Take Back the Blog was a blogswarm aimed at encouraging discussion of the rights of women to full participation in online discussions. Check out the collection of posts at Crablaw’s place.
Lauredhel put up a belated post addressing the way that passive versus active language used to describe gender interactions, especially those involving sexual violence, shapes perceptions. Please read it, it’s excellent.
I didn’t write anything specifically for the blogswarm because I felt that my cyberbullying series had pretty much said everything I wanted to say on the issue. The Sierra incident and the cyberbullying discussion it generated around the blogs inspired a rewrite of our commenting and other blog guidelines to make it clearer that this is a space where ill-natured and vexatious commentary intended to stifle the voices of other commenters simply is not tolerated, and implicitly rejecting the accusations of censorship that tend to arise whenever one discusses vigorous moderation.
Not that we’ve really had to put our principles to the test much yet, as our small pool of commenters is pretty mannerly, even when disagreeing. Which is much appreciated. Feedback on the amended guidelines as they now stand would also be appreciated.
Thanks very much for the link!
You’re welcome, Bruce. Thanks for organising the swarm.
Just one of the great posts I’ve read so far: Kimbaland.