Wriging

I do... my comment policy basically urges people to speak their mind but to keep in mind that keeping their cool and respecting each other makes for better conversation. It leaves it up to them to be mature but at the same time lets it be known that I'm willing to shut them up if it gets out of hand.

I also add that cussing will get them banned.

Being that I run a political blog, things DO get heated... but heated and stupid are two totally different beasts.

I agree. I saw your policy and it's fair and perfectly acceptable.

I can definitely imagine things getting pretty heated in a blog that deals with politics.

I don't have a written comment policy. I've never really had an issue. I delete gratuitous comments immediately, and as long as people don't get ridiculous they can write what they want. I've deleted a few comments in the past which were basically name calling but I don't really get those kind of readers or comments. Most people are reasonable.

One or to times I did institute "sign in to comment" for a little while because I was getting a rash of mean spam which was anonymous, and I wasn't around to delete it, but otherwise I haven't found a need for a policy.

I think that people can look at a blog and it's comments, and get an idea not only of the type of commenter's, but whether or not it is a blog where nasty middle school behavior is tolerated and or encouraged.

I have a comment policy on my blog. It's not just to give me the right to make sure there aren't any stupid comments or spam, but it's also to protect myself legally (somewhat). I made during the times when there were instances of people being sued for the comments left on their blog by other people.

I tried to cover all the bases. But I seeing that my blog doesn't really get much comments most of the time, it's hard to know whether my comment policy is really effective beyond dealing with trolls and spammers.

I don't have a commenting policy on my blog, though from what Kami and Righton says I do think that I should get one ... when I have the time, that is, to cook one up.

I find that I don't need one, though, in the one year or so Novelr has been running. All the comments Novelr gets are intelligent, and helpful, and while there have been spats before we've (the readers and me - they often take sides, or even bicker with one another) usually come to some kind of closure. It's never troll level.

From what I've observed comments usually reflect the tone of the blog - if the blog is helpful then the comments will likely be helpful and nice too. If the blog is snarky then the comments are usually little bitch-fests. And on and on. There is a saying about birds of the same feather ... and strangely it applies very well to the blogosphere.

That being said, Mike, I think it's somewhat an honour that somebody like that would take the time to comment and disagree with everything you've said. He's annoying, true, but hey - you've got a loyal reader! (I kid, I kid).

I won't delete his comments though - deleting comments is somewhat a sin with me - but what I'll do is respond to each and every single one of his comments with a standard reply.

For instance:

That's a good argument, *insert username*.

And I'll continue doing that until he posts something intelligent, at which point I'll thank him politely for posting his thoughts rather than one word disagreements, encourage him to do more in the future, and then respond to his points in my usual manner.

Two other things might also happen - firstly he'll just stop commenting. Secondly other regular commenters (assuming you have them) will come to your defense. In which case I'll let them argue it out amongst themselves, and only come in as a moderator.

Good luck, Mike.

There will a limit in which you feel is acceptable or not. There is a line between disagreeing and outright trolling. Where that line is drawn and what you plan to do with it is up to you. In some cases I choose to ignore the outright trolling even gone as far as to publicly make fun of it. Trolls are out to satisfy their own ego by beating you down, much like bullying, dealing with it is a matter of not humouring the attempts or taking on the ego by itself.

Of course...make that clear in the policy that you reserve the right to do so. It's only a smart thing to do to watch your own back.

I don't think you need an entire policy to say "Be relevant and polite". You could write that on your comment form but you shouldn't need to.

If you keep having problems with this problematic poster, just wang them an email explaining that you're not happy with the quality of their responses and ask them to qualify their criticism or bugger off.

That might cause some initial friction but they get the message, in which case you either have to ban them and delete their furious sploodge of retaliatory postage, or you regain a useful audience member.

Thanks for all the great replies everyone.

I think I'll toss a tiny little "keep things clean and respectful" note on my comment form. Aside from that, I'll deal with things as they come in.

I would check to see what the laws are in your area and make sure if you adopt one to keep in line with those laws. Remember that the goal of a comment policy shouldn't only be to make sure that people act right...

It should also make sure you, as owner, are protected.

Bloggers/writers always think nothing will happen to them - until it does. If you're online long enough you'll get a cease notice, a legal threat, crazy people coming to your site - it is important to make sure you're protected when that happens - not if it happens.

Somewhere on Chawlk I linked to a discussion on the BBC site where people admitted they purposely made "off" comments on blogs just to see what the owner did with them (not necessarily disrespectful). Were their misspellings edited? Comment deleted? Portions of the comment deleted?

Action 1 & 3 above can have legal ramifications to the owner depending on the area so checking the law then making a decision might be wise. :)

Tyme is a big proponent of staying safe and secure online, and that certainly applies to protecting yourself against potential lawsuits from things posted on your site. Like she said, it's better to be proactive than to be caught off-guard.

Never had one, never needed one, never gonna use one.

Seriously, it's the internet, it's a blog. People can say what they like and make themselves look like a fool if they like. If the comment is clearly brutally vulgar, insulting or harassing I'd simply delete it — but like I said, I've never had to do that.

As for legal issues, what's that all about? There are laws (about libel, threats) already in place. If someone calls me a name, that's their right, if they threaten to beat me up, I'll report it. We don't live in such a litigious country over here anyways and I'd love to see the look on any judge's face when he had to deal with someone whimpering over a blog comment. He'd probably say: "Golly, you know this isn't America, right? Now go on and play".

I might not live in the states, but there were instances in Malaysia where the people have been hauled up by the police in regards to acts of treason and sedition from comments itself.

What a great country I come from. :)

Only political bloggers, though. Which is why I comment on everything but Malaysian politics.

Not entirely true as such is the case of Peter Tan's blog in 2005 where he had to take his entire blog offline due to certain comments that he couldn't get rid off at the time. In Malaysia at least, depending on the stuff you bring up, it's hard to know what kind of stupidity can come out of the woodwork.

Only political bloggers, though. Which is why I comment on everything but Malaysian politics.

Which is why I love living in the country I live in. That's creepy when you can be hauled off for your opinions no matter how tame the comment.

Legal situations happen with ALL types of blogs in the United States, even personal ones. The United States is backlogged with stupid cases that shouldn't even be on the docket as our country is extremely litigious. Unfortunately, the "system" doesn't always work the way it should.

The wise prevents entering that system. The naive doesn't think about it until it happens...and then its too late. It's not being anal, it's being smart since (when it happens to a blogger/writer) it's usually expensive to get rid of the problem.

Yeah, Tyme, I certainly wasn't calling you anal — I didn't did I? :)

I can imagine if the "climate" is in fact a litigious one, you are better off safe than sorry. I'm sure I would. And it wouldn't surprise me if one day it would/could happen here as well.

There is of course a difference between being sued as the author (cease and desist, a libel case from a company that doesn't like what you've written) and encountering an ugly comment from some beast who wants to spoil things.

In the first case, the law is the law and I don't suppose any policy page you have on your blog would change things for you, in the latter case I remain convinced that simple jurisprudence will protect you from the real nasty stuff — insofar that the law can protect people when others have it in for them.

Haha, nope you didn't Nils. That's why I didn't direct my response to you specifically (but I can see how you'd think it was directed at you - my apologies). People will see these types of notes, pop off a PM or email so I'll respond generally so I don't get the same question again. I'll also direct them back to my response here. :)

With comments it's touchy if the owner edits comments in any way. If a blogger/writer edits comments then they might not be able to use the safe harbor (I didn't say that and the commenter owns the comment) argument. Which is why I said it's best to check for the laws in the area the blog is in - it varies.

*Responding to another inquiry and thought this might help others*

I should probably do a entry on this for 9rules after I get all the newbies settled in. Bloggers are sued/threatened over comments all the time. This is one of the well known cases where a blogger was sued over the comments left on his blog.

I'm certainly not a lawyer, but as a widely published writer, I'm well aware that legal precedent holds that if you moderate, edit, or prune comments on your online forum -- or blog -- in any way at all then you stop being able to defend yourself as a common carrier and become a publisher who is, indeed, liable for the content that they publish.

When I had my gaming site I contacted an attorney and he told me the same thing. I'll fix a video if it doesn't display but if someone spells something wrong, puts a link wrong - they are out of luck unless they send me something in writing asking me to change it (in which case I'll probably delete it and tell them to resubmit it).

The thing is that you don't know when it will happen. For example, you say you went to Jiffy Lube and they did an excellent job on your car. A person leaves a comment on your blog with specific details about their bad experience with Jiffy Lube (I'm just using a random company). No way you can know if the comment is true or not. If it's not how a blogger handles comments directly impacts how the a company or person can come after you. In the case I linked to above the case was eventually thrown out but it had to be fought - resources spent.

I don't have a comment policy, but I certianlly wouldn't allow this type of comment to happen on my site. I'm not even sure if you can block viewers on a blog, but that's what I would try to do. Of course you should have a comment policy if this is happening. It's completely disrespectful and unneeded.

I'm sorry this is happening to you. I agree with you, a mature debate isn't bad, but comments like this isn't at the right level.

-katelyn

I don't have one because I don't get that many comments, all of them are civil and I am lazy. However, this doesn't excuse me from not having one in place to watch my own back.

Tyme, write me up a comment policy!

Wow. This little discussion has definitely got me thinking a little bit more about a comment policy not only to keep the pointless comments to a minimum but also for my own protection. Thanks for all the great responses and input so far everyone.

Yeah, I forgot about the Peter Tan case. =( That was rather stupid, though. I mean, like Tyme said, as long as you don't edit comments you're not responsible for the comments that appear in your blog.

If I'm not mistaken Kottke covered the 'does comments belong to me or their respective writers?' a long time ago. Lemme see if I can ... yeah found it.

I agree with mikehaynes now. I'm starting to think about implementing a commenting policy. Do you have any good examples of one, Tyme?

As far as I understand, the policy is just a buffer to show people this is how you're going to be running it so that when events are put it into effect, you're not liable or you've stated prior how it is.

So put what you want in it and cover all the bases.

Check out my comment policy if it'll give you some ideas.