Across The Media Universe: Mind Your Manners Edition
I Got Your Blog Post Right Here: "Is it too late to bring civility to the Web?" wonders the New York Times. ("Yes," responds Public Eye.) The Times writes up an effort to create a blogger code of conduct, which could call on bloggers to ban anonymous comments and delete comments that constitute threat or libel. It's not censorship, says Tim O'Reilly, who is working on the guidelines. He argues that "[f]ree speech is enhanced by civility."
Expert Witness: As Sinbad fans well know, Wikipedia's open-source nature can mean inaccuracies. Citizendium wants to change that – it's meant to be "a smarter, kinder Wikipedia [in which] experts approve all articles posted on the site," as the Los Angeles Times notes. Sounds great, right? Too bad exacting standards mean a whole new set of problems. After six months, "editors have approved only nine of the roughly 1,000 articles that volunteers have written." And the experts may not have the same interests as the unwashed masses: "According to a chart on Wikipedia compiled by one of its contributors, the 20 most-viewed articles in February included 'Anna Nicole Smith,' 'Sex,' 'List of sex positions' and 'World War II.'"