Common courtesy
Monday, January 28th, 2008I haven’t been blogging that long. Not in comparison to many others. I mean, 16 months isn’t a lot in the big scheme is it?
Anyway. When you blog, I believe there are an unwritten set of rules. The bulk of them are in regard to common courtesy, and I’ve decided to put together what I consider to be the most important of these courtesies. I will admit to being guilty of breaking some of these rules in the early days, so I’m not suggesting I’m perfect. I’m far from that, but feel I’ve grown and learned much since the early days.
If you disagree, please say so. Don’t feel like you can’t say something if you have a different opinion. I encourage debate and different opinions. All I ask is you keep it polite and respectful ok?
These are in no particular order, just as they came to me:
Don’t lurk. Let the blog owner know you’ve been with a quick comment. You wouldn’t just go and stand on someone’s verndah to check out their yard a few times a week would you? Their blog is no different. I have, in the past, been very guilty of lurking, but not these days. I hate seeing an IP address constantly come up in my stats and not know who it is, where they are, or if they have a blog I may enjoy, so I won’t do it to anyone else. Even if you only say “Hi, found you via {whatever} and thought I’d let you know I’ve been reading” it’s better than nothing. Equally, if you have them coming into your reader, there must have been something that was of interest in the first place. If you’re just stumbling and wander in that’s different. I’m talking about being a regular reader but never commenting here.
Once you have your blog,and a regular reader base, established, be proactive with them. Respond to comments, get some dialogue happening. From a readers perspective there is nothing annoys me more than commenting all over the place {and I do comment a lot} and getting nothing back. I have commented on blogs more than 5 or 6 times and never had a response. I no longer even visit these blogs, let alone have them coming into my reader. To me it’s the absolute height of ignorance to ignore someone. In fact there are several I can think of at the moment who are close to being taken out of my reader for this exact reason. I’m sick to death of visiting and commenting, and not only am I sick of not getting a response, I’m sick of not having even a visit repaid. If you want traffic, comments and a regular, loyal reader base, you need to do the right thing by these people. If you don’t, rest assured your traffic will slow to virtually nothing eventually. I appreciate people are busy, but so are many people and the bulk of them find time to answer comments. To me, blogging is a commitment, and you can’t throw a post up and just sit back waiting for comments, accolades or anything else unless you’re willing to FIND the time and be polite. If you have so little time, why blog in the first place? Why not just put pen to paper and throw it in the drawer of your desk?
Don’t challenge a person on their blog if you have a strong opposite opinion or feel what they have to say is offensive. Do it privatley via email. Every person is God on their blog. It’s not the correct forum to be venting your equally opposite opinion if you do disagree. If you feel strongly enough about it, either ignore it and don’t comment, or send the email. Either way you choose to do it is ok. People know that some of the things they say will be disagreed with. There’s nothing wrong with stating your opinion on anything so long as you’re polite about it, the same as in “real” life. Not everyone has the same opinion on everything, it’s what makes the world go around, but there are ways to go about these things rather than calling them out in their own space.
Don’t hotlink to someone elses site. It’s taking away THEIR bandwidth every time your page loads. I’ve had a few in the last couple of months and Kelly fixed it by changing a few things, so the next time that persons page loaded, the image was one saying “STOP STEALING BANDWIDTH” instead of the image they’d used. Very effective! Pics were changed within 48 hours. Take the time to right click, save, then upload to your site {assuming that’s ok to do of course, and there’s no copyright attached} Far more ethical than hotlinking.
If a person takes the time to email privately in response to a post, take the time to answer them. If someone sent you a letter in relation to a subject you had discussed publicly, would you ignore that? It’s no different with email. Again, if you don’t have time to answer, why have email in the first place? Why give people the option of contacting you that way?
These are the 5 I consider high on the list if do’s and don’ts in blogging. There are many other little bits and pieces that could be considered common courtesy, but thought I’d give you the chance to add your 2 cents worth. Perhaps you have a different idea of what is and isn’t polite, or may even think I have it wrong altogether?
