I was doing some research on some basic rules for people commenting on forums and blogs in general and found a decent article titled Guide to weblog comments and wanted to share since we’ve all seen comments go crazy from time to time on various forums as well as on our own sites or blogs.
A couple of the points from the article I’d like to highlight are things that I see a lot around various sites and forums and I’m sure you do too:
Stay on topic.
Bloggers enable comments on specific posts to hear more about the content of the post. Don’t change the subject. There’s nothing more annoying than seeing a comment on a post about Hurricane Katrina that reads, “By the way, do you know anything about turtles?”
Don’t comment for the sake of commenting.
Commenters who only say “First!” or “Nice site” on an open thread have no business hitting that “Post” button at all. Further, only spammers comment for the sake of adding their name and URL to a web page. Useless comments will gain you the reputation for being a useless commenter.
I suggest that my readers take a look at the article to see some of the guidelines that are pretty good food for thought and maybe start to use them in your daily work and personal life while commenting around the internet.
You can also download the complete guide to weblog comments from my project page.
October 3rd, 2008
7 Comments at "Guide to Weblog Comments"
First!
j/k
An interesting guide SeanRox. I would have never thought to look for a guide on how to comment. It’s a small thing, but very vital in blogs. Thanks!
I knew someone would comment with “first”.
You’re welcome for the information TechZ.
I’m always looking for random information to help better interaction on the web.
Glad I was able to help. You should let others know as well. Feel free to link to me
I don’t mind off-topic comments so much, so long as they pertain at least somewhat to the original post.
But I try and keep my How To articles’ comments relevant
PS: Third!
Hi Yvonne. Thanks for popping by again!
I agree if a comment at least pertains somewhat to the original post, it’s ok but I’ve seen so many times comments go way off topic, then you have to dig through so much junk to find the real important useful comments.
With following a few of the simple rules mentioned in the above article, it will save admins, site owners and moderators a ton of time in cleaning up bad or misdirected comments and give more time for actual reading and interaction with the readers.
The end result is a cleaner, more useful internet
Well, I didn’t think off-topic comments might be annoying for visitors =( I’ll keep that in mind!
Glad to have opened your eyes to a new possibility Yvonne.
In commenting, it’s always a good thing to think about the visitors as well as the site owner or moderator.
When I read comments and I start seeing someone not really following a few simple rules like mentioned above, I don’t have very much respect for the person leaving the comment. I think the term is called a comment troll or something like that.
A good rule of thumb is to imagine you’re having the conversation in person. Treat the person or post as you would if you were standing in front of them on the street. Seems to work nice from what I’ve already seen with people that have read the article.
[...] Another good article by SeanRox was the Guide to Weblog comments. [...]
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