Comments are generally welcome in blogs. I personally like to read comments that are left on my blog and believe me, moderating comments has taken most of my blogging time. When people post comments, they keep a discussion thread open and maintain a lively exchange of information and opinions. However, in a free-for-all environment of the Internet, it has become so easy for people to remain anonymous or take on a fake identity. Now, those of you who champion freedom of the www, don’t get me wrong here. It is just that there have been many cases that these opportunities have also tempted many individuals to exploit the relative freedom of the Web and abuse their welcome. So, if you have a blog, especially if it’s DoFollow and with Keywordluv enabled, here are reasons why you should have a comment policy on it:
You want to take control
As much as you would like your blog’s visitors to feel free to say what they want, you need to be able to set the rules. After all, it is your blog and you are responsible for managing it. This is why it is necessary to impose some sort of control in the form of blog moderation. Your policy should state clearly if comments from visitors will be moderated and how.
You can impose the language and tone of comments
With a well-written comment policy, you could set rules regarding the type of language that is allowed (English-only, no slang, no abbreviations or textspeak) and which tone commenters are allowed to use (jokes are allowed but no sexual slang, no racist or sexist comments, etc.). This will help prevent potentially damaging comments from visitors that may affect the image of your blog.
You can allow, control or block links from being published
Some visitors may leave links with the body of their text. You may allow these so other visitors could follow them to other sites. You may also want to control which links to allow or you may want to block them altogether.
You can manage the comment length/focus
What’s the point of approving a comment that sounds like : “Thanks for the post”, “Nice post”, “Yes I’ll try the tips you’ve mentioned, thanks”, “I’m sure people will benefit with what you’ve said, great post” and some other ridiculously unrelated and lame comments? On the contrary, some people leave a testament – lengthy, long-winded conversations with themselves that take up too much space on your blog. Great if these are high quality comments but if these are nothing but ramblings and rants without a focus, these will be nothing but eyesores on an otherwise perfectly good site.
Hello! Do you have a real name?
Don’t you hate commenters that used only keywords as their names? Isn’t it weird to address a person with “Hi Antivirus Programs” or “Thanks for the comment Smartphone Buying Tips“? In fact, I have seen many comment policies that upfront determine that comments without a real name will definitely go into the trash (regardless of how good or relevant the comments are!). I admit, I’m guilty of some of the sins above when I first starting to blog/comments. I guess what I’m trying to say is, it does not hurt to pay attention to the sites commenting policy and you’re good.
In all fairness, it is also bloggers responsibility to ensure a clear policy and also just implementation of the policies as well…what’s the point of having a policy if it is not enforced or followed?
Hope this post is not only useful to bloggers but also fellow commenters as well. We all know comments are like nuggets of gold for a post…otherwise, why post if no one bother to read or comments on it?
I know I’m off topic a little today with this post. I guess being off topic once in a while won’t hurt.
Just in case you missed it, here’s our Comment Policy and I do hope that you’ll spend some time go through it if you are going to leave any comment on this blog. 😉 Happy commenting.
Do you think our comment policy is fair? Give us your suggestions in the comments.
Totally agree with this, anyone that has a blog will know that the sheer amount of spam you get is unbelievable. If you didn’t have some sort of comment moderation system, you would literally get bombarded with junk!
🙂 That’s right James.
Its always bad if you get comment with a keyword as a name. However if you are giving keyword uv then they should not do like this but Corruption is everywhere :P. Its good to have a comment policy page as you said.
Glad you can understand my “pain” Puneet 😉
I put up a comment policy from day one. I am not sure if anyone reads it or not, but at least it is there. I used to allow a few that put keywords instead of name in the beginning, but now I figure if someone wont take the time to read and understand then they probably didn’t even read the post. Of course a lot of it is spam anyway.
I used to email commenters and asked for their real names. Then I’ll add their real names on their comments before published them. Of course the comments were really good, if not I won’t be wasting my time. But I’m not doing that anymore.
On reason why it is important to have a comment policy is to allow commentators to know what are the things that they have to do and avoid at the same time. We all have the privilege to comment and share our thoughts but we should also be aware of what we are going to say because there is always a limitation.
Nice to hear from you Liane.
If we did not put any policy for commenting it is more likely get spam everyone that reads our blog. It is
important so that readers should aware of the site owners policy.
Thanks for dropping by and read this post Becca. Appreciate it 🙂
Well, I think comment policy is really important especially in your blog so that readers and commenters are aware of what are the things that are not allowed while commenting. Anyway, I always believe this that it is really important.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Nicholle. By the way, you didn’t put your URL that’s why your Keywordluv is not working.
Oh I see.. Thanks. 🙂
A comment policy is supposed to be something that would guide the people who are going to leave comments on your blog on what’s allowed and what’s not. There are some who use it to find the reason why their comments don’t go through, but that’s not how you’re supposed to use it.
I couldn’t agree with you more Gerald. Yea you’re right, some do use it for the wrong reason. Thanks for the comment and hope to see you around.
Now a days,there are lot of people who do spam on other blogs and don’t do comments for contribution so to alert those people before commenting on blog,comment policy is a best technique.After reading comment policy they can get idea if they do spam on blog then blog owner will not approve their comment.
BTW many thanks for having a great discussion.
Yea that’s exactly why I think a comment policy is so important. Thanks for the comment Amit. Hope to see you around.
Great, I think comment policy is really important for a site ,I always believe this that it is really important.
Yea, and I especially look down on those commenters not using a real name!