A brief commentary on comments

Tech blogging can be hazardous to your health. I believe no other platform provides such an open invitation to ridicule, and second only to vlogging, no other hobbies require such a thick skin. As a student of journalism, everything I wrote was run through the ringer, so I am used to harsh criticism. Others may be a bit more sensitive. You guessed it — I am talking about blog comments.

Listed below are a few of my own observations. Even if you have been blogging for several years, you should find much of this useful. If not, you know what to do.

If you turn off comments, you are not blogging — you are writing essays

The two most common excuses for turning off comments: I don’t have the time to moderate, and I get too much spam. My response: don’t blog, or don’t moderate, and get Akismet. If I am being brutally honest, when you turn off comments, you are informing your readers that this is all about you, and you could care less what they have to say. There is no harm in admitting personal or professional gain from blogging — if I do not get something out of this, then what is the point? Yet, blogging should be an interaction, and not just a slew of reactions.

If you moderate comments, provide terms and conditions

Your proviso should be short and sweet. I moderate comments, and here are my terms and conditions:

Comments are moderated within 12-24 hours.
Comments containing profanity or personal attacks will simply be deleted.

Did you notice something? I said nothing regarding the opinions, good or bad, of the commenter. Moderating comments is not about censorship, it is about maintaining a certain level of maturity. I will never “edit out” something I do not like because it is an opposing view. This is the only way possible to grow that thick skin you envy on other bloggers.

Do not selectively turn off comments because you said something controversial

This is worse than turning off comments altogether. It shows a total lack of confidence in everything you just wrote when you selectively turn off comments for a particular post, just because you said something controversial. It also demonstrates that you are willing to respect the opinions of others, only so far as they do not conflict with a personal agenda. You have every right to do as you please when blogging, but this irritates readers considerably, and you risk losing credibility.

If you allow code (or code snippets) in comments, then provide instructions

I fail miserably at this, and in the next iteration of d’bug, I hope to fix the problem. Seasoned bloggers can typically improvise in the hope that you will moderate the code in the comments. However, when posting code snippets, it is best to allow a commenter to respond with properly formatted syntax. The instructions do not have to be detailed, but they should give a good sense of the possibilities, and whether or not a code syntax highlighter is in place for their benefit.

Respond to questions directed at you, or the post

Responding to every comment is not a necessity, and can actually set unrealistic expectations for future posts. The rule of thumb is to respond to questions directed at you or the post. A good practice (if you are moderating) is only to approve comments in the queue when you have a response ready. If this conflicts with your terms and conditions because it takes you too long to respond, it is better to post the comment immediately. If you have a habit of taking several days, or a week to respond, then a brief note setting these expectations on your contact page can soften the blow.

Provide a counter-argument, and not a personal attack

If you do not allow a commenter to make personal attacks, then why should you be allowed the privilege? Stick to the argument, and to the counter-argument. Because technical concepts are often open to interpretation, you should expect others to disagree, or to offer alternate suggestions. Making accusations about the personal life, family members, religion, or political affiliations of a commenter is the perfect opportunity to alienate a large chunk of readers. Especially in a field as close-knit as Web development, it can also have professional repercussions.

• Posted by Brian
• October 31st, 2007