Once again, I was right in the right way as in intensely correct. I saw it coming...but I had no idea it would be in such a wave as the impending sweep of the galloping consulting gurus. Run away! Run away!!!

First, there was the statement. We are told:

The code states: "We are committed to the 'Civility Enforced' standard: we will not post unacceptable content, and we'll delete comments that contain it." The draft defines unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that is being used to "abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others". It also refers to libellous material, infringement of copyright or trademark and violations of privacy.

OK, so I run a good little blog here and have for sometime imposed my will on the idiotic and rude by giving clear warning, then imposing supersmall text or messing around their words and then deleting. No guru needed yet. All sensible and, of course, none of your business because all this is mine and all you are here based only on my will. Yet now I and you have to have read crap like this: "We celebrate the blogosphere because it embraces frank and open conversation." I cannot bear when people use celebrate like this. I do not "celebrate the blogoshere." I (and you) waste my life on the internet and record that futile and stupid hobby through blogs. That is the second step. First, the gurus make us listen to them. Then they tell us what to celebrate.

And what would be my Code? I care not for your frankness and openness - I have to be honest, right?. I do like your wit or unusual experiences but I reserve the right to edit them to my liking when I am having a bad day. Your thoughts are like crayons in the desk of a six year old, to be considered and abused as I deem fit. I reserve the right to demand civility but not have it demanded of me. Yet gurus would have me not be so fully me. I have to remake myself in their image.

And what is the reaction to "the Code" other than mine? The BBC quotes from this alternate-guru (alt-guru #1) on the matter which also makes you go aaaayyeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!:

They treat the blogosphere as if it were a school library where someone — they’ll do us the favor — can maintain order and control. They treat it as a medium for media. But as Doc Searls has taught me, it’s not. It’s a place.

That makes Doc Searls alt-guru #2. Gurus are quoting gurus! That is stage four at least: guru-borging. Let's just be clear...even though I can read over your shoulder and you can read over mine we are not in a new "place." We are still still each in our own places recording and only broadcasting statements we type. Our manners are our own and my manners rule here as yours should rule at locations controled by you physically or through a password to a blog admin.

Code of Conduct. Good Lord. I remember reading the Code of Conduct of Professional Laundromat Operators of American as I stood reading the wall as the socks dried at the rate of twenty-five cents for ten minutes. Next, as at least a sixth stage, expect a body (first called a Committee, then a Think Tank to fool us with a friendly face) to be formed from the Guru-Borg. Then there will be (stage seven or nine...I've lost count) a conference through which the gurus will be silly amounts to say silly things. It will be Federally funded, too. The Guru-Borg must be fed.

¹...and I prove my place and the worth of the blogosphere by copying the link I found on the mass media. Because that is what we do - we repeat what we are told.