Citizenship on the Net and at Hubpages. I have been doing this so long that I "coined" netizen and dotcommoner. And foug

Since I first wrote this I have been watching with a serious eye the corporate citizenship of Hubpages. I am sorry to say that they do not match up to responsible publishing. The restrictions they place amount to electronic censorship, a most heinous concept. Their rating system puts pressure on serious writers to conform to a marketing stratagem that is unhealthy for open dialogue of important social issues. Participants are encouraged to place misleading taglines, titles and subtitles in order to attract hits. But most important is the loss of artistic motivation. The hubs are moving toward full commercialization with a loss of important content.

Good Citizenship

Hubpages just sent me a notice that I had achieved a good citizenship accolade. I sure wish my mom was alive for me to send it to her. Back in the 60’s during my formative years my five siblings and I would bring home report cards. My home was filled with active debate and intellectual curiosity. And our home was strict. Our report cards ran A’s and B’s, if you had a C there were steps required to bring that grade up. My mom might let a C slide if it was in penmanship, after all my father was a doctor ;-).

But there were two grades that could not and would not fall below an A. Citizenship and effort. In scouting the first badge we earned was citizenship. So this accolade may not be a big deal at all, but it is to me.

The notion of citizenship is easy on the surface, contribute, participate, and then contribute and participate again. Raise your hand for questions, and help a neighbor out. The harder part of contribution is taking a stand against matters that are harmful to your community. And the hardest part of that is being sure to respect the dignity and rights of you neighbors’.

Truly the most important aspect of citizenship is what we like to call: Suit up and show up. Showing up consistently and prepared to participate in solutions is the only way you can contribute.

Hubpages is a fine community. Good people with a common interest in reading and writing. It seems as though most people do not know about this accolade, however most contributors are surely good citizens or netizens. Which really gets to the heart of citizenship, you cannot do it for the grade, you have to simply do it because it is the right thing to do.