The Geekzone Blogging Guide Part III

This is the third article of a three part series (I, II, III) with some blogging principles you can apply to your Geekzone Blog (or any other blog really).

Thanks to Juha Saarinen for coming up with this series.

Comments
You'll know that when people start commenting on your blog posts, they're interested in them. It follows that you should encourage comments, and take great care with them.

If you have moderation turned on, make sure you approve comments quickly. Don't let your comment posters wait because they won’t come back if you do. You have an option to receive an e-mail notification when new comments are waiting for moderation.

Try using the CAPTCHA feature to prevent comments via automated scripts. Spammers will not be able to use scripts to comment on your blog posts because of the CAPTCHA protection. If any spammer decides to manually post a comment, they also need to click on a link sent via e-mail to confirm the comment. These features, when used with moderation are effective techniques to reduce spam in the comments.

Some people will make good comments, but don't want to register with Geekzone. Check your blog moderation page in your User Profile for these, and if the comments are good, display them. You can always post a message to explaining that if posters register, their messages will be posted automatically and you will get a notification of messages too.

If the people who comment have questions or suggestions, respond. You are holding a dialogue with your readers, remember, and not a monologue.

Should you censor comments or not? This is a personal choice, but generally speaking, try not to. Spam, abusive and threatening comments can be dumped with no qualms. However, if someone doesn't like what you have written – and it'll happen – you are usually better off allowing the comment to be posted and learning from the experience. You appreciate openness and frankness, and so do the people commenting on your blog posts.

Censoring comments may have other side-effects too, as it could be construed that you are taking responsibility for what is being said in them. This is something you don't want to do. Instead, use the Geekzone Blogs' list feature, and post a Comments Policy. Here's a suggested one, but feel free to put up your own:

Comments policy
All comments posted on this blog are the copyright and responsibility of the submitters in question. Comments commercial and promotional in nature are not allowed. Please ensure that your comments are on topic and refrain from making personal remarks.

This isn't guaranteed to keep you out of legal trouble, however. If you are worried about that, speak to a lawyer who understand the Internet (and share the information with your fellow bloggers please!)


In the next series we’ll look at some of the advanced features of the Geekzone Blogs, including tailoring the look with CSS, putting in ads that could earn money for you, lists and statistics counters. Stay tuned.








Other related posts:
Geekzone Blog Ad Delivery solution
Geekzone Moderators meeting
Chris DiBona session at Summer of Code, Wellington, New Zealand