The 10 Commandments for the Next Generation of Content

Here’s hoping for a better bunch of words on the internet.


By now, nearly everyone reading this is aware of the term “web 2.0″. It describes an internet that consists mainly of user-generated content. The first time I heard this, it excited me. The idea of regular old folks like me creating the world wide web, one virtual brick at a time seemed really cool. As it turns out, I was pretty shortsighted on that. What I envisioned as a cool discursive assemblage buttressing a globally connected society has turned into an amorphous blob of disguised and deceptive ad copy — mostly done for free.

But I have a dream.

I have a dream that this amorphous blob of drivel that we now call “content” will soon die a fiery death — making way for a collection of more well written, relevant, and helpful stuff. Come dream with me.

I grew up loving to write. And because I loved to write — and also to read — I very quickly learned to revere good writing. I gained a respect for the best practices of writing — things like: don’t use sentence fragments in non-dialogue writing. Be as clear as you can be. Make your sentences flow, as much as possible. Don’t talk down to your audience. All of these things that, to me, seem like entrance-level stuff to do (or not do) as a person writing words for others to read.

It appears, though, that the sweet sentiments that I have about the written word are something I see torn to pieces by so many pieces of “content” on the internet. What is worse is that this style of “writing” is the kind that the ad money seems to be encouraging the most. It pains me. Because of that, I’ve drafted the 10 commandments for what I’d like to call content 2.0 — the next wave of the written word on the internet. My hope is that version 2.0 blows the old version out of the water. Call me a dreamer.

1. Thou shall worship no other gods except for good sentence structure, good grammar, and proper punctuation.
2. Don’t idolize other writers and their styles. You have your own voice. Write until you find it, then use it.
3. Don’t swear for the sake of looking “edgy” — we’re past that.
4. You don’t need to publish every single day. Quantity means nothing. There’s enough content on the web.
5. Honor the good writers who came before you, and the good ones writing now.
6. Write as few listicles as possible.
7. Value your writing. Value it enough to not let others make money off of it while you do it for free.
8. Thou shall not steal. Try to be original. Try to give a fresh take on things, rather than regurgitating the theme du jour in a listicle.
9. Be charitable in your writing about others, as much as possible. Don’t be sensationalist and incendiary. Give others the benefit of the doubt as much as possible.
10. Write for insight, for sharing knowledge, or for benign self-expression. Don’t write merely for recognition.

I wonder how websites would look if we followed these. I wonder how Medium would look if we all mostly followed these.

I may be dreaming, but I know I’m not the only one.