Is There Such a Thing as Blog Ethics?
Mar 29th, 2007 by msdanielle
The dictionary defines ethics as “a set of principles of right conduct,” or “a theory or a system of moral values.” Attorneys, journalists, doctors, etc, are held to a standard of ethics in order to uphold the integrity of their professions. But as bloggers, do we each follow a general code of ethics, or do we hold ourselves to our own personal principles, sometimes compromising the integrity of the medium we’ve chosen to use to represent ourselves? In short, what is right and wrong in blogging?
But I digress. The reason I even started thinking about ethics and blogging is because last night I was doing what I usually do on a weeknight — sitting in my bed with my laptop and thinking, “What the hell am I going to blog about tonight?” 
My options were 1. Free Webmaster Tools at iWebtool, 2. Networking number 2 article, or 3. Site stats update. I chose number 1 — Free Webmaster Tools from iWebtool. Now, I’ve been checking stats on iWebtools for awhile now because I’m a PPC advertiser. I buy online advertising as my career, and I felt that the most important post was the free tools tip.
I almost immediately get an IM from Gary, “You didn’t see jeff kee post the iwebtool thing earlier today, huh?”
Me: huh?
Gary: blog.jeffkee.com
Me: nope, it’s the same tools i sent you before
Gary: i know you showed me . . . . it just looks weird
Me: so?
Gary: looks like you’re biting content
Me: i didn’t even see his post today
Gary: i know . . .i’m just letting you know that i saw it
…
Me: i think ppl will realize that i do ppc and he prob does internet marketing. it’s gonna happen, ppl are using a lot of the same resources
Gary: but my point of view . . . it’s not gonna look the greatest when you do it 12 hours after him. that’s just my view point
Me: should i write a post about how i didn’t steal his post?
What I contemplated afterward was, “Was I being true to my readers, and offering content I felt was from a trusted source? [iWebtool]” Yes. “Was I stealing content?” No.
And I realized, we’re all using many of the same tools and resources that once in awhile, the content will eventually overlap with someone else’s. (I mean, you’re all checking your page rank prediction every other day anyway, right?!) In the case that you are actually inspired by someone else’s post, make sure to give credit where credit is due. That increases your credibility with your readership, and strengthens the community as a whole.
As for myself, I took a step back to fish around for information on the question concerning ethics and blogging and came across this post by Rebecca Blood called Weblog Ethics. I found it on Darren Rowse’s site Problogger.net. In short, here are her six weblog codes of ethics:
1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.
5. Disclose any conflict of interest.
6. Note questionable and biased sources.
You might not totally agree, or you might think she’s completely full of it. That’s your call. But I think most of what she says in the article rings true. If there’s no agency looking over our shoulder telling us what we can and can’t say, and no police censoring our content, we should at least publish what we believe in whole-heartedly, and do it with conviction and integrity.
Update: (4/5) I just read this article on News.com this morning discussing journalistic codes of ethics and how they’re applied (or not) to new media. It doesn’t so much discuss content, as it does intent. In this article, I think the question is, When is it “reporting” and when is it “endorsing,” when a journalist blogs about a product or a company? It’s an interesting read at the least.
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wow . . you copy and paste our chats . . . i’m gonna be more careful of what i say!!!! hahaha . . great post D!
No kidding! Where are the ethics there!?
haha!! saman’s never going to chat with me now
Everyone would definitely have different issues and views to discuss on. That was how blogging came about to in the first place right? Providing your own perspective on the issue that you are discussing.
Biter! LOL j/k. There’ll always be overlaps in content… if you didn’t copy it, you’re fine. If you did, just give them credit. No biggie.
We’re not emo blogs that talk about how our souls are a dark miasma of dark darkness. We come from the school of information and opinion blogs and as such, there is only so much in the world we can write about. There is ALWAYS going to be another blog that says something similar or even the same. As far as ethics go, I think that as long as we give our own personal take on the subject, then it is an original blog post and we are not ripping anyone off.
Of course, cite sources when you reference any news or another blog but as long as you are writing your own thoughts about the subject, then I see nothing wrong.
wow, dark miasma of dark darkness. that’s crazy. but you’re right… we’re all pulling information from similar sources. it’s great to get everyone’s feedback on this. it was more just food for thought.
I think the main question here is that if Danielle wrote about the same subject 12 hours after someone else did . . . how is that perceived? my point is that it might look suspicious since i think we all see each other around on everyone’s blog. . . . just my 2cts
It is tough to say for things like this. Suppose I wrote about a WP plugin and hadn’t looked at your blog today, but you wrote about it a bit earlier. In our case it would look sort of suspicious since we tend to be in contact pretty often. If I got the idea to write about it from you I would definitely link back to you and say I was reading Gary’s blog and decided to share this.
Like Danielle, there are just some days that you aren’t looking around and you just may happen to post about the same thing. I do it a lot since we all do use the same tools and talk about them with each other. If I didn’t see it somewhere else and posted about it I won’t link to it even if someone say “I just wrote about that”.
There is writing about something common and there is taking ideas from other people. I think that if we write about a common thing such as news, a plugin, etc. that there isn’t much need to give any links to someone else if it is already something you use yourself unless you learned about it from them. I actually did this yesterday and didn’t link back to the person that gave me the tool. They didn’t say anything to me about it at all, but when i noticed it I felt the need to link to their site so I edited it.
If you are going to take an idea that someone came up with though you can’t really hide that you are using it so there really is no choice other than to link back because it will likely annoy them a little…haha
Normally when I write about something and find out several people had already written about that same topic recently, I would simply provide a “speed linking” as opposed to reinventing the wheel.
you know, that’s a great idea. i was also going to post my second article on networking soon bc i’ve been seeing a lot of people in this circle talking about it. and of course, i’m going to spread some link love along the way
wow . . i think this comment has reached post-level word count
But lots of people write about the same subjects all the time - look at a news stand with all the identical headlines on all the newspapers. It comes down to who you read and why. Do you like their style? Do you like their take on something. I don’t care if someone else wrote something 10 days ago, or if 10 people wrote about it this morning and I know msdanielle has read them all. If I prefer to read msdanielle’s posts because I like her writing and respect her opinions then at the end of the day it’s all good.
Disclaimer - I did read some other comments so this comment may contain thoughts and ideas expressed by other people already unknowingly be me.
heehee hehehehe… HAHAH!!!!
ahem…
hahahah!!! OMG teeeheee
ha .. ha .. ha…….
ok i think it’s out of my system now
Hey! Great site, will visit again!
Just as long as you don’t repost JohnChow articles like so many do. Seems there are a rash of sites that just post articles about what he says, bottom feeders…
i think people who wanna get rich quick do that. but there’s a difference between “get rich quick” and “make money online” i think. so once people figure out that they can’t keep regurgitating what john chow says, they’ll either jump ship or actually create quality content and give back to the community with useful information. you can only do it for so long before you get called out on it.
in that case, i’m just going to ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ into my own blog. saves me the trouble of writing a blog. although, my readers know that i dont know squat about this techy blogging stuff. u guys are such nerds!
i prefer the term geek, thank you
Who’s John Chow?
just some guy from Vancouver who throws rocks at Families of Baby Pandas
lol Hon Hon!! are you serious!? you’re too funny!
Yeah serious! Who is this guy John Chow? Have you got a link?
Hmmm I like your comment plugin which has the different threads whats it called?
ok wait I found him in Google lol!
[…] around, and she doesn’t just throw up one paragraph articles either. Her recent post on blog ethics is a good example of how much thought she puts into what she writes. That particular post […]
I think it all depends on the angle the topic is taken from. Even though two people may write about the same thing, their thoughts could be so far apart that no one would even realise.
If there is a risk of losing credibility, just post your article and add a little at the beginning about how you didn’t realise it was already covered until after you had written the post. I think this enforces the need to be transparent right from the beginning. This will build a level of trust and people will believe you when you say you did not copy.
[…] of how pink is the new black. However, she recently started her self-titled blog where she argues ethics and attempts to become the next Iron […]
It would be a terrible thing if only one blog were allowed to comment on something and no one else provided their point of view. That is what blogging is about. Your personal point of view on a subject.
You post is an example, you write about what tool you used and how it affects you. There is a big difference between covering the same subject and posting the same content.
Network TV news is suffering from this problem. I you watch one network, you could write the script for the teleprompter for nearly all the others. Not only is the subject the same but the words also. There is no dissenting point of view. Kind of scary if you think about it.
this is true… and you’re getting back to the reason why blogs started in the first place. a place for individuals to freely express their opinions and provide valuable information not found in the mainstream.
but can we compare network tv to blogging? we can cover whatever subjects we want and also editorialize. but news anchors can’t. i think it’s more of the networks choosing to cover “flash and trash” as my uncle calls it (he’s been a news correspondent for 3 major networks). very scary…
I am still going to write a post on the iweb tool, I have used it for some time and really like it.
None of us own iweb, none of us can claim to have “discovered it” it was put out there for people to use and anyone should feel free to write what they want about it,
TBH Im surprised that conversation even took place….