Yesterday I was surprised to hear Kathy Sierra on NPR talking about the proposed blogger's code of conduct. Kathy is an advisor to the Enthusiast Group and all around great person. I was as shocked as anyone when she received death threats. I mean, come on: she writes about marketing and communications for crying out loud. It's not like she's writing about hot button issues like abortion or the second amendment.

So far we haven't had any real problems with trolls or abusive users on our sites, but each site has a community rules page. For example, our mountain biking rules page says:

Guidelines for User Behavior

1. Please treat everyone as if they were your riding buddies. Don't get into violent arguments and flame wars. This is about mountain biking! It's about fun.
2. Respect others' opinions and their rights to hold them.
3. All user-submitted content should be appropriate for all ages. Mountain bikers of all ages look at YourMTB.com, so keep that in mind -- especially when submitting photos.
4. Don't assume that everything you read on YourMTB.com is accurate. Because a large number of members of the community are contributing content, not everything is going to be real. We trust that most people who submit articles, photos and videos to the website do so in the spirit of sharing and fun, and that what they offer will be genuine. But read and view what you find on the website with healthy skepticism.