1. Kindness. I will strive to post as my best self, and to refrain from posting intemperately. I will try to remember that the people I am responding to are human beings who also have their good and bad days. If I post something that I feel is unfair or unnecessarily unkind, I will apologize and either take it down or make a new post, whichever is more appropriate. I do not intend to hide my mistakes or lapses but I will delete a post if I feel that leaving it up hurts others more than leaving up the evidence of my stupidity is worth.
2. Corrections. I am eager to learn of any errors in my posts and will attempt to correct errors as swiftly as I can. As Phil Wolff says in his corrections policy, “Our corrections policy should not be mistaken for a policy of accomodating readers who are simply unhappy about a story that has been published.” I continue to reserve the right to have my own opinion.
3. Respecting others’ privacy. I generally blog only about public figures, people who have their own blog (and thus can fire back at will) and people who I know wouldn’t mind that I am blogging about them. I make every effort to comply with friends’ and acquaintances’ expectation of privacy so that they will not fear that everything they say or do in front of me will end up on my blog. I do, however, use my blog as a vehicle for congratulations or encouragement of private citizens and friends of all kinds. This guideline regarding what is “ok to blog” obviously, requires a judgement call on my part, and I welcome input from those covered in my blog if my interpretation of whether or not they would be comfortable having an anecdote about them related on my blog.
4. Linking. I attempt to provide links to all material I quote on this blog, and also to the site that pointed me to the material of interest wherever possible.
5. Fair Use. I will refrain from reproducing more of a post or an article than is neccessary to make my point, and provide links back to the author’s blog or original publication wherever possible. Preservation exception: Many online publications make articles unavailable after a short period of time, often only days. If I am quoting an article that comes from such a publication, I may quote at greater length in order to preserve the sense and content of my weblog.
6. Standards for citizen-journalism efforts. My citizen-journalist efforts on this blog will be clearly marked as such. In those stories, I will strive to ensure accuracy. I usually use a tape recorder if I cover something on my blog as a citizen journalist, and I strive to make every word that appears between quotation marks reflect exactly what the speaker said, with minor edits to get rid of “ah” and “um” and the like.
7. Comments and the “Living Room Doctrine.” I consider my blog to be a virtual extension of my living space. As such, any comments that I would find threatening or offensive if said to me in person in my living room will be deleted. It’s fine to disagree with me (I allow that in my living room). Not fine is unbridled hostility, name calling, etc., either towards me or towards other commenters. No sock puppets – commenters who change their ID solely for the purpose of making a new comment seem like it is coming from a second commenter will have their comments deleted and their IP address banned. Spam and inappropriate off-topic comments will be removed.
8. Transparency. The rules by which I run this website will always be available to be viewed by any reader via a link in the menu. If I make changes to the Principles, I will also note it as a new entry in my weblog. If I realize that there is an important but tacit rule that governs part of this site, I will attempt to make it explicit.

Finally, I must thank Lisa Williams, as it was her own blog rules that I have adopted as my own.