Ethical Blogging

I was told to read this article Ethical Blogging – a 10 point guide and write a post about it. I’ll summarise what had mentioned in this article:

  1. Differentiate between factual and personal opinion. Of course, readers tend to get mixed up between these two as there are times when bloggers who can defend their own opinion really well which will make a lot of sense to the readers, and thus, this will cause the readers to think those comments might be actual facts.
  2. Plagiarism is forbidden. Another obvious statement. Think about it, if you have studied for your final semester exam super hard, would you like to have the person next to you copying off your answer? NO.
  3. Reference and give credits. I am not talking about the referencing style like what we do for our school project, but link their work on your post. Give credits as well. They might have been doing research for years and you’re just there taking bits of their facts without giving credit. Don’t you feel bad for them?
  4. Avoid factual errors. This is something we all want to avoid as much as possible. Stuff spreads fast on the internet nowadays, and of course, it is possible to have factual errors, but remember to correct it as soon as possible once you’ve found out the mistake.
  5. Encourage readers to comment freely. Yeah, this makes sense since I do wonder how different would other people think about the same topic.
  6. Be truthful. Famous bloggers get a lot of consistent readers viewing their blog and companies tend to look for them to review on certain things, and normally, the bloggers get paid. What had mentioned in the article is that try to avoid business here and be truthful, regardless of good or bad.
  7. Think before you write. Same theory. You won’t watch porn in the living room when your family might just come in anytime, will you?
  8. Be responsible. What you write might have mentally or emotionally effect on a reader, and again, think before you write. Even if you really dislike anything, don’t go beyond the boundary. Watch your words when critisizing it.