Aug 08, 2005 at 05:41:26 PM EST

Yeah!! (none / 0) (#16)

I was beginning to wonder what the proper netiquette for saluatations would be??

Harcourt??

Harcourt/Pyrrho

but Pyrrho is perfect... been reading your posts on Dkos for awhile.

Thanks!

by Cho on Mon Aug 08, 2005 at 07:26:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

: thanks for the welcoming (none / 0) (#18)

by pyrrho on Wed Aug 10, 2005 at 07:26:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I was wondering... (none / 0) (#17)

Thanks for the clarification! And welcome!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
by wanderindiana on Wed Aug 10, 2005 at 03:18:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Welcome, Harcourt! (none / 0) (#1)

So glad you joinged... Thanks for posting this diary of Pyrrho's from Dkos...

These are good points to debate, hope you don't mind if I update your diary with an editor's note indicating that it is an exact duplicate of Pyrrho's (If you are Pyrrho, our apologies for being dunderheads)...otherwise, I am just trying to make sure we are not accidentally plagiarizing.... thanks in advance for allowing me to be extra cautious!

by Cho on Sat Aug 06, 2005 at 06:49:00 PM EST

yes sorry (none / 0) (#6)

this is pyrrho. Turns out I'm Harcourt here, on a whim. Older handle from way back. I've crossposted this here and was glad to see what's going on... I have to admit I didn't know there was a scoop site associated with the epluribus media project.

by harcourt on Sun Aug 07, 2005 at 12:26:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]

: Thanks (none / 0) (#10)

and no harm done. We are just trying to be sure that no one was using your work without your knowledge or permission. Glad to have you here as pyrrho or Harcourt.
The community site using Scoop is our most recent addition. We are in our final test phase and hope to be ready for public launch soon. In addition we will be adding a journal site for our published stories.

by standingup on Sun Aug 07, 2005 at 01:53:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Indeed, Welcome (none / 0) (#2)

Harcort.

Well done, ePM.

by NYBri on Sat Aug 06, 2005 at 08:00:35 PM EST

: Good Lord...that's Harcourt. <n/t> (none / 0) (#3)

Well done, ePM.

by NYBri on Sat Aug 06, 2005 at 08:01:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Great topic! (none / 0) (#4)

Some of our members have compiled a great resource for citizen journalists that would be just as useful to bloggers too. Take a look at the Citizen Journalism Toolbox in the upper right menu bar.

Electronic Frontier Foundation has a Legal Guide for Bloggers on their website.

Our guidelines for posting can be found in the Public Notice section on the left side of the page.

by standingup on Sat Aug 06, 2005 at 08:17:14 PM EST

: There's this one too that Luaptifer found (none / 0) (#5)

Luaptifer posted another link to legal information in the Citizen Journalism section...
here's the link in case anyone's mouse is too tired to move across the screen over to the left hand side where the Citizen Journalism stories live...(grin)
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2005/7/28/113531/059

by Cho on Sat Aug 06, 2005 at 08:29:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
: honestly (none / 0) (#7)

this is the most basic and widely shared stuff in the universe... it's obvious. Honestly, I posted it because IF dkos wants standards it's not like rocket science.
However, in that frame of mind, curtly, and with no passive voice except "for debate" meaning open for debate, but probably taken as "this is how to debate"... a welcome double meaning if so. Anyway, in that frame of mind I guess I simplified them in some way, in a medium way.
Some of the response was how minimal these were, and our standards should be higher... of course... absolutely. I agree fully with that. On the other hand... if there are people out there at dkos under the gun to put up stuff that is iron clad against resulting in banning, and they do, they do care of course they care... then these rules might actually be a quick reference.
still, no doubt they could be done better because this is like a five minute "obvious standards of letting words out of your head"... standards for all cases of non-fiction, really.

by harcourt on Sun Aug 07, 2005 at 12:32:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

call me harcourt (none / 0) (#8)

by the way... the issue of credit... these can be repeated of course, I know these to be very common elements of open non-fictional prose.

Fact are only "statement of primary sources"... and speculation should be declared. This allows all expression, AND allows a trust network to help be robust, because if the standards are held by the network of trusted writers, researchers, and reporters, then you can have faith on the quality of the information you recieve.

by harcourt on Sun Aug 07, 2005 at 01:23:52 AM EST

oh yeah (none / 0) (#9)

almost forgot.

if someone wanted to credit me... that's great, but of course, it would be nice if something this common really were ubiquitous and could be relied on.

I say this as someone that uses such standards to throw off all the reins and reason to wander in a poetical direction... the standards are liberating, they provide a way to speculate and return to factual structure alternately, without decieving the reader.

by harcourt on Sun Aug 07, 2005 at 01:38:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Pretty much agree 100% (none / 0) (#13)

But it's good to put these "common sense" rules of thumb on the table.

I am sometimes flabbergasted at how often what seems commonplace common sense is not shared or at least acted upon by others...

Sometimes we just forget... sometimes we get sucked in....

by Cho on Sun Aug 07, 2005 at 01:33:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

: yes, exactly (none / 0) (#14)

and in the end it's not fair to assume otherwise. better to go ahead and mention the basics.

by harcourt on Mon Aug 08, 2005 at 05:16:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Thanks (none / 0) (#11)

For bringing this over here. I've been following the comments on dKos, and felt it would be appropriate for the discussion to continue here, as well.

by Aaron Barlow on Sun Aug 07, 2005 at 09:36:38 AM EST