Don't Give Up the Ship

[Editor's Note: If you don't get the subtext here, count yourself among the lucky. And apologies in advance if you came here looking for old school Nappy ship rules.]

The free exchange of ideas is often a contact sport.

There can be heated debates, some even quite vitriolic, in the the pursuit of that exchange. But at the end of the day it presumes--or used to presume in past mediums--some kind of baseline accountability. It used to presume in most cases that something in print had a face and a name attached.

I have no problem with tough, principled discussion, debate, and satire. I guarantee that most people pay lip service to that principle, if not the practice.

The anonymity and virtual distance factors, though, in recent old school blogosphere cases thumb their nose at that accountability. It has dialed back the quality of conversation for everyone--and even reduced the value of satire and taking the piss out of people. And now we are seeing it becoming true out and out bullying, hectoring people until they quit.

Looking at how the temperature went up in the last two weeks, I can understand why people look at the cost and benefit analysis of running a blog on a friggin' leisure activity and say: “it's not worth it. I am out.” But please don't delete your blog. Take a break, stop posting forever if the mojo doesn't come back. Just don't surrender.

As I see we have a few options as a loose community of sorts on this:

1. Grow a thick skin. Prepare for the fact that your ideas, your character will be picked apart.

2. Take legal action. U.S. libel laws lean pretty heavily in favor of those who publish. (I can attest to this having been on the defendant side in a past day job, wrongly of course). A plaintiff must prove actual malice, that the person maligned is not a "public figure", and that it did tangible harm. A tough legal standard, but previous case law around anonymous blogging does mean that identities may have to be disclosed.

3. Close ranks. Being crystal clear (that phrase again, Whisk) that we promote a culture of solidarity, that if you don't sign your name and present your face that you forfeit the right to throw bombs in our blogs and forums. Most importantly, it means that we show our public support for those who are being bullied (not just made fun of, or criticized in a relatively principled way). An injury to one is an injury to all. 

Frankly, I am not a big fan of options one or two.

I certainly plan on trying to practice the first myself. An honest person has to say that telling people to grow a thick skin--or to be wary of their online acquaintances is an insufficient answer. It can also be a surrender.

There may be better answers than three, I leave the best answers for better minds around the “meta”. I am not a big fan of bandwagons or echo chambers and I certainly chafe sometimes at the idea of presumed community standards. I hate even feeling like I need to have written this preachy bit of editorializing.

But sometimes I feel like you have to get out of your comfort zone, you have to stand together against something poisonous. You have to act.