A decade ago, no one had heard of the term. But today, blogs are – for individuals and businesses like – a feature of everyday life. Now anyone with an Internet connection has the ability to broadcast their innermost thoughts and their analysis of current events, whether anybody is reading or not.

But the anonymity and safe distance that blogs allow means they can also be a hot bed of bickering, slander and ill-informed rant.

In the face of such online immorality, one Christian organisation has taken it upon itself to provide a little spiritual guidance for the age of Web 2.0.

The Evangelical Alliance, an organisation that represents multiple churches and denominations, has drawn up the Ten Commandments of Blogging. They are as follows:

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog
5. Do not give undue significance to your fellow bloggers’ mistakes
6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind
8. You shall not steal another person’s content
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow blogger
10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content

We’ll leave you with some related words of wisdom from the American satirist HL Mencken: “Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.”