Blogging Etiquette

At long last here is the sequel, to the prequel about Blogging Etiquette. Those few of you who know me well understand that etiquette is not something that you would associate with me. It is not because I am a complete slob or socially inept because I am neither of those things.

Rather it is because I don't like being tied to social convention. I don't like being told to what to do or how to act. But the joy of being a grown up and a member of society is that sometimes you have to do these things.

You can consider this post to be my recommendation for how to get along with others in the blogosphere.

It is understood that many bloggers want to have millions of pageviews and readers who frequent a very active comment section. Chances are you have seen a blog that looks just like that. It is not unlikely that you look at that blog(s) and think that there is no reason why your own blog shouldn't look just like that.

You'll recognize that part of building your blog involves reading and commenting on other blogs. Smart comments encourage people to point and click their way down to electric avenue to see your witty remarks about life or whatever it is you blog about.

Or you can choose to be obnoxious and leave comments throughout the blogosphere lauding your blog. That happens here on a semi regular basis. Someone leaves a comment that has nothing to do with the post in the hope that it will drive traffic to their blog. Most of the time I delete those comments.

However, if you leave a comment that contributes to the conversation I'll often ignore your attempt to use my blog for free advertising. Help me build the community and I am happy to help you. And that leads to another comment about comments.

Many bloggers see their blogs as an extension of their home. You are entitled to disagree with their opinion and you are entitled to say so in the comments. But have a care about how you do it, especially if you are a new reader/commenter. It is not cool to just show up out of the blue and start flaming others.

That is not to say that there aren't blogs out there where this takes place and is considered acceptable because there are. But in general most bloggers don't want their comment section to be a shark tank.

Remember that if you are on a private blog you are not guaranteed freedom of speech. You won't find Earl Warren, John Roberts or Thurgood Marshall writing an opinion that says that you have the right to use the comment section to say anything.

If you aggravate the host you could find that you are banned from commenting. Or in some cases you might find that the host edits your comments. Editing comments so that it appears you said something else can create other issues and there is a lot that can be said about that, but we'll leave it alone for now.

Let's spend a moment talking about blogrolls. If you want a blogger to blogroll you the best way to make it happen is to send them a polite email asking them to do so. Don't put them on the spot by leaving comments asking to be blogrolled.

That is enough for now. It is late and there are more exciting things to do and write about. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.