Would you join a Bloggers Union?

[Kevin]

Daniel Scocco today put forward the idea of a bloggers union. The idea is simple, bloggers would unite together and fight against online scams, copyright infringements and other things which affect bloggers.

I thought this is a great idea as the net is still very unregulated and some companies are getting away with murder.

You can read his full post here (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/the-bloggers-union/).

Would you join a Bloggers Union? :)

[KatyInLasVegas]

I just left a comment over at DBT about this:

My feelings about this are very mixed.

How much dues be? There's a lot of bloggers that make little to no income from blogging and don't have other means to make themselves part of something they have to pay for. Dues, rather than niche, may be exactly what pushes people out and yet won't allow some of the best in just because of financial status.

Who would manage the money? Few people are going to want to hand over dues to a person or company they know nothing about in the "hopes" that something right is done with it.

To say we'll all band together to go after a company sounds like a bit much to me. Frankly, there'd really have to be something going on that would warrant a "warning" of some time for me to blog about another blogger's problems. While banning together and creating a true community out of blogging and supporting each other sounds great, there are aspects that you've mentioned that are a turn-off for me and I image it'd be the same for other people.

I think there's too many "what ifs" to this and too many questions about who would be excluded from such an idea based on financial status.

What would seem more appropriate is simply a group of bloggers that help and support each other. A group is great, joining together to help write statements and prevent from copyright infringement is fabulous. But where's the line? Frankly, I just can't see myself blogging against a company because it did something to another blogger. There'd really have to be an extreme case for this.

At this point, while I'd like to say that I'd join, I probably wouldn't shell out even $20 out of my pocket for it.

[Kevin]

I didn't see any mention of a membership fee in the post. I don't believe anything like this should cost anything (although obviously donations etc help). As you said, it's about supporting each other. I agree with you that I would not go out and post about something just because it would harm any company which hurt another blogger.

However, as Daniel pointed out. There is a big difference hearing that one blogger isn't going to use a service again because of something, it's a different thing hearing that thousands are not going to use it again in support of a fellow member.

I do think there could be problems with this kind of thing if it wasn't handled right but I do think that this is a step in the right direction.