Saturday, September 5, 2009

Is Personal Blogging Policy Important?

I got a call requesting to delete one of my blog post here. The call was from one of my family member, saying that our town Mayor didn’t like this blog post: The Sleeping Town. This post is about the political and economic state of our town. Of course the request to delete, from the mayor, is not a request but a threat. 
But, hell no! It’s the truth and it’s my opinion.

The best defense is a good offense, so the saying goes. Accordingly, I realized that this blog should have a disclaimer or some sort of a personal policy for those dumb readers who got the nerve to threaten me and also for other idiots in general. When messy situations occur, I can just refer them to my disclaimer page. That will save me time and effort in arguing and explaining.

This README page is now my blogging guidelines, a way to let my readers know my standards to which why I blog, and what they can expect from me. I'm not a lawyer so my disclaimer doesn't have any legal brouhaha in it but more of a  personal statement. This is a personal blog anyway.  

In our sue-happy, complaint-infested, onion-skinned people in the blogosphere, it’s important to make it clear that our personal blog is for informational, entertainment and opinion purposes only and when in doubt, readers should just post intelligent counter-comments or do more research on the field in question. I believe a simple personal disclaimer will somehow address it.

Spend much time in the blogospehere and you will come across bloggers who are being maligned, threatened and badmouthed because of their post [viz. a blogger who shut down his blog because of a negative comment he made against the OFW bloggers, an employee being fired because of a blogpost, relationship ended, etc.]. Well of course we must always consider responsible posting because being in the blogosphere is being public. That is one of the dangers of blogging.  

That’s why it’s important to not only write a personal blog disclaimer, but to post it on your blog and link in via the footer or sidebar or menubar for reference.
Happy and safe blogging!

By the way, I’ll appreciate your comments on the contents of my disclaimer page.

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