By Chief Gizmateer, Gizmos for Geeks

There has been a ground-swelling of support for something called a "Blogger's Code of Conduct" where blogging sites would place a badge declaring their site as either "civility enforced" or "anything goes" due to an attack on Kathy Sierra from other bloggers posting personal information, doctored photos and death threats.

While the geeks really feel for Kathy and the situation she is in, the "Blogger's Code of Conduct" idea is flawed and will fail to gain traction.  The code includes six points:

1. responsibility for our own words and comments allowed on the blog,
2. won't say anything online that we wouldn't say in person,
3. connect privately before responding publicly,
4. if we believe someone is unfairly attacking someone we take action,
5. do not allow anonymous comments,
6. ignore the trolls.
   

Most of these points are simply common sense for bloggers and we don't need to wear a badge on the site to show readers how various sites treat readers and other bloggers.  For instance, while some blogs rely on anonymous comments to extract comments which would normally only remain in the posters head because of various reasons, these blogs can still maintain civility.

For good or bad, the Internet is defined by anonymity. While I like to believe the Geeks and all our readers only have exhibited only polite behavior towards one another, we won't be wearing the "Civility Enforced" badge.