The term ethics is already biased. When I think of all the things I learned from the professional bloggers Liz Strauss and Lorelle VanFossen and the things I see now on the web, I cannot stop a shiver.

Cyndy.One of these days I was so shocked to see a favorite blog I was reading almost daily lowering its standards of quality and impartiality that I couldn’t help an offensive comment. My mistake – and when you make mistakes the best thing is to admit them. I am sorry, Cyndy.

The fact that the post entry itself is more offensive for the idea of Web 2.0 and all the things that this stands for is not relevant. An offense to a fellow blogger is an offense. I could have been more moderate, or simply ignore the entry as I did in the past when the same author wrote about Virginia Tech.

Well, not this time I said. And after me… the hell came with the Apocalypse horses! The point of the offensive comment I made was as completely ignored as the obvious mistakes in the article.

I think I have a little Slavic warrior inside. I cannot lose a fight without actually pointing out to my so called adversary that his/her strategic errors could cost a lot if dealing with a stronger “army.” The army of “needless” editors from Wikipedia for example? Those whose work doesn’t matter, because, isn’t it, they built the greatest thing we see online so far… That great thing, with all its minuses, is still truly open source: still free for all, still transparent and still as ethical as something open to editing for all can be.

When I talk about strategic errors I mean:

  • Do not compare alpha with beta. They don’t even look the same. But skipping the joke, alpha means startup, beta means one step ahead towards the final development.
  • When you compare anything, be as accurate in the description as possible. What are the similarities? What is different? Pros? Cons? Backup your statements with real data.
  • Do not misinform your readers. Saying that Wikia search is a search engine is false. Wikia search, currently in alpha, is a project to create a search engine. Words do have meanings after all. Sure, this is not the only author writing against wikia. What really disturbs here is the lack of accurate information and the motivation behind.

    I don’t want my search results passing through people who think they know what I might be looking for.

    – states the author, Cyndy Aleo-Carreira replying to my offense.

  • Any author is responsible for what he/she publishes. Profy just managed to publish inaccurate information under the excuse:

    It’s not my job to present the news in a completely unbiased manner.

    (!)

All in one, I had to write this “mea culpa” and officially apologize to Profy – the right thing to do, especially since I mean it and Svetlana happens to be one of the blog professionals I really admire. And I do take responsibility for what I write. It’s all about the ethics I still believe in, it is all about the people I hurt without thinking twice. It is all about the real Web 2.0.