I’ve read Tim O’Reilly’s Blogger Code of Conduct and agree with a fair few other folk that it is not for me, although it may be perfectly useful for Tim’s sites. I assume these are group written sites, otherwise the use of the Royal ‘we’ is amusing.

However Kathy Sierra rightly adds to the comments that having such a policy on her site did nothing to stop what happened:

This Code of Conduct would have had no effect on what happened to me. I had a comment policy in place, and deleted the threats that came directly to my blog. But if people are determined to hate, harass, intimidate, or threaten you, it’s easy enough to do on other blogs.

And I far prefer the style of Johnnie Moore’s policy:

1 If you look at the entire content of this blog, you’ll get some notion of how I conduct myself. It varies a bit.

2 You’ll also see how visitors conduct themselves. It, too, seems to vary.

3 The past is not necessarily a guide to the future.

combined with a hefty dose of common sense that means it should apply equally to how I conduct myself elsewhere as well as how i expect people to behave around me.

Meanwhile, Kathy has written a post looking for ideas about where to go next. From what she says, it looks like she is going to stop public speaking, which is a shame as I’ve loved it everytime I’ve seen her. Hopefully she’ll continue to publish in some format going forward.

This is weird as it is the first Good Friday I’ve worked for years, there’s no 4 day weekends here for religious holidays, just the secular ones to go shopping. I’m going to point you over to Rachel North for a wonderful recollection of days gone by. No memories like that for me, just a blur of holidays and sitting on motorways going somewhere for the weekend or just general family gatherings.

Serenity has topped a poll from SFX magazine of the best sci-fi films. Given the strong and extremely well organised fan-base, I wonder how many votes they managed to encourage?

Last week there were a lot of words written about the threats made to Kathy Sierra and her reaction to them. Unfortunately many of the word accused people behind the offending sites before allowing them to put their side of the story and they were subject to some of the same kind of behaviour, the mob mentality hiding behind an internet persona, that Kathy had complained about in the first place. But over the week, things have been looked at, more information discovered and today we have something that seemed unlikely a week ago. Kathy and Chris Locke jointly present statements after multiple conversations over the week and a CNN interview that aired today. Read both statements, but here are some key quotes for me. First from Kathy:

I do believe that Chris, Jeneane, and Frank did not make the specific posts and images that I found threatening, and I believe they were not responsible for the threatening comments on my own blog. However, Chris and I (and others) still strongly disagree about whether people who are respected and trusted in our industry (like the three of them) are giving tacit approval when they support (though ownership, authoring, and promoting) sites like meankids and unclebob. This is about trust and leadership in our community, and whether those who are looked up to have a (non-legal) responsibility to the community whose trust they’ve earned for the things they promote.

From Chris:

It’s true we laughed, but not at the core issues. No one was laughing about the offensive words and images that were posted to the blogs I was involved with. The material Kathy quoted on her site was hurtful and ugly. I do not excuse it or think it should be excused. Some of the things that were posted about her were admittedly frightening, and far beyond tasteless….
Misogyny is real — and vile. Violence against women is wrong. It must not be tolerated. This issue should be explored and discussed, not swept under the rug, not rationalized away

And both agree that this episode should not be used to as an excuse to curb free speech, to shutter the thoughts and expressions of millions online through legislation and ordered control but should be used a further open up the debate about behaviours and ethics and morals about what you should do online, not just doing things because you can. The fact that these two people, who were at the core of the storm that surrounding this issue, can talk and agree on some things whilst acknowledging where they disagree give me hope.

I’ve been following this for the last few hours and just getting angrier and angrier. Kathy Sierra, one of the best, brightest and most compassionate bloggers that I read, has been receiving death threats and just sheer, unadulterated, vicious, abusive behaviour from other people through comments and blog posts. Kathy’s post points at some people who are allegedly involved, but we need to wait until it clears up and confirmed who is involved, as identities can be misused.

What the fuck is going on? Why does this happen again and again. The only people I know (in real life or virtually) who have been threatened and stalked have been women. What insecure, small mindedness, misogynistic behaviour takes over people to do things like this. Over 50% of the blogosphere are women, yet we continually get the refrain that they are not A-list, that they are not speaking at conferences. This is why. Put yourself out there, show that there is no difference and you get the anger and vitriol poring out from people who think they are better just because they have a Y chromosome. I’ve seen this again and again, from comments on videos we have put out there as a marketing campaign, from reading comments in the cesspit that YouTube and other sites can become; others have seen it as well. It’s said that the web is self-correcting, that it routes around trouble. But I rarely see it doing that with this type of behaviour. The big sites need to stand up to this. put a stake in the ground and ban it; give the tools to the content producers to stop it. The law needs to support this stance and prosecute as far as they can. In the UK, it is difficult to prosecute unless they ave done something; it may be too late by then. It needs to change. It can not be tolerated. I sit here contemplating getting out there more, looking for more opportunities to speak after last week, but this makes me think again. Makes me think I should just draw back into my shell and not do it. And that is so wrong, should not be happening. My thoughts are with Kathy, and with the others who seem to be caught in this maelstrom of hatred and jealousy and hope and pray it works out well.

Update: After doing more more reading, I think I want to clarify that my rant above is about the general attitude that is common. It’s about expected behaviour, not legal allowances. I believe in free speech – even if we (UK) do not have the same ‘right’ that the US laws allows – but just because it can be said does not mean it should be. And moving beyond ‘meanness’ to threats does break US laws. Whatever the outcome of this particular situation, it’s going to be a long time and a hard battle before the attitude in general clears up.

Ewan Spence is visiting New York for the next few days, so Eric and I thought we’d see if anyone wants to meet up and grab dinner. Tomorrow evening, Two Boots pizza, Grand Central food court, 7.30pm. We’ll be easy to spot, Ewan’ll have a kilt on!

After 5 days at SXSW, surrounded by a sea of Macs, the Continental lounge at Austin Airport is different beast…full of PCs, primarily IBMs This is obviously a business clientel, not conference goers.

Day 2 of the joy that is SXSW. Being sensible with the parties last night means I feel pretty good this morning, even with the loss of an hour through daylight saving. I learnt yesterday that one should not wear a Google shirt – I kept being asked if I worked in the new building, being chatted to by people who interned with them etc. It was bit weird. More later.

instead of going to sessions this afternoon I’m hanging out at barcamp, listening to some great talks (even over the talking) and sipping iced drinks in the sun. lovely.

Finally arrived in Austin after a slightly delayed flight but nothing too bad. it’s lovely and warm here, the sun is out, a far different climate after cold New York. Checked in, got my badge and met up with Ewan in the line 🙂 One nice meal later, and the odd marguerita, decided to catch up with things before plunging into the madness that is this conference.

I’ve got the last NextNY session to write up, everything from the PSFK conference on Tuesday and off to SXSW tomorrow. I feel like I’m not going to catch up. Expect variable blogging over the next week.

Just went and got my hair cut and the young lady who washed my hair congratulated on my lack of grey hairs. I’m pretty sure she meant it as a compliment.

I’ve been reading Jason Calacanis’s fatblogging drive and thought about it but it was not quite enough. Then I read Jeremy’s post on the subject and the topic on the B5Media message board which led me to traineo; looking at that app, witht he support and community aspects was enough to tip me over the edge into action. So I’ve signed up on the site, got a motivator to bug me (that’s my sister) and joined the b5media support group that has been set up.

The site is not perfect, but is has some lovely features.

• record your weight (in metric or imperial)
• record your exercise, with estimated calories burnt. There’s some debate over the accuracy of the results, but if you use it consistently it gives trends. It only allows you to choose from a list of activities, which range from walking to aerobics to sex to childcare.
• track your daily calorie consumption, although you’ll need a spreadsheet or other app to record what you eat as this records only the total
• create your own log of whatever you need

That’s the data recording, so what about the social aspects?

• You can pick up to 5 motivators, who get weekly emails of your activity and comments and are encouraged to support you
• the forums give you access to the wider community, with plenty of advice and support
• create your own group and invite likeminded people
• join other groups of common interest, for example there is one dedicated to the Wii

As well as this, I’ve sorted out the gym membership and started walking a lot more. Time for more action.

We, (Eric and I) are trying to find a venue in New York to run some geek dinners…at least one of which will feature Ian Forrester and we’ve got some interesting people lined up for others. Looking for somewhere which has a private room (up to about 50 to start with we think), serves alcohol, can provide buffet type food and has a PA set up, or space for one. If you’ve been to the London Geek Dinners you’ll know the form. Mingle, east a few snacks and see a short talk with Q&As. If anyone can point me in a good direction, please let me know.

I’ve finally gone and bought a Macbook. Not yet got it up and running (won’t connect to the web) but I’ll have more time to sort this out this week.