There Are No Little Blogs...So Responsibility Necessary

While there may be superstar blogs and bloggers, there literally are no "little" blogs. On any given day, this currently modestly-read blog is nonetheless hit by readers all across the US and in many parts of the world. Just yesterday, for example, there were readers in New Zealand, Japan, Australia, the UK, China, and unknown parts of Europe and Africa.

Iain Ferguson of ZDNet Australia points out that no matter how modest a blog may be deemed, the instant accessibility to potentially mass audiences that the medium provides calls for the blogger to exercise responsibility. Nastiness can still have its consequences.

Writes Ferguson:

However, as the blogging phenomenon grows, its adherents face a harsh reality -- they are accountable for the content of their postings. (I might add, this applies to all Web authors, not just bloggers). While many treat their blogs as private diaries, a life update service for friends or a substitute for a spleen-venting session at the pub, they are unaware of the risks that wider accessibility to their words can bring. While few employment contracts these days specifically mention blogging, wider clauses designed to prevent maligning of corporate reputations -- or even disclosure of corporate secrets -- are likely to give companies a fairly easy way of ousting a blogger who has posted some ill-chosen comments. Even worse, defamation laws can also be invoked to pursue a legal outcome that can devastate a blogger financially for years into the future.

In short, be an educated blogger. Don't post anything you may regret. Even if your blog is password-protected or only known to a select few, a risk still exists - albeit fairly small -- that a malicious or otherwise damagingly incorrect posting could find its way to the wrong screen.