I’ve seen a number of ‘Comment Policies’ on blogs and they often leave me feeling like the bloggers that have written them are taking themselves far too seriously.The policies usually consist of the blogger in question reading the riot act to their readers.
They’re generally about making you feel that your comment is about to be put under the spotlight and if that comment crosses the line you’re likely to have several well dressed gentlemen in dark glasses arrive at your workplace to escort you to a quiet quarry outside the metropolitan area to have you officially ‘disappeared’.
Of course I do understand the need for a policy, especially where posts may be of a more controversial nature.
So …. I’ve decided to come up with my own policy. You’ll find it by clicking the words ‘Comment Policy’ at the top of the page. Easy enough I guess but I thought I’d make your initial reading of the policy even easier by including it in this post.
The policy is pretty much this, I want you to leave comments – lots of them.
My measure of success as a blogger is not whether I write lots of posts but whether what I write interests you enough to have your say.
I simply want you to comment and comment often. Comment on what I’ve written, comment on what others have said – please just comment. I’d love to see some real conversations develop in the comments section of my posts.
I suppose it does get a bit more complicated than that. I don’t like spam. The stuff in the can is OK, though I’d never buy it, but the internet type doesn’t thrill me. I’ll remove anything that looks or smells like spam.
“Why can’t we all just get along?” Well actually, I think we can. I don’t mind if you disagree with what I say or other commenters say. You’re welcome to leave comments with alternative points of view but just show some respect when doing so. I’ll admit that it’d be nice if everyone just agreed with me but it’d get boring pretty quickly, so go on … tell me what you really think. Just say it with respect. Remember what your mum told you about playing nice? No name calling or hair pulling please.
It’d be great if you could make family friendly comments. By that I simply mean that you should use the kind of language that you’d use if women and children were present. Of course if you generally use nasty language when women and children are present, try using the kind of language you imagine I might use with women and kids around. It’s the old respect thing again and I know that you’re smart enough to know what I mean.
In the end, as I said in the beginning, I want you to leave comments – lots of them. Just remember that as this is my blog I’m ultimately responsible for what gets published on my domain so please don’t write stuff that I have to remove.
Thanks.
Rodney
So there you have it. Now you can get down to commenting. 🙂
What do you think of comment policies? Do you have one for your blog? Does a comment policy encourage you to comment or discourage you from leaving your opinion?
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