Sunday, September 30, 2007

A Code of Conduct

This code emerged out of a discussion at Drink.Blog.Talk 2007, the first online conference of drink bloggers. Fifty four bloggers from around the alcoholic drink blogosphere accepted invitations to the event and a wide range of topics were discussed at www.drinkblogtalk.ning.com.

A number of bloggers supported the development of a code or codes of conduct to help guide the community. What follows is a model code. It has no binding force. However, we hope drink bloggers will use it as a foundation for their own thinking. If anybody wants to adopt the code wholesale, they are welcome to. There are badges for links to the code at the bottom of the page. The comments thread is open. Please add your thoughts and we can hone what we have here.

This Blog:

1. Respects other people's copyright.

2. Strives to offer original content. Content sourced from other people is attributed to those people. The following exceptions are sometimes made: marketing material which is clearly intended for publicity purposes and content which carries a Creative Commons or other license which explicitly permits its use without attribution.

3. Tries to be honest with its readers. We clearly demarcate paid for advertising from normal editorial content.

4. Works to maintain its independence and integrity. We try not to allow advertising revenue or the receipt of samples for review to influence what we write about and how we write about it. For example, if a product for review is sent to us, we may decide to review it but we will not give it undue prominence and will state our honest opinion of the product.

5. Tries to be thorough. We attempt to verify the accuracy of the information we are offering.

6. Strives to be fair. Parties who have been factually misrepresented will be given an opportunity to have the record corrected on the blog. The publication of readers' comments, however, is at our discretion.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have put the badge on Nonjatta and am all signed up to the code in its present form. My personal code for myself is a little more strict than the current version of the code. Further to point 3, I will always state clearly that I have received a sample for free/low cost in the relevant review.

Serge said...

I've just put the badge on Whiskyfun as well, thanks for this brilliant idea.
I'm all signed up to this code as well, even if a few articles do not exactly match our own code (we don't accept advertising at all but we do get hundreds of samples and hence just cannot state that every time as it's almost 'part of the concept'). Thanks again.

Whisky2.0 said...

I am going to put this badge on my blogs, if I can figure out how.

http://bruichladdichblog.wordpress.com/ and http://whisky2dot0.wordpress.com/

Regards,
~tom

Keith said...

Never heard of this until today. I'm all for it, where do I sign-up. Perhaps I just have?
Anyway, these are principles I already adhere to and will continue to do so, with the badge on my site now too.
Keith, Whisky-Emporium

Nonjatta said...

Yes, I think you have. It is not a formal membership thing. Just a way for some drink bloggers to clarify their position.

Billy said...

I also only just saw this - I was still writing about randomness and only occasionally booze back in 2007.

The badge is up on my blog and the code is pretty much what I was doing anyway.

The 'bloggers are unprofessional freeloaders!' outrage happens in most blogging fields about every 2-3 years, so we can expect another in 2014...

Unknown said...

Has the code evolved over the past six years?

Have new issues emerged that necessitate attention, such as responsible drinking?