A commenting policy

One of the things I really like about this blog is the comments. Firstly I get comments, secondly they are usually complementary and often provide additional information and understanding.

I moderate the comments but on the whole I publish everything I get. Once or twice I’ve published comments I find personally hurtful or miss the point. I’m not promising to keep this up but I will try to publishes everything.

However, what I will not publish is “spam” comments, I’e just rejected another one. Over the last few months I’ve got comments which say something like “Good blog” or “Nice blog entry” - i.e. they are short and not specific to my blog or any particular blog entry. Nothing wrong there except, usually the poster has included a link to their own website (or someone elses) and I have no other links for the poster.

I published the first one or two of these then realised they were not really commenting on my blog, they were placing a link to their own site.

I don’t mind people linking to a site in a comment provided its relevant, tells me more about the subject or the person who posted.

While comments of the form “Keep up the good work - you might like www.cheap-tickets.xyz” may support my ego they don’t add anything to the blog.

Secondly. As a general rule I don’t reply to comments, and I don’t promise to answer questions posted in comments. Sometimes I do but to reply to everything would be making too much work for myself.