1. Thou shall provide good content for the readers.
2. Thou shall take responsibility for one’s own words.
3. Thou shall not poke fun at other people, because it is not nice.
4. Thou shall not commit libel against a fellow blogger.
5. Thou shall not harass or stalk other people.
6. Thou shall place a warning label at the top of your blog if there are curse words or abusive comments on your blog.
7. Thou shall ignore rude comments about one’s self.
8. Thou shall call the police when you are threatened.
9. Thou shall speak politely to others and inform them if they are acting naughty.
10. Thou shall not vent your anger online.

No, these are not real commandments that need to be followed. These are a few of the ones from Tim O’Reilly’s blogger code of conduct (and a couple of my own). Let’s be serious. Do we really need an industry leader to tell us how to be mature adults? I don’t think so. I am completely empathetic to Kathy Sierra who has been targeted by some “cyber-bullies”, but I don’t think bloggers need an exhaustive list about how to act. We all know how to act, and some people have simply broken the rules as they do in the real world. Simply put, anyone who is threatening another blogger is a criminal.

We all know how to behave. Why then did Tim O’Reilly post an exhaustive list explaining this to us? Well, perhaps he is just making it clear that this behavior should not be tolerated. I agree with his suggestions. We also should understand though that the internet was not always the most friendliest place. There have been and will continue to be plenty of immature statements online that should be ignored. Once the immaturity crosses the line into criminal, it should be handled as such and reported to the police. It is as simple as that. I don’t think we need a list though explaining to us how to act. Controversy creates buzz in media (both new and old). If you don’t like what someone says, than say so and let it be.

For many of us in the web industry, we think of Web 2.0 as old news. We don’t realize that there are thousands if not millions of people that know about Web 2.0 and have experienced it but don’t know how to embrace it. Last night at the social media club I was speaking with many individuals who all said the same thing: “I love reading blogs, but half the time I sit there refreshing my favorite blogs only to find that there is no new content.” For many of my readers, Web 2.0 may be passé but for others it is not. This article is not directed at those that heard about my site through Techmeme, but rather those that know about what web 2.0 is, but don’t know all the right tools to take full advantage of it. Here is your 5 step guide to embracing web 2.0.

1. Download and Install Firefox - In order to experience Web 2.0 in all its glory you need to have a web 2.0 browser to handle all of your needs. So go download firefox and take the first step to becoming an official Web 2.0 user.
2. Join Google Reader - Google reader is going to save you from all that annoying page refreshing that you have to suffer on a daily basis. No longer will you have to keep going back to each of your favorite blogs and refreshing the page to see if new content is there. New content will now come to you. So go signup for Google reader and start reading all of your favorite blogs, from the comfort of one page.
3. Start using Del.icio.us - Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking service that allows you to share your bookmarks across computers as well as with different friends. If you aren’t using it, then you aren’t Web 2.0. So go signup for Del.icio.us and then install the Firefox del.icio.us add-on.
4. Install Greasemonkey - Rather than explaining all the intricacies of how this add-on works, just trust me and download it. It is going to make your life a hell of a lot easier momentarily.
5. Install the Greasemonkey RSS Script - Once you’ve restarted your browser after installing the del.icio.us and greasemonkey add-ons, it is time to install the following greasemonkey script. This script will add an easy Google Reader subscribe button at the top right corner of each of the sites that you visit to let you know if you have already subscribed to their feed as illustrated here. Trust me on this one and install it.

Sit back and relax because you are now one efficient Web 2.0 user. No longer will you have to waste your time refreshing pages, remembering URLs of your favorite websites, and searching to find the most fresh content on the web because it will all start coming to you. If you want to have some good content to start reading, go check out my entry from back in December about the “Top 20 Blogs for the Web Industry.” Also don’t forget to subscribe to my feed.

So I am leaving today to go to Europe and attend the Future of Web Apps conference in London. I will be traveling around Europe for the next 10 days. I will try to blog occasionally while I’m there, but postings will be sporadic. I will be back on a regular schedule after returning.