Ryan Jerz :: Reno Blogger, Reno Blog

Fun, conversations, and occasional journalism from Reno, Nevada
Just your average self-absorbed, condescending talking head


Misc: What's the protocol on commenting?

I’m pondering something I just read. Inspired by my own post where I spent a small amount of time defending self-promotion in comments, I started looking into how others view commenting on other blogs’ posts. I came across this one which points to something I long thought I hated. It’s number 2: if you have written something similar, post a link to your post in the comments. The author explains it like this:

I think that was when I woke up to the impact that commenting was having on others. Meaningful, relevant, real world comments add power to the blogs that you frequent. You give those blogs credibility and you also give yourself credibility as one who participates and truly cares about your topic and doesn’t just have selfish aims.

She also says that the point is not to comment because you want to be noticed, but to comment because you have something too addd to the conversation. So add your explicit link (as opposed to implicit, which simply comes from others clicking on your name) only if it’s relevant. That means you, Cobbler.

The reason I bring this up is that I always hated when I saw comments that pointed to a post on the author’s blog as a way of backing up a point. I can’t put a finger on it entirely. Maybe it was only those that said something along the lines of, “I wrote something like this before, check it out.” That just looks spamish to me. I think I’d much rather see a summation of the post you wrote before followed by a link to that post that I’ll check out if I like what you have to say.

I might change my tune on that thought, though. I think I have only actually posted a specific link one time in a comment on another site. I’ve been averse to it for the reason above. I wasn’t sure if it really was all that relevant, and I wanted to be careful, despite the fact that I think posting comments on blogs is definitely a form of self-promotion. I always just kind of thought it was cheating to link back to yourself explicitly instead of selling yourself with the aggregate of your brilliance.

Anyone else have thoughts on the two schools of thought?


tags: blogging comments protocol promotion
posted by Ryan Jerz on 09/25/2006

Comments

The Anon Guy, Sep 25, 06:08 PM #:

Granted, I’m still new to blogging, but I got the feeling early on that putting your own link in comments was considered bad form. I had seen it done a few times and they seemed to have been scolded by someone.

I guess it can be a double-edged sword. CobbGobbler tends to do a lot of comments hyping his site, and has been accused of thread-hijacking (if that’s the proper term). On the other hand, it was because of this that prompted the whole “Who is the CobbGobbler?” craze that led to all those INP mega-threads and livened up politics for awhile.

There have been times when I’ve thought something I’ve done might be of interest to another blog’s readers and I’ve just written the blog’s author (if their email is available) with a quick synopsis and link if they were interested. I figured this was a little more courteous than putting a “Speaking of politics, check out my story on…” comment on their site. But maybe I’m wrong.

Ryan Jerz, Sep 25, 06:23 PM #:

That’s sort of how I always looked at it. To be sure, the linked article here is just one in a sea of articles that talk about this, but when I read that it made me think. I always thought that if you continued to say interesting things people would check you out. But when it comes to making conversations happen, it sure seems like adding a link into a comment would be helpful. I guess it’s just frowned upon to take a popular site and try to use it to drive traffic your way.

The Anon Guy, Sep 25, 10:55 PM #:

I’ll probably be looking into some Derby stuff soon, some of her supporters’ balloons need to be popped, so maybe I’ll drop a link on INP and see how that floats.

Vicki Davis, Oct 2, 11:06 AM #:

I think this is a great conversation to have. However, I think that motivation is something that one has to judge in one’s own psyche.

Are you contributing or are you dropping by and dropping a link. Most people can smell a self promoter from miles away. I agree, just dropping a link without conversing IS obnoxious. However, conversing and linking is not, it is helpful.

Although these are fine shades that one has to discern, I think it is part of the ethics of blogging.

Everyone has an intrisic desire to “be” somebody and the partial reinforcement of blogging often feeds that desire. However, I feel a distinct need to contribute to the cause of effective education while harnessing the power of the new Internet. That is my passion and it often means subjecting myself to my passion. It is not about me, it is about doing the right thing and making a difference in that field.

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