Commenting on a post is a great way to interact with the content on Poorer Than You. I value my commenters greatly, and I think of this site as a two way street – I’m writing for an audience, but I’m also a part of that audience, completely invested in the feedback you guys leave. And I’m not just saying this as a flowery way to introduce my comment policy – I really mean it.
With that said, I’ve got to establish some guidelines. I’m a pretty “anything goes!” kind of girl, but I will delete comments from time to time if they break any of the following rules. These rules are here to keep the blog an enjoyable experience for readers, commenters, and myself.
1) Spam. I have filters set up, but I will delete anything that comes through. Spam comments are marked as such on the Akismet database, which means your comments could get filtered out on any blog running the WordPress engine.
2) Irrelevant links. Links in a comment that have no bearing on the conversation will be marked as spam, which again, could get all of you comments on thousands of blogs marked as spam as well.
3) Blog titles instead of your name. I’ve been seeing this a LOT lately, and although I let it through for a time, enough is enough. It distracts from the conversation at hand, and it just looks tacky. Names will be changed for first offenders, and comments will be marked as spam if it happens again.
4) Signatures. There’s a reason that there is a place to put your name and URL back to your website – please feel free to use this! But signatures distract and take up a lot of space without adding anything to the conversation. Your comment will be edited to remove the signature, so don’t bother.
5) Political arguing. My house, my rules. Just don’t with this. For 12 years of this blog, I didn’t have to have this rule in the comment policy, and suddenly I do, because I’m just not having it. When things get political and leave the realm of personal finance, take it someplace else. I’ll delete things that cross the line and ban at my own personal discretion.
I hope you guys don’t think I’m being too spam-hammer-happy! I’m trying to create a fun atmosphere around here. Self-promotion is allowed when it is within reason and on topic. If you wrote a blog post that lines up well with the subject, feel free to link to it in your comment.
If you’ve got any questions or, dare I say, comments about the commenting policy, please feel free to contact me directly!
irrelevant links having no bearing on communication must be treated as a spam and that is good policy for a Blog writer which would just make the communication meaningful.
Not at all. Spam is horrible, and anything one can do to prevent it helps the discussion flow better.