Every now and then, I find it’s helpful to mention I have a Commenting Policy at pomomusings. This is not an uncommon thing for blogs to have (e.g. ProBlogger and The Huffington Post), especially when there is a log of dialogue that occurs on the site. A few years ago, I created my Commenting Policy, after having to shut down comments for a few months. I didn’t like the direction the blog’s conversation was heading (primarily because of a few commenters who left once the the posts were closed for comments). After a few months, I opened the site back up for comments with this Commenting Policy. Below is the policy that I wrote a few years ago.
Pomomusings Commenting Policy
- I moderate all first time comments. This is simply a way for me to avoid spam on my site and helps if anythings gets past the spam filters. If this is your first time commenting, please be assured that as long as your comment is in line with this policy, I will approve it as soon as I can. If your comment doesn’t show up immediately, please wait. There is no need to post multiple times.
- Since comments are desired to generate conversation, comments are not allowed which include, or are primarily, personal attacks against those referenced in a post, others who are involved in the conversation or the author. Any comment that is construed as a personal attack will be deleted. This will give the author of that comment a chance to republish their comment in a way that allows for constructive dialogue. If the commenter leaves a second comment that is a personal attack, that comment will be deleted, and they will be banned from the blog. Banning someone should be a last resort, but will happen if the commenter can’t post comments according to this guideline.
- Anonymous comments are not allowed. Initials are accepted, but they must be accompanied with a valid email address or personal website/blog address. Anonymous comments will be deleted.
- I reserve the right to write posts that do not have the option for commenting, or close the commenting on a specific post. I may do this because:
- I expect that the exact same argument will take place that has already taken place on a number of occasions on the blog;
- The purpose of that post is simply to share information;
- The conversation has gone a direction that is completely unrelated to the post and is not being productive in any sense of the word.
- If a post does not have an option for comments, it is inappropriate to leave comments underneath OTHER unrelated posts; such comments will be deleted.
I hope that regular readers of pomomusings will see that this is an acceptable policy. I will be consistent according to this policy with my interaction with comments. I hope that this blog will be a safe place where conversation and dialogue will be able to occur. If you can’t agree to the above guidelines, I would ask that you would refrain from posting comments. It is my hope that this would help guide us in our conversations, that we would truly be able to make space for the Other and that we would find out more about ourselves and others through these conversations.