Blog Comments Policy: First Crack
Posted on | October 9, 2009 | No Comments
After some thoughtful consideration following my last post Blog Comments Policy: We All Need One, I decided to take a crack at formulating Dinkum Interactive’s Blog Comments Policy. As previously mentioned the purpose of such a policy is to ensure that the blog is relevant and useful; since this could cover a broad range of topics, I’d like to keep the policy focused, flexible and easy to understand.
Researching what others have done, I looked at a number of blog comments policies and I found one that I really like: the Blog Comments Policy of Pro Blogger Darren Rowse. Granted, it was written in 2005 but the basics still apply and it’s a good place to start.
Armed with Darren’s thoughts and Dinkum’s experiences, here are the basics or our Blog Comments Policy:
- We Love Comments – Our goal is to provide valuable content to our readers and a large part of that includes the discussion generated by our posts. We encourage everyone, beginners and experts alike, to offer their perspective on the topics being discussed.
- We Moderate Comments – Unfortunately the concepts of common courtesy and taste vary. In an effort to maintain a welcoming, respectful environment every comment is moderated before publication.
- We Delete Spam – Unnecessary, irrelevant and off-topic comments decrease the value of our blog to readers and will be deleted.
- Relevant Links Are Encouraged – As with any good discussion, citing sources to information or resources relevant to the topic increases value to participants and is encouraged. Conversely, links that are off-topic and inappropriate will be deleted.
- Comment Signatures Require a Name – In order to foster conversation and strengthen community, we require those commenting to leave a name. After all, when was the last time you had a conversation with “Chicago Realtor” or “Lakeland Internet Marketing”?
- All Rights Reserved – We reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments.
Note: #5 may change; we haven’t decided. The name requirement stems from our position as a DoFollow Blog. Briefly, a DoFollow Blog rewards comments by providing the commenter a link that passes value to the site specified by the commenter using the given name. Unfortunately, this is the reason for a great deal of comment spam which cheapens the value of any blog.
So, what do you think? Am I off-base? Is it too broad or too restrictive? Please offer your opinion.
Bill Rowland
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