[Elfsea] RE: [Steppes] Blogs?

[Robert Fitzmorgan]

On 5/10/05, Trish Kvamme <ladyoftherose at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Blogs are the private place a person can write their thoughts, poetry,
> ideas, memories.  They can be public or private.
> 
> Basically what takes place in a blog is a person's private business.  Just
> like a non SCA email list, or a non SCA gathering, when we write in blogs we
> are just ourselves, trying to bring someones comments in their blog or diary
> into an SCA context is as lame as trying to hold a person accountable for
> comments in a private letter.  You can't, it isn't addressed to you
> personally so it is none of your business.
> 
> Remember the amendments, they are entitled to their own opinion.  Perhaps
> the only recourse would be if they used your name or address in their blog,
> in which case it violates your own personal privacy.
> 

  Your Grace:

     I do not agree.   The 1st Amaendmant was desigened to prevent the
Federal and State governments from censoring the press.   It keeps the
Government from telling the press what they can and cannot say.  A
case could be made for a broad defination of the Press that would
include blogs.  In fact that very issue was recently was recently
before the courts.  However nothing in the 1st amendment exempts the
press or anyone else from the social, and sometimes legal consequences
of their words.    Yes people have the freedom to say or publish
whatever they choose, but even that right is not unlimited.  Nothing
in that right frees them from the consquences of how they choose to
use that freedom, nor should it.
    When you post something to a blog or a mailing list, even if it is
a private blog or a closed list, there is no longer a reasonable
expectation of privacy.  If it is posted to an open blog or list there
is no expectation of privacy at all.   What would be the point of
posting to a blog or list if you didn't expect anyone to read it? 
Those of us who have been around awhile won't have to think very hard
to come up with instances where "private" email became public and
caused a lot of pain for a lot of people.
    Aside from the expectation of privacy there is the moral issue to
consider.  If I choose to say nasty and hurtful things about people,
is it OK so long as I only do it on a closed list, or in my livingroom
with a few trusted friends?  The only decent and smart thing to do is
to not say, write or do anything in private that you will be ashamed
of if it became public.  Alas, many of us, myself included, sometimes
fall short of that standard.
    I don't really believe you can draw a firm line between SCA and
Mundane life and say that what happens in the one should have no
bearing on the other.  If I learn that Lord Chugsalot beats his wife
when he's had a few drinks too many, how can that not affect my
opinion of him, even if he's never done it at an event?  If I learn
that one of the candidates for Baron and Baroness also orginize
fundraisers for the IRA in their off time I'm going to consider that
very relevant to wheather or not they should represent the Barony. 
Wheather it is politics, mundane life or SCA, character matters. 
Everything that I know about a person, from whatever area of their
lives, will alter my opinion of that person.
     Do people have the right to post whatever they like in their
Blog?  Within broad limits, Yes.  But they have no basis to whine that
people are judging them because of what they are choosing to post. 
How could it be otherwise?

     Your Grace.  This started as a reply to your post but really it
is my response to the entire discussion.  If I have expressed my
opinion strongly it's because it's an issue I feel strongly about. 
Please don't take any of it personally.

Robert Fitzmorgan
   

-- 
Even if my vital spark should be blown out, I believe that I should
behave with courageous dignity in the presence of fate, and strive to
be a worthy companion of the beautiful, the good, and the true. But
fate has its master in the faith of those who surmount it, and
limitation has its limits for those who, though disillusioned, live
greatly.  Helen Keller

Fitzmorgan at gmail.com
Yahoo IM: robert_fitzmorgan