Wine Bloggers Play Well With Others

It was bound to happen - bloggers with bad behaviors. That's right - big blue meanies in the blogosphere.

If you want to start writing or reading blogs you are guaranteed to find a topic that interests you whether it be food and wine, hobbies, politics, new mothers, celebrity gossip or just someone ranting on their personal soap box. And it isn’t just individuals anymore. As an example we are seeing a growth in wineries blogging about their business and winery events.

Recently blogging meanies popped out in the blogging world as written in the San Francisco Chronicle by Dan Frost - Bad Behavior in the Blogosphere. The bad behavior consisted of anonymous rude comments and to the extreme of death threats. As far as I know, the wine community of bloggers have not been hit with this kind of bad behavior. Could it be we have some of the best readers and bloggers in the whole blogosphere? Could it have something to do with the topic - wine and food? How can you go wrong when you are with other wine aficionados and foodies?

So far, the world of wine blogging is a world of peace and camaraderie. We are gracious to link other wine blogging sites and exchange ideas. In fact once a month we gather for Wine Blogging Wednesday where a host gives us a wine blogging assignment. The host will later post our completed "assignments" on his/her wine blogging website. Why are we getting along and some other groups are having problems? Could it be that we are nipping at the grape? Maybe those outside of the wine blogging world should take a cue from us and drink more wine and they might become nicer people.

Blogging pioneer Tim O'Reilly wants to change the way we read, comment and write blogs by creating a Blogger's Code of Conduct. "Radar" O'Reilly (obviously not related to Bill O'Reilly if he wants civility in speech) suggests that we, in the big blogosphere, post little "badges" on our blogs and enforce a "Civility Code" on our readers with standards such as: we will no longer allow anonymous comments, we will connect privately before we respond publicly online, ignore all trolls, and bloggers will give the readers a warning of our content (like television and porn sites), to name a few.

While O'Reilly's intentions are well and good, in the mean time: we don’t need no stinking blog police! I don't need a code of honor and I don’t need to hang a sheriff’s star on my blog. And why do I feel this way? Because dammit-Janet, it is my blog and I can do what I want! I am not blogging in Iran! As it is, if I delete any comments it always has to do with spam. At this time I am fine with anonymous comments from the "shy" readers and sometimes my siblings (I know who you are. I'm telling Mom.). I plan on allowing anonymity until it becomes abused. Enforcement like this reminds me of television censorship. Instead of trying to enforce your personal rules on a particular television program or magazines that others enjoy --umm - how difficult is it to turn the television program off and not buy the magazine?

At this time, we do not need a little tin star to remind us how to behave, at least not on this blog. Besides, if any of my readers, fellow wine bloggers or purple grape meanies ever wrote anything mean on my blog I would just assume they were hung-over from drinking too much 2-Buck-Chuck. Cheers!