Yahoo! employee blog guidelines posted

Jeremy Zawodny has published a post on Yahoo!’s employee blog guidelines (you can download a copy from here).  I have taken a quick look and they seem pretty reasonable and sensible.  They caution Yahoo! employees (or ‘Yahoos’) about their legal duties and then call for what is basically a sensible approach to blogging.  They suggest that bloggers get their facts straight; be considerate and be mindful of other people’s entitlement to hold their own views.

Jeremy was one of the people asked to comment on the guidelines and here is what he had to say:

So you wanna blog about Yahoo…

Great!

But before you get started, let me offer a few bits of advice. I’ve been writing publicly about Yahoo on my weblog for a few years now and its been a lot of fun. There are A LOT of people out there who want to read about what goes on here and what we’re up to: friends, family, fans, lawyers, enemies, journalists, shareholders, the SEC, and crazy people looking for anyway they can to get in touch with Yahoo.

Basically, just about anyone can and will read what you publish. So keep that in mind. If you’re worried about what your Mom, manager, ex-coworker, or Terry Semel would think, listen to that instinct. And realize that once a cat is out of the bag, you can never get the damned thing back in. The blog world is incredibly efficient at spreading rumors, secrets, rants, hyperbole, and your mistakes.

You’ll make mistakes. We all do. Just try to be smart about it.

But above all else, have fun with it. You’ll meet a lot of interesting people and find that you never think about this company the same way again.

Seriously.

I wouldn’t still be doing this if I didn’t enjoy it. The fact that our executive team is giving is their official recognition and endorsement says a lot about the future of Yahoo.

Go forth and write. Be yourself. Speak your mind.

I like this approach.  It says Yahoo! is big enough to take a little criticism from time to time as long as that criticism is fair and doesn’t fall foul of its employees’ legal duties to it and to its clients.

(via LexBlog Blog)