I agree with the quoted portion, although frankly that is only because blogs have become sufficiently mainstream that they are representative of the opinion of Singaporeans in general, rather than because of the individual "powers" of bloggers.

However, Caleb's post also contains potentially dangerous rhetoric about a need for collective responsibility; which ultimately will result in nothing other than the self-censorship which Singaporeans seem to be so well known for.

I instead propose the following formulae for wannabe/existing bloggers:

Go forth and be as biased, as provocative as you want to be. Feel free to spew whatever rhetoric you please. It is your prerogative, your blog is your space on the internet, do not let anyone else dictate what you may or may not say.

Just be sure that you are prepared to take personal responsibility for everything you say; because there is no anonymity, especially on the internet.

There is anonymity... you just have to go out of your way to acquire and maintain it.

I think this is a great post. The power of the blogger community.
Incidentally, the current issue of Businessweek also has an article on blogging being the new consumer power.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm

What Edan said is right too. Personal responsibility for what you say on your blog.
I stand behind everything I say on my blog. Unfortunately my problem is that the readers like to hide behind anonymity and pass rude remarks. I can't understand why they want to remain unknown when they get riled up enough to comment!?

Screen anonymous content. Thats what I do.

Hey you're almost anonymous here! :)
Hehe, treading dangerous ground...

Screening is a good idea. How do I do that!!??
As you can probably tell, I'm your non-techie blogger.
And the bigger problem is that my anonymous commenter has morphed into an anonymous sms sender! The plot thickens....
Wonder if our blogging powerhouses had to face stuff like that?

ketsugi:

*laugh*

you think? Perhaps you're right, perhaps judicious use of multiple proxies, services like anonymizer/hushmail and a good dose of common sense might prevent the "fall."

But that is hardly necessary, nor conducive, unless your whole purpose is to be potentially slanderous always.

alkacid: because they know that in that case, the effort of finding out who they are, though technically possible, is too much effort. :) And maybe they don't want to spoil relations with you, or are cognizant of the extremely small community Singapore is.

Precisely why I said "go out of your way". I just felt that your original statement was a bit too sweeping, that's all. I don't deny that maintaining anonymity on the Internet is a painstaking and laborious process. One small slipup and it's gone.

flip thru ST and see how many of it is 'real' news...nay, most of it are as infantile as blog. and in many ways, blogs are even better in this regard.

Try using the stuffs from http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/blog-anonymously.php and http://taint.org/2005/04/20/215500a.html

I would like your comments on my blog at:
http://spaces.msn.com/members/sevencastles
http://sevencastles.blogchina.com
A Shanghai blog featuring news and views of great interest

I hate to say this, but she's? pretty funny.

"In China, we call those unmarried men or women who are at the age of getting married as people with “personal issues”."

"Among those female graduate students with “personal issues”, many do want to find a mate on their own or through friends; only a few would permit their parents to arrange “dates”. The social circle of graduate students typically consists of current and former fellow students and people who originate from the same city."

"It was said that women in seven job categories have the greatest difficulties addressing their “personal issues”: teachers, lawyers, office ladies with foreign-invested companies, medical staff, accountants, translators and statisticians."

*collapses laughing*