Before you close the drawer on that comments file, there’s more you need to complete the set.
Apparentely the fact that lifehacker ran this piece wasn’t enough for one publisher that picked it up. If you access the document from EServer TC Library, the document comes with a lovely cover sheet like this which asks you to rate the quality of the work for the purpose of helping future readers. Gee, I thought lifehacker already did that before they ran it.
Great Find: Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments by Gina Trapani
Type of Article: How-to and Informational
Permalink: Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments
Content: A popular document that describes the basic points of commenting on a blog.
- Stay on topic.
- Contribute new information to the discussion.
- Don’t comment for the sake of commenting.
- Know when to comment and when to e-mail.
- Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all.
- Make the tone of your message clear.
- Own your own comment.
- Be succinct.
- Cite your sources.
- Be courteous.
- Don’t post when you’re angry, upset, drunk, or emotional.
- Don’t feed the comment trolls.
Gina Trapani’s explanations are well-written and clear. Worth the time it takes to read them. I call the post popular because both Darren Rowse at Problogger and Steve Rubel at MicroPersuasion both basically picked-up Gina’s list, each adding only one sentence to it. They were among almost 200 others who did much the same thing.
Congratulations Gina for outstanding work.
Another document you might find useful is Gizmodo’s Comments FAQ. This one is a great model that addresses Cas’s questions yesterday as to how you might handle a comment policy without feeling like you are insulting your readers’ better nature.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Blog Basics 1: Comments and Comment Policies
Great Find: Commenting on CTBIZBlogs