Blog Policy

Adjudication is a Reality

 It seems appropriate, now that there are more than a few posts and comments on our site and we have some real-lifeexperience to go on, to comment on the feedback we have received so far and why many comments do not get posted. We are trying very hard to approve comments regardless of content. The only restrictions we have been placing on comments to date are focused around honesty and willingness to share information. To date, we have been in the practice of rejecting comments that are blatantly nonsensical, have a non-functional email or list a site for the sale of fake items (usually stated as such in the title).

Ideally, in the blogging world, it would be nice to just approve all comments for publication as they come in. Having a Word Press based website, one of the benefits is that we get to pass on all comments that come in before they get posted. As business owners we have standards, both for our readers and ourselves. One of the benefits of business ownership is that you get to decide who you will associate with.

As stated, it would be great to be able to just approve all comments as they arrive. That’s the “blue sky” intention. In reality we have clouds and a few of those have arrived. In reality, we need to worry about our branding and what our potential readers may be exposed to when they come onto the site. All we ask in return is that you observe a few courtesies.

Given that, we have received a few comments that were simply a string of nonsense words having no discernible meaning or any other demonstrable connection to the entry in question. The intent of the response appeared to be blatant self-promotion, offering no other value or insight. We didn’t feel it was fair to post these.

We have received a considerable number of comments from readers who have included an email address that does not pass our simple return email test. In this case, as in all comments received, the email given is copied and pasted into an email with the subject heading, test, and if our ISP returns it as undeliverable the comment is not posted. The bad news is we have lost some good comments and better questions to this policy. The good news is that the trashed comments can be restored if the person in question so desires. All it will cost is an email that works. The bonus is that the comment gets acknowledged and the question will be answered. Promote your business if you wish, just offer some value in return.

It is company policy that people who have a legitimate question or comment will not be subjected to a long string of sales letters or other email harassment. That’s a trust issue and the only way to find out the truth behind that statement is to provide that working email.

We have received a number of comments with links attached to advertise a website. These have been posted on occasion when the comment was particularly useful or there was a good question and the site offered seemed to offer a straight forward value. For those where the seeming intent leaned toward self-promotion we tried to draw the line at those sites that promoted cheap knock-offs of name brand goods and mentioned that fact on their Home page. For us that was a branding issue, ours. We simply did not want to be associated with such sites. We may have been guilty of some misjudgments early on, but c’est la vie.

Well, there it is. There are no other rules, as the saying goes. Tell us what you think. Follow these simple guidelines to become part of the discussion.