O tempora! O mores!

Since when is setting a standard for civility an attack on free speech? Why does the blogosphere think it is exempt from the bounds of acceptable content in the offline world?

I'm sure many of you have been following the storm of discussion surrounding blogger Kathy Sierra (this NYT article sums up the whole thing). I'm astonished that at the end Robert Scoble is quoted that he is uncomfortable with the idea that there should be standards. I'm with Tim O'Reilly, "...managed civil dialogue is actually the freer speech."

I'm also surprised this is such a controversy -- and worried about what it says about the state of our society. We don't tolerate bullying by 6 year olds in our schoolyards. We don't allow it at public gatherings like Town Meeting in my little New England town. And don't even think about phoning a death threat to the White House ...

Why should we tolerate cyberbullying, just because it "virtual"? As Kathy described, the fear and revulsion that the threats caused are completely real. While the location may not be "real", one of the great things about social media is the reality of the relationships you create. And like all human relationships, they must be governed by some degree of etiquette, protocols, courtesy -- whatever you want to call it.

Like Cicero (I'm sure many of my readers are fellow Latin scholars ;-), I lament "Oh, the times! Oh, the customs!" that we as a society think the right of the individual to say and do whatever he/she wants whenever he/she wants with absolutely no boundary is acceptable. Of course, spirited debate must be allowed and encouraged. Topics that may be considered by some to be distasteful, or even offensive must be allowed. Irony, even biting sarcasm have a place and snarky remarks can add spice to the debate. Maybe some lawyer can correct me, but when the speech crosses the line into threatening "hate" speech, it is no longer protected.

For the record, I routinely delete all spam comments -- am I stepping on the spammers' right of free speech? I say no, he's violating my right to carry on a conversation of interest to all of you.

And I will delete any comments that are profane, abusive, threatening, and generally off topic. Not only do those things interfere with my right to conduct an intelligent, interesting conversation, they have no place in a civilized society.