Having my comments deleted. I don't spam, I don't flame, and I don't make irrelevent personal attacks. I do occasionally make double posts when faced with technical problems, and that's the only time I'll accept (and even encourage) one of my comments being deleted.
I was wandering around blogspace yesterday, and came across a person who was having some personal problems (keeping stuff anonymous; I don't want to be a jerk here). I had some relavent experience to share, so I went out of my way to make a long, hopefully helpful comment to their blog. I came back today and checked on them, and I found that the comment was deleted with no mention of it (I'd seen it previously up there, so I know it hadn't gotten eaten by a spam filter). I checked my e-mail in case this person had bothered to leave a note, but nothing. Then I checked my other e-mail account just in case, but still nothing (I'm somewhat inconsistent in which I use and display, so they theoretically might have found either).
I put a lot of effort into that particular comment. I was trying to help. Even if I failed in that measure, at the very least you should respect my intent and leave it there. Maybe add a note saying "Thanks, but I don't think that'll work for me." I can't fathom what mental process may have led to you thinking that deleting it was the best path.
If the problem is that you don't want random people coming in and commenting, then there's a simpler solution: Close off or moderate commenting. Blogger lets you turn on comment moderation so that all comments will be sent to you first to check if you're okay with them appearing. Other blog servers have different things you can do. A lack of moderation or limited commenting is telling people that it's perfectly fine to comment here.
When I get around to part 3 of Distilled Wisdom (How to sound reasonable), you can be sure that unnecessary comment deleting is going up there as a huge DON'T. Oh yeah, and I'll try to get part 2 up sometime soon today. Sorry for the delay and interruption.
+10 points if you caught the Family Guy reference in the title.
Peter was hired by the local news as a human interest thing to replace their weekly coverage of the Mideast.
ReplyDeleteI've deleted a fair number of comments in my day, but at least I give reasons when it isn't obvious.
+10 points to Bronze Dog.
ReplyDeleteAnd I actually did have a proof that your motivations altered the laws of nature, but it mysteriously vanished. You must not want it to exist...
But anyways, that is a good idea to make my own official comment policy.