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Like any technology, blogs provide people with a range of positive benefits and also some opportunities to abuse them. By and large, the majority of blogs in existence today serve a beneficial purpose, even if it might be a self centered "what I did today" type of blog.

Unfortunately, the other side of the coin is filled with rumor mongers and flame artists. These people seek to spread vicious rumors whether they are true or not. These flame bloggers have their following because even today in our enlightened times, there is still a propensity of people to believe something because "it says so on this website".

On the subject of regulation, the comic book industry created the Comics Code Authority back in 1954 as a way of keeping excessive violence and sexual situations out of comic books, which were and still are largely targeted towards kids and teens.

This isn't to say the blog industry needs a style of regulation identical to the Comics Code Authority. Certainly, by doing that we would be encroaching on first amendment rights here. I think it's important that we don't censor content, even if it is vicious and falsehoods spread as truth.

In lieu of regulating and restricting blog content via any code of conduct, I suggest some kind of blog rating system. Think of the Zagat guides. They cover a huge range of restaurant, and if you're looking for a good place to eat you can surely find one in Zagat by their rating system. Perhaps blogs would be rated in a similar manner. An impartial group can accept blogs for review and determine how relevant and valuable a blog is to its central topic. Then, a rating would be assigned so a web surfer can see that the blog either is one that should be considered or passed by.

Google has their method of giving a web page importance with their page rank system. While irrelevant pages are not discarded by Google, they are often known to be "buried" under thousands or even millions of other pages in search results.

There is no perfect answer to how to handle blog content. We must of course accept first that we are people of vastly different opinions, and in searching the internet there is a strong possibility we are going to encounter opinions or content that we may not agree with or even find offensive.

The blogging code of conduct, in my opinion, would be better handled by rewarding those who have something to say, and set aside those who only seek to spew baseless ideas and opinions.

Learn more about this author, Paul Heingarten.
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