A Question of Blethics
I hope I just invented that word. The perfect smoushing of "Blogging Ethics".
I have been reading a somewhat popular anonymous blog, and I believe I have stumbled upon the author's identity. It was a hunch, something that was triggered by a combination of details mentioned in the blog. The problem is, I believe the person is a somewhat "known" national public figure.
Let me stop here and say that it is NOT one of the blogs linked from this site, nor has it ever been mentioned in my blog. You folks can breathe easy.
Now, how can I be sure of the author's identity, you ask? Well, of course, I have no proof. But this public figure has another site with many details of the person's life, and a striking number of them mirror events from the anonymous blog. In addition, the blog contains a picture of the author with the face obscured, and the un-blurred features closely resemble photos from the public figure's site. There are numerous other details which line up, so suffice it to say that I'm fairly certain it's the same person.
So the Blethical question is, do I continue to participate on this anonymous blogger's site? Reading, posting comments, exchanging emails and so forth? With every new post, I feel like I am reading someone private diary without their knowledge. As bloggers, do we owe our fellow bloggers the right of anonymity?
UPDATE: Google tells me that the word "Blethics" already has a meaning - Business Law and Ethics. Well, screw the MBA's, I like my definition better.
I have been reading a somewhat popular anonymous blog, and I believe I have stumbled upon the author's identity. It was a hunch, something that was triggered by a combination of details mentioned in the blog. The problem is, I believe the person is a somewhat "known" national public figure.
Let me stop here and say that it is NOT one of the blogs linked from this site, nor has it ever been mentioned in my blog. You folks can breathe easy.
Now, how can I be sure of the author's identity, you ask? Well, of course, I have no proof. But this public figure has another site with many details of the person's life, and a striking number of them mirror events from the anonymous blog. In addition, the blog contains a picture of the author with the face obscured, and the un-blurred features closely resemble photos from the public figure's site. There are numerous other details which line up, so suffice it to say that I'm fairly certain it's the same person.
So the Blethical question is, do I continue to participate on this anonymous blogger's site? Reading, posting comments, exchanging emails and so forth? With every new post, I feel like I am reading someone private diary without their knowledge. As bloggers, do we owe our fellow bloggers the right of anonymity?
UPDATE: Google tells me that the word "Blethics" already has a meaning - Business Law and Ethics. Well, screw the MBA's, I like my definition better.
posted by Nevermore at
2:03 PM
1 Comments:
There are settings on Blogger that allow that person to shut off your acess to their site, so it doesn't seem to me that you have a problem. Remember wanting something to be true doesn't make it so, remember that your hunch is only your hunch, beside the author may in fact want someone to find his/her identity out, in order to gain fame (ie. Paris Hilton). The major ethics issues of blogs is freedom of speech and how far does that go?
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~greg, at 5:14 PM
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