This is an old subject, but one that I'm finding myself revisiting time and time again. Call it a desire to pigeon-hole if you like, but what category of "news" does blogging fall under?

First, let's filter out all of the personal blogs, plus take out fiction and the pure aggregators. Oh and don't forget the spam and corporate promotion blogs, skip those too. Everything we're left with is trying to be newsworthy.

There's no simple umbrella for blogged news, but I think I've got it down to three basic categories: Journalists, Pundits, or Joe Schmo with an opinion.

• Journalism needs standards. That's my opinion, one I hope is shared by the general populace. Even basic op-ed reviews need standards, you wouldn't review a movie you haven't seen, or a game you haven't played, right?
• Pundits can be listened to once and then ignored. They tend to push a rigid and repetitive stance, that's why they're pundits.
• Joe Schmo, that's the tricky one. There are both educated and uneducated opinions. Once an opinion is decently educated on the topic at hand, the lines between Joe Schmo and Journalism begin to blur.

Despite some nasty setbacks in videogame journalism, a goal of integrity should be maintained. In fact, those setbacks will probably strengthen the field. They've also opened up a hole where the bloggers can compete with the establishment.

If you've got what you think is leaked information about a game, verify it. Everyone loves a good fresh leak, don't they? But if it's not true, it's causing damage. And respect the NDAs, even if you aren't the one that signed it. In fact, this is why NDAs have become so prevalent in our industry, so many hotshot wannabe reporters can't hold their tongues when they should.

What do you care, if your pagerank goes up you're happy right? If game blogs get mired in false information, a high pagerank won't be worth much with a disenfranchised audience. Make trust the default, don't post suspect information.

Honesty and integrity before pagerank, please.