Do what you know is right

Yesterday was a little rough here.  I lost my patience and raised my voice, more than once and with more than one child.  As I’ve told my girls many times, “If you do what you know is right, I won’t have any reason to get angry and yell.”

Being children, of course they don’t always do what they know is right, even when they know they’re risking my wrath.  It’s natural for them to want to see just how far they can push me before I call a halt to the nonsense; they’re establishing their boundaries.

It occurred to me that many discussions in the blogging community over the past few years have been prompted by similar needs to seek out and establish boundaries.

Bloggers are not children (in most cases anyway), but our medium is quite young and our community is too.  No matter how long we’ve been here, we’re all still finding our way because the landscape is continuously changing.  No matter what our level of authority may be, none of us are above criticism from other members of the community.  Blogging may not be a meritocracy, but it does an admirable job of self-policing: intimidation doesn’t keep one blogger from calling bullshit on another blogger, no matter who they might be.

In spite of the relative newness of blogging and the navigational challenges we continue to face, it remains that if we do what we know is right, we will retain our good standing with the community at large.  That’s not to say there’s a so-called “right” way to blog, but there are best practices that will serve us all well if we adhere to them.

Out of months of discussion between Susan, Liz, Kristen and me on how to define and publicize these best practices, Blog With Integrity was born.  The four of us have pledged to blog in accordance with these best practices, which are quite simple and perfectly reasonable, no matter what approach to blogging you take.  In short, the Blog With Integrity pledge boils down to what I tell my kids (and myself too): Do what you know is right.

Will I get angry and yell at fellow bloggers who don’t join me in taking the pledge?  Nah.

But honestly, I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t be willing to accept and embrace these boundaries.

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