1) Be Nice

2) No Profanity

3) Please use English

4) Don’t Spam

5) Refrain from Gratuitous Spammy Links

I think these effectively form my comment policy–even if its not overt.

Either that or they are just plain lazy and don’t bother to read beyond the name to see what the comment says before labeling it as spam.

Truth is, I’m probably just going to give up on it simply because some folks are militant about it and it gets me into spam hell.

I also suspect it’s just been abused so much that it will become even more of an uphill battle that’s more hassle than it’s worth.

Unlike you taking the time to review comments, others have spammed me after I’d invested as much as an hour getting to know their site, and then commenting.

Just too frustrating.

But thanks again – keep up the good stuff!

Though on the downer side I had to dig your comment out of my spam filter to get it to show.

I’m guessing that might be because others elsewhere have marked your comments as spam based purely on your pseudonym.

I just wanted to weigh in with one slightly differing opinion on the “Names are preferred” item.

You indicated some leeway on this which I appreciate, especially since I’m one who often uses a pseudonym – specifically “j2watches” as you can see.

Now I’ll admit, there is some SEO thinking behind my choice, but actually that’s only half the reason I do it.

The other is because my first name is fairly common. When I sign as John, I’m one of many. Even adding my last name – John Allen, doesn’t differentiate much – just look in the phone book of any decent sized town.

But when I use “j2watches” folks know it’s me not just on your blog, but they can easily see me on others – it’s actually more uniquely identifiable and therefore personal.

People don’t even have to hover over the link, they just know by looking.

Truth is, I’m happy to accomodate different blog owners preferences, and can certainly appreciate the spam issue, so if you prefer, I’ll go with the name.

But the other thing I do to show the blog owner I appreciate them letting me enhance the anchor text with a little SEO benefit, is always try to add some value to the conversation.

To me that’s a fair two-way exchange.

Thoughts?

Mine own comment policy (such as it is) is rather informal at the moment. I guess we’re all going to eventually need something a bit more formal – perhaps along these lines – won’t we? *sigh*