A few nights ago, as I waited for my sleep-resistant child to fall asleep on our sofa, I did something I haven’t done in awhile. I grabbed our laptop, brought up the web and started to randomly Stumble posts. I enjoy doing it as it brings about fresh content and popular content.

One of the posts I landed on was a hot topic that debated the top 12 people that shaped the web as we know it today. Arguably, there were people on the list that not everyone would agree with as web shapers. There were nearly a hundred comments to the post I was reading and only one out of ten was a comment that you’d actually want to read.

Cursing, arguing, name calling, and rude was the theme for the majority of the comments left on the post. Everything from telling off the blogger, to straight out using the F word within the comments.

Let me say, I’m not against cursing. I enjoy a good four letter word now and again. But to be told off in my own blog post — completely unacceptable.

There are forms of debating, questioning, and disagreeing. Each can be stated without personal attacks. And on this post, I couldn’t fathom why more than half of these comments made it past any possible spam filters and even if they did, why they were not moderated by the blogger.

This situation got me thinking, when it is time to create a comment policy and how do you go about implementing such policy throughout your blog?

Not every blog will need an openly displayed comment policy. I don’t have a written policy here on my blog but that doesn’t stop me from going with my own judgment with every single comment that is written. And there have been times when I’ve thought about writing a comment policy but simply haven’t done it. It still might be something I do.

But even though I haven’t posted one on this blog doesn’t mean that I haven’t help to create a comment policy on other blogs and that is what I’ll share my experience from.

The Why

Let’s start with why you’d need to create a comment policy. Regardless if you feel that your blog needs one now or not, why with possible statements is still a good start to determining if this is right for your blog. Reason’s why:

• To be up front with your commentators.
• To prevent possible situations.
• To state what is and isn’t acceptable.
• To prevent you from looking like the bad guy.
• To make moderating comments less work.
• To delete, modify, or edit comments without guilt.

From time to time all bloggers will face comments that have been posted that we feel are simply unacceptable. And what that is changes from blogger to blogger. I’m sick of keyword spamming which has increased due to the installation of top commentator. And the comments that are only left just to get onto the list is really annoying also.

It’s easy to see why a comment policy may be needed so, let’s move on.

What to Include

Think about what is typical on your blog so that you can create one comment policy, without much need for changes or further editing later on. To do this, let’s think of a few questions to ask ourselves.

• Is the use of keywords for name acceptable?
• Can a commentator leave relevant links within their post comment?
• Do you want to mention that you are a do follow or no follow blogger?
• What is the tone of comments (no cursing, flaming, comment hijacking, etc)?
• Are disagreements welcomed in handled appropriately?

There isn’t a lot required here. Generally we all know what types of comments come our way and of those comments, we know which ones don’t make it for publishing. Consider what you typically see with real commentators and go with that as your guide to how you will create a comment policy and what needs to be stated within the policy.

A good example of what to include can be seen by checking out Chris Garret’s comment policy.

Publishing Your Policy

This is all a matter of personal preference. But here are some ideas on how and where to publish your comment policy.

• Create a post stating your new policy and why you’re implementing the policy.
• Link to the post in your theme’s comments template and/or on your sidebar.
• Place the full (but brief) comment policy in your comments template.

My Policy

I mentioned earlier that I didn’t have a published policy here but that I go with my own feelings about comments. And really, I may just set out some rules one day around here. But in general, I don’t appreciate comment hijacking (commentators taking the conversation off topic for their own needs), cursing, excessive linking (unless the link is relevant to my post), I hate keywords for names — great comments or not, a keyword is a huge turn off. And, in general I don’t publish the multiple comments of “great post” when just enough comments are left to get into a top commentator position.

Your Policy

Have you created a policy for your blog? Have you seen the need for a comment policy on another blog? In general, how do you feel about comment policies — necessary or not?

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