Archive for April 12th, 2007

A Blogging Code of Conduct in the Making

April 12th, 2007 by xformed

Link chasing…see what comes up?

Update 4/13/2007: There is history on this issue and a MilBlogger, Yankee Sailor began working on this sort of issue to introduce civility and OPSEC self-policing concepts in place. He has a new post up here, but the “long version” of the, showing his proposal is here. Join the MilBlogs ROE Project at this post. As far as staking a claim to a good idea, he had had this in the works before the 2006 MilBlogs Conference (link to the 2007 Conference Site), held April 2006.
End of update.

Tim O’Reilly of Reilly’s Radar is working on a bloggers Code of Conduct.

Given the nature of interactions these days, might be worth looking into….

Here’s the first draft:

We celebrate the blogosphere because it embraces frank and open conversation. But frankness does not have to mean lack of civility. We present this Blogger Code of Conduct in hopes that it helps create a culture that encourages both personal expression and constructive conversation.

1. We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog.

We are committed to the “Civility Enforced” standard: we will not post unacceptable content, and we’ll delete comments that contain it.

We define unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that:
– is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others
– is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person,
– infringes upon a copyright or trademark
– violates an obligation of confidentiality
– violates the privacy of others

We define and determine what is “unacceptable content” on a case-by-case basis, and our definitions are not limited to this list. If we delete a comment or link, we will say so and explain why. [We reserve the right to change these standards at any time with no notice.]

2. We won’t say anything online that we wouldn’t say in person.

3. We connect privately before we respond publicly.

When we encounter conflicts and misrepresentation in the blogosphere, we make every effort to talk privately and directly to the person(s) involved–or find an intermediary who can do so–before we publish any posts or comments about the issue.

4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

When someone who is publishing comments or blog postings that are offensive, we’ll tell them so (privately, if possible–see above) and ask them to publicly make amends.
If those published comments could be construed as a threat, and the perpetrator doesn’t withdraw them and apologize, we will cooperate with law enforcement to protect the target of the threat.

5. We do not allow anonymous comments.

We require commenters to supply a valid email address before they can post, though we allow commenters to identify themselves with an alias, rather than their real name.

6. We ignore the trolls.

We prefer not to respond to nasty comments about us or our blog, as long as they don’t veer into abuse or libel. We believe that feeding the trolls only encourages them–“Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it.” Ignoring public attacks is often the best way to contain them.

More in his post. Looks like a “bloggingcode.org” exists as the planned resting place for this initiative. Even more in the trackbacks/comments. Not like its going to be easy sledding, but then it’s all about debate, isn’t it?

Category: Blogging, Scout Sniping | 2 Comments »

Day 1 of The Civil War – 1861 and Other History

April 12th, 2007 by xformed

The tensions finally rose to the point of exchanging cannon shot on this day in 1861, when artillery batteries on Morris Island (which is not much more than a sandbar, manned by Cadets from The Citadel, led by Cadets Hainesworth and Pickens, fired on a supply ship, the Star of the West, that was entering Charleston Harbor to bring supplies to the Union troops at Ft Sumter.

The troops had all consolidated into Ft Sumter, having abandoned both Ft Johnson (on the SW entrance of the harbor) and Ft Moultrie (on the NE side). More info on this “opening day” is posted at Eagle Speak.

Star of the West Monument

Star of the West Monument at The Citadel
There is plenty of history in the epic struggle our country faced so many years ago, yet as I checked the Citadel’s for some history, one of the first links came up as the Star of the West Monument, and a listing of the cadets who have won the Star of the West award for the Corps best drilled cadet each academic year.The competition an elimination of hundreds who try out and the winners are truly excellent at drilling with a weapon, in those days, it was the M-14 rifle that was the standard issue weapon for us. To see the concentration and precision of these men was remarkable.Besides my classmate being there, the 1972 award went to “A.D. Griffin.” Who was this man? “Dave” Griffin, ’74, graduated with a commission as an Ensign in the US Navy. He left Charleston and headed to Basic Underwater Demolition School (BUDS), he became a SEAL, later commanding the East Coast Parachute Demonstration Team, the “Chuting Stars,” before transferring to Naval Aviation and becoming an F-14 Tomcat pilot. Dave is no longer with us, as he died in a crash while returning from a night exercise over North Carolina. I understand they thought it was a case of vertigo, and the plane crashed in Back Bay, Virginia Beach, making recovery of the airframe from the boggy area exceptionally difficult.While at The Citadel, Dave was a larger than life character, tough as nails, with an air of terminal seriousness about him. He had been a member of the Junior Sword Drill, the Summerall Guards, and ran from the campus out to the Citadel beach house on Isle of Palms when he was bored (about 20 miles). I heard he was also the first person to max out the score on the pre-BUDS test for any colleges in the South East part of the country.

The Junior Sword Drill team was one that you didn’t get on without 14 nights of running, push ups, sweating out most of the liquid in your body, but having to keep showing you were learning the drill routine and ignoring the sore muscles and sheer exhaustion. That process of qualifying is now long gone, due to a few who took advantage of the trying out the following year by some serious hazing incidents. Like so many other things, the few ruined it for the many. Summerall Guards tryouts were tough, but didn’t approach the level of those who were on the Sword Drill team.

He was on Regimental Staff his senior year and had the reputation of never striking anyone, but if you needed some correction, he PTed you to exhaustion, with him doing it with you most of the time. I don’t recall which company he had come up from, but I believe it was one from 3rd Battalion, which had a reputation for being very military minded companies. 1st and 4th Battalions is where many of the athletes ended up, so there was a distinct difference in philosophies at times on how to do things, but that’s a another long discussion.

So, I thought I’d take a moment and document some history of Dave Griffin, who had a reputation that he could back up. I’ll also say I was disappointed when he got command of the Chuting Stars, with 7 jumps (all static line military) behind him to run a freefall exhibition team. I had over 200 freefalls at the time, but he had a qualification I could not achieve: Special Warfare. He broke his leg on his first jump with his new team, trying out his “square” canopy, and had a cast on for four months of his 12 month assignment

Citadel Cadets have had the history of the opening battle of the Civil War drilled deep within them by using the threat of not getting anything to eat if you didn’t know your “mess facts.” Maybe that’s why it has stuck with me all these years, but I will say I missed few meals for a Cadet dating my sister gave me a few bits of wisdom to chew on the summer before my arrival at the North Sally Port of Padgett-Thomas Barracks.

As far as my knowledge of Dave the upperclassman: I knew to stay out of his field of view, and obviously, he was well known on Campus.

Tracked back @: Eagle Speak

Category: History, Military, Military History, Navy | 2 Comments »

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