Comment Challenge Day 11: Write a Blog Comment Policy

As a blogger, you're responsible for the overall tone of your blog and the comments that are left there. Like a party host, you create a particular kind of atmosphere on your blog and when it comes to commenting, having a comment policy is the best way for you to establish commenting ground rules.

In this activity, you're going to write a comment policy for your blog. If you have one already, you're going to review it and make any revisions you think are necessary after reviewing some of the following articles and thinking through what you've learned from your own experiences as a commenter.

• Does Your Blog Have a Comment Policy?
• Comments on Comments
• Sample Terms of Use
• A Newbie Guide to the Bamboo Project --this includes my comment policy and instructions on how to comment. You'll see that I'm pretty loose and have had no problems.

Blog about your experience in developing a comment policy, along with a link to your policy so we can see samples. If you find policies on other blogs that you like, share those, too. Be sure to tag your post with "comment08."

Comments

[Andy Benoit]

Really enjoying your 31 day challenge and am finding a lot of inspiration. I am glad you chose a month with 31 days and not 28.

I am debating whether I should start a blog, but am not sure if I am up for the commitment. Perhaps, for people like me, who want to get their blogging feet wet, we might begin by make a commitment to respond to blogs for 31 days.

Andy

[Michele Martin]

Andy, I think that's a great idea! I also understand your concerns about making the commitment to blogging. That's something all bloggers struggle with. You don't have to write long posts, though, nor do you have to post every day. If you're blogging for your own learning, then there are really no "rules" you need to follow--that might take off some of the pressure. Let me know if you do start something up!

[Sarah Stewart]

How often you write in your blog very much depends on what you want to achieve, as Michele says. If you are doing it totally for your own use, it doesn't matter how often you post. But if you are planning on writing for an audience and you aim to build a community of readers, I think you have to post frequently.