You’ll find many blogging tips that encourage using controversial posts as a means of garnering attention and backlinks. It can be very effective, but bloggers should consider the ramifications of controversial posts before implementing them.
If you are going to be outing someone or naming names in a post in a way that could be negative, or in a way that could cause them harm in any way (including monetarily), then please stop and think about it first. It may make for a very interesting blog post to expose a site that is breaking a search engine’s guidelines, for example. In fact, you could even make a logical case that you are doing the “right thing” by doing so. But I encourage you to stop for a moment and ask yourself some questions.
- What if the site owner was my baby sister?
- What if the site owner had no idea he had broken some guidelines he’d never heard of?
- What if the site owner used the income from that site to pay for his baby’s life-saving operation?
Sure, I’m playing the “what if” game, and appealing to your emotions, but the point is that you most likely don’t know what effect your outing of that site would really cause. In fact, the effect might be disastrous for some poor innocent soul.
Is the chance of ruining a life worth making that one interesting post? Can you still make the post interesting without outing someone? Can you possibly show the same interesting points while “changing names to protect the innocent”?
I just encourage you to put a little extra thought into controversial posts that actually name names. Carefully consider the possible ramifications of your actions before clicking the Publish button. That’s all I ask. 
Simon | October 6th, 2007 at 7:03 am #
I think your missing one important point. Sure you could think things like “what if the site is paying for his little sister’s life saving operation” but you could also argue that by breaking the rules, there is another blogger out there somewhere who is doing everything fair and “legally” but can’t pay for his little sister’s life saving operation because he is losing visitors to someone acting improperly.
For every person out there with an excuse to break the rules, there are 10 people not breaking the rules but with the same goals, be it paying for their little sister’s operation or buying a house with an extra floor.
dazzlindonna (Post Author) | October 6th, 2007 at 7:09 am #
That’s a valid point, Simon.
Matt Jones | October 6th, 2007 at 7:15 am #
I 100% agree with “Carefully consider the possible ramifications of your actions before clicking the Publish button”. However, if you go about life constantly hesitating afraid it will affect someone eng negatively you wont get anywhere.
The money you earn from everything ‘could’ be used to save someone’s life, but that doesn’t mean it is.
dazzlindonna (Post Author) | October 6th, 2007 at 7:23 am #
And another valid point from you, Matt!
Evil | October 6th, 2007 at 11:20 am #
Whoops. It seems my entire website is devoted to naming names and posting their pictures.
At least I let you vote on whether or not you think they’ll go to Hell.
I try to get my information from at least two sources before I publish it. I’m not always able to do so, but if not, I try to put more opinion into the piece than claims of fact.
dazzlindonna (Post Author) | October 6th, 2007 at 11:37 am #
Well, Evil, sounds like you actually put a lot of thought into it before you hit publish, and really, that’s all I’m asking people to consider doing.
Jonathan Street | October 6th, 2007 at 2:50 pm #
I agree with Simon on this. You can never know the full ramifications of your actions.
I think the best advice is to treat others as you would like to be treated. If you’re spamming like there is no tomorrow you shouldn’t be outing others for the same practice. If you working in what you feel is an ethical way and you see others using dirty practices then why not out them?
The only reason I can think off is if they don’t know any better. In such a case a friendly email may be the first approach you want to consider.
A Blog about Nothing | October 6th, 2007 at 7:41 pm #
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12
I think that sums it up very nicely. We can talk all day about “what if this”, and “what if that”, but ultimately it comes down to “what if it were done to YOU?”
G-Man | October 8th, 2007 at 8:29 am #
As they say in 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, “Begin with the end in mind”. That is, what, exactly, are you trying to accomplish and what will the consequences be?
G-Man