I love your comments and try to reply to all of them…

However, due to a few evil doers I now have a comment policy to wage war against bad commenting practices. Below are a list of rules I’ll be using to guide my comment approval decisions.

Moderation Rules

All first time blog commenters will have their comment held for moderation before approval.

Once you have had a blog comment approved they will be automatically approved in the future. However, they are still read (all comments are read) and if they are breaking a rule below they will be edited and deleted.

After 3 rule infractions we will start blocking your comments, first by email then by IP. If you still persists then we will block your IP from visiting our website all together. If you still persists we will contact your ISP.

Promoting Your Site In Comments

The only place you may mention your website in our comments is in the field marked “Website.”

The only time this does not apply is when the blog post specifically asks you to add links in the comments either for sharing, case study, or feedback reasons. Additional mentions of your website will cause your comment to be edited or deleted.

Our comments are “DoFollow” enabled, we use CommentLuv, and Top Commentator to give you backlinks to your site. We feel like that’s a gracious amount of promotion to each commenter and more is not necessary.

Language, Length, Format

This is an English language blog, unfortunately we do not allow foreign language comments. Not because we are discriminant but because we can’t understand what it says and can’t be sure that it’s not something against our rules.

We encourage detailed comments but please try to stay focused in your comment. Long winded rants will either be edited down to their main point or not approved. If you have something important to say that requires an at length response, please email us for a guest post slot. You’ll be heard by many more people with a guest post.

Comments that run more than 500 characters long will be closely inspected.

As for formatting, tread lightly. We value formatting when done correctly but everyone has different views on what looks good and what doesn’t. For that reason we ask that you either do not format or use very little formatting in your comments. Less is more!

Signatures In Comments

Not allowed!

Your name goes in the “Name” field and your website link goes in the “Website” field. No signature is needed if everyone adheres to this rule. Essentially everyone will have a signature when adhering to this rule.

Subscribing To Comments Via E-mail

In order to receive notification of comments left after yours, it is essential that you provide a valid and working e-mail address.

You will not be subscribed to a mailing list as a result of subscribing to the comments and you can have your e-mail address removed at any time by visiting the comment subscription manager.

To sign up for comments, make sure to leave the check mark next to “Notify me of follow up comments via e-mail” before submitting your comment.

E-mail Addresses

Please use a valid e-mail address when commenting on the blog. It will not be displayed unless you type it in the body of your comment (which I will edit out) and you will not be subscribed to any mailing list by leaving a comment.

If you use an invalid e-mail address or one which requires any type of human interaction to “confirm I’m not a spammer”, your comment will be deleted — no exceptions.

Editing Comments

I reserve the right to edit or delete comments as I feel necessary, all cases are up to my discretion. Blatant spelling and grammatical errors will be edited and serious edits will be notated at the end of the comment.

If your comment conveys an incoherent thought, it may just be edited; tirades will most likely be deleted. At no time will I attempt to alter the core meaning of a comment.

Typical edits include…

• Hateful words
• Meaningless rants
• Promotional text
• Unnecessary links
• Unconstructive criticism

Special Provisions For Comment Spam

I take comment spam seriously and all IP addresses used for spamming will be reported to the internet blacklists, the ISPs/hosts for the offending domain will be notified, and the owner of the IP block will be notified of the problem.

While comment spam continues to proliferate, I can and will do my part to help combat it.

Final Words

You, and only you, are responsible for your words. They are yours and you get to keep them, however, by posting your comments to this blog you are granting me the right, in perpetuity, to use, alter, and/or display them however & wherever I see fit.

Once your comment is submitted, that’s it — you’re immortalized.

(From time to time, this comment policy may be updated, so please make sure to check back every so often.)