I am so happy I found the Cage, although I sometimes feel like a bit of an intruder, as I mostly blog about insomnia and things that annoy me. So far however I feel perfectly excepted here. The Cage is the opposite of everything ells that I have found on the internet. Kind where the rest are mean, happy where the rest seem angry, friendly where the rest seem. . . and so on.
Every now and then however I find a blog that is unhappy with other blogs. Mostly however I can not find the "bad" blogs". I find the ones that are unhappy but not the ones that they are unhappy with. This all ways seems rather strange, almost surreal.
Freedom of speech is a problem because, as soon as you try to turn it into anything specific, it is not freedom of speech any more. If you have a right to say anything than I clearly have a right to object to what you say. If you use your freedom to object to someone ellses freedom (no matter how good your reason) then they are equally entitled to ignore you. Within freedom of speech there is bound to be a danger of a downwards spiral of negativity. In preventing this kind of spiral you inevitably limit someone ellses free speech.
To me personally the most important thing is to preserve the cage as a "nurturing" environment (others might disagree). In any case I have a short list of rules when blogging. They are awkward and sometimes vague rules, but they are useful guides to me.
1. I do not blog anything that is obscene.
2. I make a conscious effort not to offend anyone or cause bad feeling
3. I do not tell stories that are not mine to tell (obviously not including celebrities, people who are dead or stories that are all ready common knowledge)
4. I avoid blogging about politics, religion, ethics, where it would be divisive or offensive
5. So far I have felt no need to debate with anyone. When I do, I will do so politely and coherently, rather than resorting to insults and mud slinging. (actually there are exceptional situations regarding this rule).
There might be more but that is all I can think of at the moment. Within these guide lines I blog anything that I want to (and will continue to do so)
As all ways garbled / spelling/ etc (the spell check really had to work hard on this).
