Rules, Schmules: The Comment Policy

It was suggested to me some time back that I might want to post a comment policy. I grumbled. And obviously took no action. Then the gang at SpouseBUZZ did a great series on blogging. One suggestion was, yep, make the rules clear. Alright. Fine. I get the picture. And I put it off some more. But now I am seriously serious about putting my foot down here!

Nah. I have had very few problems with comments. I think I have deleted a couple of spam and that's about it. There have been a couple of comments by anonymous commenters that have been less than nice. But I let them stand. I'm a big girl.

THE COMMENT POLICY -- Subject to blog owner's subjective interpretation, mood, whim. Subject to change without notice. Link will be posted in sidebar.

Be nice. Play well with others. If there is egregious disrespecting going on, I'll delete the comment.

Stay on topic, mostly. The comments I think are one of the best parts of this blog. So if things wander a bit, that's OK so long as there is something of a natural progression to the conversation. And remember, it is my blog and I get to set the topics. If you have ideas about what I should post, just email me.

Cursing. Yep. I curse. But unless the post is about cursing, let's keep the f-bombs and other expletives to a minimum. I think that is part of #1 Be nice.

Identifying information. Some of you know more about me than I share on this blog. I want to keep this blog as a rather anonymous space for me. I just ask that you don't post in your comments things that could identify me. If I think it could readily identify me, I WILL delete the comment.

No-reply commenters. Not a policy at all but a nicety. From time to time, I will hit reply to a comment in my inbox and shoot you back an email. There have been many, MANY times that I would like to have done this, but I couldn't because you don't have your blogger account set up to allow for that. I understand that not all of you have blogger or gmail accounts and thus cannot participate this way.

Life as blog fodder. This goes along with the "I can't keep a secret" problem I have. I get ideas from everywhere including e-mails, phone calls, in-person meetings. And unless I am specifically told, "Please don't post this," well, I just might post it. OK, so I do have some capacity for being discreet on sensitive issues, but this is fair warning that sometimes I forget.