Little League baseball is one of my simple joys of spring. I don’t have children so to get my “fix” I make the hubby take me out to the ball park to watch the local boys. It’s a pretty cheap date, so he doesn’t fuss much.

Last Thursday, while eating our favorite gelato, a series of interesting events caused me to begin thinking.

In a nutshell, one young boy who had missed an important play came in from the field. As soon as he stepped in the dugout, the child began to whine about how the error was not his fault and began to point fingers at other teammates. The coach turned around and sternly, but not rudely, asked the child to stop his tirade. The mother of the child quickly became enraged that the coach had structured her child. She ran up to the fence and began yelling at the coach and saying that she was going to sue the league to get her money back. After getting no attention from the coach, she sat back down on the bleechers and began to loudly rant to other parents around her. Basically, the joy left Mudville. I actually considered giving her the $30 dollar registration fee out of my pocket just to get her to hush. Instead, after enduring it for 20 minutes, we decided to leave and come back another day.

After getting over being annoyed that my good time had been spoiled and being appalled at how one woman could set such a poor example before 12 impressionable children, I began to think about what the scenario could teach me.

I’m an Atlanta native… born here and raised here. As with most children, I was taught to obey the rules of my parent’s house. When I was not at home, my parents said I had to obey the rules of their house and the house of my friends. I’ll readily admit, there were times that this was confusing and aggravating. Especially when you consider that in our small neighborhood, any parent could punish any child if the house rules were broken. This extended to the ballpark and coaches too. I know this notion may seem radical and perhaps cruel considering the social rules of today. However, please understand the priveledge was rarely exercised. I think it was actually used as more of a deterrent because the threat of “getting it” again when you got home was a horrifying thought in most cases.

This taught me the very realization that rules are different in different settings. I see this everyday in my adult life. It also taught me that in most cases, there is a really good reason why the rules are different in different setting. Subsequently, it can be a fruitless struggle to invoke your own outside rules onto inherently different settings.

I think as blogging evolves we are seeing a set of unwritten rules evolve with it. There has been much talk about blog manners, which like the rules about putting a napkin in your lap, are good in most every setting. However, there are also rules that are very specific to certain settings. For example, while it may be cool for a boy to spit on the ballfield, the same behavior would be met with shock, awe and disgust if he did that on the carpet at home. Such is the case for style and tone of certain blogs. It is simply inappropriate for personal blogs to develop a professional, aloof tone. Conversely, business blogs would not be taken seriously if they were extremely whiney or emotive. Healthcare blogs have it even harder, they must be personal enough while retaining their knowledgable credibility

As blogging begins to expand into other settings and be used in innovative ways, it is essential that we respect the rules of other’s houses. Subsequently, I find it helpful when bloggers post guidance on comments and posting. I think this helps me understand the boundaries and how to work and play appropriately without appalling the others around me.

My next task is to develop my own ground rules for this site. I’ve already done it for my business site.

If there are any physicians out there reading, what ground rules do you find important for your blogs? I think it will help me in my conversion process of my Non-blogging Doc. Did I mention that I am persistent?!?!?!

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