Bloggplakat — A lost cause?
A few days ago I wrote about the Bloggplakat and how it was completely misunderstood thanks to the cultural Jante law in Norway.
Without repeating the whole article I wrote about it, I will recap briefly what it is.
The Bloggplakat is a very simple poster or page with very simple guidelines and tips on how to act more professional as a blogger in Norway. It is in Norwegian and is intended for Norwegian bloggers. I have loosely compared it to EFF’s Bloggers’ Rights manual and site, which is written for American bloggers.
The Bloggplakat is more a collection of simple guidelines while Bloggers’ Rights is more a collection of legal advice. In the end they are advice given to blogggers which they can use and follow if they want to or not. No one will be punished if they do not follow these two sets of guidelines. You can kind of see them as friendly advice; might be good to have, but not legally or socially obligatory to follow.
The last few days I have spent reading Norwegian blogs and debating with people who are completely against the Bloggplakat; so I can understand why they are against something that will never be mandatory by law. Also I want to understand why Norwegian bloggers are so different from the majority of bloggers who write in English.
Based on what I was told and could read it is clear that blogging in Norway is still in the baby stage and it has still not grown up and reached the level as the majority of bloggers has who write in English. You would assume that after five years (Bloggers’ Rights was written for about five years ago) Norwegian bloggers would reach a stage where they would be more equal to the rest of the blogosphere. Apparently I was wrong. It is like blogging is still something that was created yesterday in Norway, which makes it more clear why they actually do not understand what the Bloggplakat is and how to use it; and unable to grasp that you actually are free to use it.
It is sad to see something that might be a good thing turn into such chaos because so many do not understand it. This is not a device to tell people how to blog or behave, it is a list of simple tips to keep in mind when you are blogging. And as I have mentioned far too many times now, you are not expected or even forced to follow them. That is the beauty of it, you just use it if you feel you need it. If you feel you will be fine without it, then don’t use it; and stop making such a big fuss about.
Stop being such big cry babies!
To be honest, it is not just that Norwegian bloggers are not ready for this Bloggplakat, they actually do not deserve it.
Note: This is one of some reasons I left Norway. This Jante Law and suffering from the tall poppy seed syndrome. I can not wait till we move to Sweden and I can get Swedish citizenship and throw away my Norwegian passport.
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[...] bloggers (or maybe they prefer to be called diary writers) reacted to some friendly advice called Bloggplakat I got this urge to comment on this [...]
Hi, just some friendly questions :)
Question one :
You say: “The last few days I have spent reading Norwegian blogs and debating with people who are completely against the Bloggplakat; so I can understand why they are against something that will never be mandatory by law”
Is this not the same as to ask, why are you for something that will never be mandatory by law? I belive that there are no logical necessity between law and opinion, so I imagine that operating with such a belief would make understanding hard indeed, would it not?
Question two :
You have written abit about logical fallacies in the past. I belive you know alot more about this subject than me, so can you clearify this for me :
Are these two excerpts of “hasty generalization”?
1.) “Also I want to understand why Norwegian bloggers are so different from the majority of bloggers who write in English”
What is the basis for this conclusion? How many Norwegian bloggers make up your sample? How many english? How do you seperate Norwegians that write in english from other bloggers that write in english?
2.) “To be honest, it is not just that Norwegian bloggers are not ready for this Bloggplakat, they actually do not deserve it”
What is the basis for the conclusion that they do not deserve it (given that there exist a measure for “not deserving something”. When used on a group, how big must the sample of that group be before you can apply this measure and make a general conclution based on it?
Pardon in advance for my english :)
You are totally right. Trying to understand why they are against this thing is beyond me. Actually it is completely illogical to me why so many people can be scared of something that will never be obligatory by law and have no consequences what so over if they do not follow it.
It is kind of like a wrote in the first article I wrote about this; they are making a huge storm in a very small thimble here.
Well, it is not based on science. ;)
I have read most comments regarding this on Twitter and then gone to their blogs. I have also found a few blogs through Thomas Moen’s blog and read what people say there.
Most bloggers I read daily are from USA, Canada, UK or any other country where bloggers choose to write in English and kind of try to follow the standards of the English speaking blogosphere.
Even if many have a subjective style and sometimes write about trivial things, they still try to write it as a novelist or a journalist would write it. They try to follow common writing standards.
Of course, there are a few exemptions when it comes to Norwegian bloggers, but there are still a lot of bloggers who act like blogging is just another form of keeping a diary.
It is also the attitude. They think that just because you have a blog you can write what ever you want, regardless if it is legal or not.
In general and in reply to your last question; I wrote this article to provoke, but I also exaggerate the same way these anti-bloggplakat “bloggers” have written why the bloggplakat is an attack to freedom of speech.
So to act like a very strict judge that has no time for nonsense, I see no reason why they should deserve something like this. Apparently they are doing a well enough without it (according to them), so they don’t need any advice.
Just look at my Bloggplakat vs. Bloggers’ Rights example. If Norwegian bloggers haven’t matured the last five years, they have a long way to go if they want to be taken serious.
I guess this is why bloggers in America are taken more serious as they actually try to follow common writing standards, so they can produce articles with the same quality as any other news site.
I hope this shed some more light on my article. :)
If I have any grammatical errors, ignore them, I just woke up. ;)
I can also add that some of the anti-Bloggplakat goons are leaning towards what most people would define as conspiracy theories; so this is one of many reasons I do not take them serious.