Dec
5
I really didn’t want to do this but I guess it’s time. I love getting comments here but there a few things that really irritate me (maybe I’m just getting grouchy in my old age). Comment spam and and keyword spamming the name field in comments just happen to be two of those things.
To add insult to injury, I just learned that people are actually being paid to stuff keywords in the name field here at PureBlogging. You can read my thoughts on that practice here.
All that leads me to this… a new comment policy. From this day forward, you can consider this our official comment policy.
- Comment Spam: Any comment assumed to be comment spam will be deleted and marked as comment spam.
- Comment Form Guidelines: The comment name field must be filled in with a proper or legitimate sounding name and URL. You may use a nickname or your site/blog name but any comments using keywords, spam or splog-like URLs, or suspicious information in the comment form will be edited or deleted.
- Email Privacy: Email addresses are required for commenting, and they are not published on the blog, nor shared. They may be used by the blog owner to privately contact the commenter.
- Commenter Privacy and Protection: All email, snail mail, phone numbers, and any private and personal information posted in any comment will be deleted as soon as possible to protect the privacy of the commenter. To prevent such editing, never share this private information within blog comments.
- Language and Manners: This blog is “family friendly†and comments which include offensive or inappropriate language, or considered by the blog owner and administrator to be rude and offensive, will be edited or deleted.
- A Comment is Conversation: Any comment which does not add to the conversation, runs off on an inappropriate tangent, or kills the conversation may be edited, moved, or deleted.
- External Links: External links are encouraged, if they are relevant to the original post and add to the conversation. Linking to other sites that have nothing to do with the blog post is spam as far as I’m concerned and will be deleted and marked as comment spam.
- No Personal Attacks Permitted: In the interest of fair play, no personal attacks are permitted in this blog’s comments. You may question or argue the content, but not attack the blogger, nor any other commenters. Failure to respect fellow participants on this blog could result in removal and blocked access.
- Gaming the System: We encourage your comments, but we’re watching for any activity that looks like you’re just trying to get on the Top Commentators list. If we feel you’re simply adding comments in order to achieve “top 10″ status, we’ll either remove your comments or remove you from the list.
- Commenters Blocked: Anyone who violates this Comments Policy may be blocked from future access and/or commenting on this blog.
- Trackbacks Are Comments: All trackbacks will be treated inline with our Comments Policy.
- What To Do If Your Comment Does Not Appear: If you leave a comment on this blog and it does not appear in a reasonable time period, and you know that it does not violate these Comment Policies, contact us and we will investigate the situation.
- All Rights Reserved: The blog owner, administrator, contributor, editor, and/or author reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments. They also have the right to block access to any one or group from commenting or from the entire blog.
- Hold Harmless: All comments within this blog are the responsibility of the commenter, not the blog owner, administrator, contributor, editor, or author. By submitting a comment on our blog, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold this site, PureBlogging.com, and all subsidiaries and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages, or liability.
If you have questions or comments feel to speak up below… just be sure you follow the rules. 
Popularity: 11% [?]
I was going to leave a comment as “Free Exercise Equipment” as a joke, but thought better of it.
I’m glad you’re doing this, as you probably can guess from my own comments in response to others’ comments here. I don’t mind helping with the comment management, either. If you want me to, just say the word.
Very Funny…
I may take you up on your offer but I’ll email you later about that. Thanks!
Good for you.
I did something similar a while back, and it has stopped a bunch of spammers in their tracks. I usually e-mail them and say “Of course, if you’re REALLY interested, you can advertise with me
”
Rhys! Good to hear from you… where the heck have you been?
Michael wasn’t the only one tempted to put a fake comment/name here. Here I am leaving comments and not being paid for it, I feel like a sucker.
Don’t worry David you not getting old and grumpy (yet ^_^). I too have noticed the spam-like comments all over the place
David, very cool list. I´ll be going through them and check with my blog for compliance during the weekend.
Hi,
You may have brought this on yourself by not having ‘no follow’ in your links.
If you are having a problem with comment spam this could be the reason.
It’s rare to see a site that does not implement ‘no follow’ these days.
Think of it as a compliment -if you had no traffic you would have no spammers
‘No follow’ would definitely cut down spam but at the end of the day, if a person has a reasonable comment and is adding to the conversation what is the harm in leaving his or her link?
I would imagine any visitor would only click the link if that person has had something interesting to say.
But I suppose the best idea would be to keep a link to your comments policy prominent on the site to let people know your feelings.
The real key is whether the comment adds value to the post and is a real contribution to the conversation. Those are subjective criteria, but it’s really up to the blogger.
A primary defining characteristic of spam is that it clearly does not add to the conversation. Most of the time it isn’t reasonable, either.
Comments serve better as drivers of traffic, not PageRank. The rewards for commenting are in direct inverse proportion to how automated (spamming) the commenting is. In the end, it’s just a waste of everyone’s time and bandwidth.
Of course there were more comments before I took a break from blogging here but for the number comments that are posted here the amount of spam is actually very low. It seems like while I was taking that break spammers just kinda moved in because the blog wasn’t being moderated.
I originally removed the no follow tag because because I want the people who take the time to participate in this community to be fully rewarded for their extra effort. I want them to leave their link and I want them reap whatever benefits come from it. I may have to rethink that policy but that was my thinking at the time.
What I don’t like and will NOT allow is what was happening here this week. We had someone posting here as “dining room table” and few other names. I mentioned that I didn’t like the practice of stuffing keywords into the name field and the person contacted me to tell me that he was being paid to do that. In a case like that, I don’t care what value someone adds to the conversation. I will not allow someone else to get paid for placing what is, for all intents and purposes, an advertisement on my blog. An advertisement that I will not get paid for and did not approve.
In my opinion, that is not just spamming… it is stealing.
I can’t believe he actually told you he was being paid to do it. And then he kept doing after telling you that, that’s even more unbelievable.
I have to admit… I was very surprised he told me too. What did he think was going to happen?
Hi David, I completely understand, this is something that I need to do, too. And, I really like how you explained the advertisements in the comments section as stealing, not just spamming. That issue and the comments name being non-human is what bothers me the most.
The other point that sticks in my mind is something that Wendy at eMoms wrote about her comment policy and/or about spam comments (it’s been a while since I read this)…..that she as the blog owner is responsible for those outgoing links from her site. If you approve spam, splog, or just plain sales page sites, those links are trailing from your site and can bring down the integrity of your own blog.
I’m going to use your comment policy as a guide when I write mine, great job!
Yeah, nothing worthwhile in life comes easy. You need to work for it…only that some are easier than others.
It would have been better if you published this as a separate page and not a post…
It will be added as a page. I just haven’t had time yet.
I agree with online sports chap it’s probably the not having “no follow” links that attract them, I have the same problem!
I doubt very much one of the most prolific comment authors I have has changed his name to “L.A. Confidential Photographer”, so I never approve his comments!
Would you have any objections to me replicating a copy of your comment policy on a few of my blogs?!
Absolutely not. Feel free to use it wherever you need to.