The blog cyborg is a terrible thread moderator. In the article asking for ideas from Newsvine users, which currently stands at 387 comments, the great majority of which are less suggestion of changes to the Code of Honor than representative of just exactly why we need the CoH, and an updated one at that.

Because I like to torture myself, I've gone through the thread and have collected from it the actual presented ideas:

Brian Ford:

Don't poison the well.

A first comment which invokes an imagined negative response does little to encourage civil debate.

Catch22:

Avoid generalizations and stereotypes such as All liberals or Conservatives are X. and Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but consider when expressing yours to rather than merely vent, provide the an actual basis for your views.

and

Try to respond to what is actually written, instead of what you feel or assume is being writtten. Remember that tone is difficult to determine in this format, and people vastly overestimate their ability to accurately detect the tone of statements in this format.

Brian Ford:

Moderate responsibly.

Civil discourse begins and ends with the author of any given seed or article.

(Woulda been awesome if the blog cyborg had bothered to do that.)

jfxgillis:

Impugning the motives of other Newsviners for their choice of material to seed or the subjects of their articles should be disallowed.

Scott Butki:

Avoid generalizations and labels and

Assume good will.

Killfile:

Give The Benefit of the Doubt

vas:

Make no personal attacks. If you disagree with someone's ideas, stick to explaining why. If you have a personal issue with someone, express it privately.

vas:

Respect the moderating decisions of the columnist in whose column the discussion or debate takes place. If you dislike the columnist or the decisions, go elsewhere. If the columnist doesn't accept your thoughts under his/her column, express them in your own!

Top Jedi:

Comments will be constructively enforced under the COH

jfxgillis:

Articles must include at least 150 words and two topical hyperlinks

in response to that one:

Raat Ki Raani:

Let writers write what they want. Let readers dictate what happens to it.

Noah Bradley:

Write in the tone you would like responses to be.

Thura:

Be more specific about not linking to your own blog/website as a seed.

chill:

The Newsvine staff will monitor the Front Page and may occasionally remove content that violates the COH without notice.

All "removed" content will be available on the "So you Wanna Fight?" back page section. or some less inflammatory named section.

Pamela Drew:

Habitual false or vindictive ! reporting will be punished by clipping a branch or something equivalent. Or give a sprig of fennel for good behavior, fair moderating, something you can earn and lose.

Raat Ki Raani:

Newsvine is not a dating or personals column service.

Raat ki Raani:

Stalking and/or harrasing will not be tolerated

reworded after some discussion to:

Evidence of stalking or harrasing an individual will not be tolerated

Andrew (Online Apps):

Don't delete comments you just happen to not like

Tedd Riggs adds:

Or disagree with.

Jimster:

Deliberately posting information that the poster knows is inaccurate or who's intent is to deceive the Newsvine community is prohibited. Users should refrain from posting articles from sites that are either known to be "rumor mills" or intentionally inflammatory in nature.

and

Excessive or biased use of the CoH in order to control or eliminate comments opposed to the views of the originally reporting party is a violation

Dan Hallo:

A Newsvine member who fights for his personal Honor will not be punished or reprimanded for it. When a person defends his honor, he defends the honor of Newsvine, because we are a community. So we will award them with the "Newsvine Medal of Honor".

The Ku Klux Klan, Silver Shirts, the American Nazi Party, the Posse Comitatus, the Aryan Nations, and the National Alliance, are racist Fascist, and will be permanently expelled with their IP addresses blocked.

Trials will be held, with a jury of Newsvine peers can be requested and will be held to determine COH violations.

hemphill:

Be Nice.

Rob Ballew:

When seeding an article use the actual title not a catchy title that will get you votes or comments.

In response to that: Catch22:

When seeding an article take responsibility for the title

Marilyn L:

I would add to the CoH that hateful speech contravenes the CoH.

Hateful speech includes inflammatory speech against religions, ethnic groups, nationalities, sexual preferences, etc. This should not preclude discussion of conflicts. It is possible to discuss issues without using epithets such as: the N word, racist zionists., ragheads, commies, antisemites, etc. (More examples may be added, help me out here).

Catch 22:

Apply the highest standard to your own comments. Do not assume ill will on the part of those you disagree with when evaluating what someone else has written. Carefully avoid applying a double standard unless you apply the more rigourous standard to yourself

and he later added:

Lead By Example

Upholding the CoH is first and foremost a matter of having it reflect in your own comments, not in being the first to report others you believe to be in violation or by placing comments announcing you have reported a comment everytime you do so.

DamianKD:

SPAM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. Blatant advertising, excessive tagging, business-related press releases, and special interest group related press releases will be considered spam. Spammers will have their profiles, seeds, and articles deleted.

And Red Wolf followed that up with the suggestion that "rampant self-seeders" be included in that bunch.

Scott Butki:

Step away from your computer when you're becoming emotionally involved.

Better to be late with a comment than write something you will later regret.

Scott Butki:

If you are caught plagiarizing on more than one instance you will be banned

Aunk:

When commenting in a column follow the rules of the column as long as they do not conflict with the COH. Each columnist is different, if you don't like a column or its readers move on.

vas:

When selecting photos for your articles, ask yourself whether it increases understanding or an appreciation of art within the community. Avoid including photos that cause other Viners to want to gouge out their own eyes on repeated viewing.

Red Wolf:

Newsvine is not a bookmarking service.

Hopefully, I caught them all.

I don't necessarily agree nor disagree with the above statements, but I wanted to pluck them out of the blog's thread so that they might stand on their own. Most, if not all of them are followed on that thread by some discussion. I linked to the suggestions to that you might easily find those discussions.

The Current Code of Honor

1. Above all else, respect others. If you see disrespectful behavior, report it, rather than further inflaming the situation.

2. Before you write, seed, or comment, ask yourself if your contribution increases the strength and virtue of the community.

3. Newsvine is for collaborative discovery and discussion of the news, not self-promotion. Posting full articles which also appear on your blog is acceptable but seeding your own stuff is not.

4. Keep your headlines accurate and free of sensationalistic language. For instance, if you're writing a satirical piece, please follow the form: "Satire: [Headline]"; if you're seeding a story about a rumor, "Rumor: Yahoo to Buy ___" is appropriate whereas "Yahoo Buys ___" or "WTF! Oh my God!" are not.

5. Although full internationalization is important to Newsvine, please keep all articles and seeds in English until the system can properly sort multiple languages.

6. Keep Newsvine tidy by tagging for accuracy rather than for readership, editing headlines and lead-ins to be compact and descriptive, and seeding as close to the original source as possible.

My Proposed Code of Honor

The Code of Honor has stood us in good stead up to this point, but Newsvine is growing by leaps and bounds, in addition to the fact that this is, in a sense, a society, a community, and many users have come to know each other quite well. The Code of Honor gives users a guideline from which to act, and to report the actions of others if necessary. We, as users, are the first line of enforcement. If we choose not to report some comments, so be it. And Newsvine staff does not moderate every single thread on their servers. It would be impossible. When multiple reports on a single item (comment or article/seed) are received, there are automated processes to either collapse the comment or delete the article/seed. Staff steps in after a certain point, and the CoH, which all users have agreed to abide by when signing up as a member of the site, gives staff something to stand on when making decisions to delete comments.

Anyway,

1. Above all else, respect others. Disagreement does not preclude respect. Report disrespectful behavior using the ! button.

This is, of course, subject to interpretation. There have been plenty of conversations between myself and some of my closest Newsvine friends that might be viewed as disprespectful by a user unaware of our relationships (and I'm certain this same scenario exists for many other users as well).

2. Before you write, seed, or comment, ask yourself if your contribution increases the strength and virtue of the community.

I believe #2 is one of the most important parts of the current CoH, as well as one of the most widely disregarded. Of course, it is also subject to interpretation, and what one user believes is a valuable contribution is worthless to another. It is, as a result, impossible to enforce.

What #2 is asking is that all users of the Vine go above and beyond to elevate the quality of what is posted here. For every article or seed posted here, there is another site on the internet for which it is appropriate. But is it appropriate for Newsvine?

That, I believe, is what we should be discussing. The quality level of articles, seeds, and comments on Newsvine is completely up to the userbase.

3. Self-promotion (seeding from one's own blog or website), advertising of any kind, excessive tagging, spam, the use of Newsvine for search engine optimization, etc. is absolutely prohibited. Violators' articles and seeds, as well as their user accounts, will be removed from Newsvine and banned.

4. Keep your headlines accurate and free of sensationalistic language. Follow commonly accepted headline guidelines. In addition, keep Newsvine tidy by tagging for accuracy rather than for readership, editing headlines and lead-ins to be compact and descriptive, and seeding as close to the original source as possible.

I'd like to see us come up with a set of guidelines that can be included and/or linked to. A place to start the discussion can be found here: Microcontent: How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines.

5. Moderate comment threads on your articles and seeds responsibly. Civil discourse begins and ends with the author of any given seed or article.

Deleting comments with which you do not agree is inappropriate, and users will have the opportunity to have deletions reviewed. Newsvine staff reserves the right to restore comments that do not violate the Code of Honor.

6. Plagiarism of any kind is strictly prohibited. Users caught plagiarizing will be subject to permanent banning.

EDIT

Thanks to Dennis McCann, there are a couple of additions:

7. Posting another Newsviner's personal information, ie, real name, phone number, address, will result in immediate banning from Newsvine.

8. Accusations of criminal conduct should not be made lightly. For instance, in many countries, an accusation of antisemitism is a criminal charge; do so only if you feel the charge would hold up in a court of law.

I think both of these are very important, and should be addressed by the CoH in some way.

Did I forget anything?