Comment Challenge Day 11: Write a Blog Comment Policy

In this activity, you’re going to write a comment policy for your blog. If you have one already, you’re going to review it and make any revisions you think are necessary after reviewing some of the following articles and thinking through what you’ve learned from your own experiences as a commenter.

• Does Your Blog Have a Comment Policy?
• Comments on Comments
• Sample Terms of Use
• A Newbie Guide to the Bamboo Project

I can’t remember ever having read a comment policy before reading the above articles. My general feeling about comment policies is that if they allow comments, I expect that as long as I am civil and not spam, I’ll be heard. Thus far, I’ve never been disappointed. Additionally, I believe that if someone isn’t being civil, it is unlikely that reading a comment policy will inspire them to “play nice.”

I think a simpler policies are better. So here is my comment policy:

1. As soon as someone completes the comment form, which includes spaces for your name and your email address, the comment will be posted.  I promise not to share email addresses, but I may use email to contact individuals about their comment in order to further the conversation.
2. I don’t expect problems, but if I feel that a comment is uncivil to me or to other commenters or if comment contains spam, I reserve the right to  delete it.  Additionally, I reserve the right to block commenters that are continually uncivil or who are habitual spammers.
3. If this comment policy doesn’t work, I reserve the right to amend it in the future.

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