Comment Policy

All comments posted to AllFreelanceWriting.com are subject to the comment policies and rules below. If you break them, chances are good your comment won’t be approved, will be edited, or will be deleted at my discretion.

Note: Every person’s first comment is moderated to help prevent spam. Occasionally all comments on the blog must be moderated — during spam attacks, group attacks of any kind, or when particularly heated discussions are taking place (especially after normal business hours).

Comment Policies

  1. While I’m more tolerant of insults directed at me as long as they're otherwise constructive (as per rule #2), insulting other readers or other site contributors will not be tolerated.
  2. If you choose to post something venomous, I insist that you take credit for those comments publicly with your full name (I think that’s only fair, as I don’t hide behind anonymity in my posts). Insulting or obscene comments posted with a generic handle, first name only, or obviously-fake email address will not be tolerated. If your comments are simply constructive and conversational without that bite, I don’t mind if you prefer to use a handle.
  3. Any language that I deem to be inappropriate in the context of my readership will be edited or removed. Occasionally swearing probably won’t cause me to censor a comment. Excessive swearing, hate speech, and the like will.
  4. If you say something ignorant because you were too lazy to read a post fully before commenting, I may point out the idiocy once. After that, don’t be surprised if future comments of that nature are just deleted to save the headache. I’m a blogger, not a babysitter–I don’t have the time to continually point out that you haven’t yet learned to read.
  5. If you’re caught trying to further your own cause by commenting under multiple names / handles, all of your comments on that post will be removed (and yes, there are ways to tell). I reserve the right to name and shame any supposedly anonymous trolls at my discretion (you’re rarely as sneaky as you think you are, even when trying to mask your IP address). This behavior may result in a permanent ban on commenting, and information collected from your comments and our site statistics may be used to publicly attribute the anonymous or falsely-attributed comments to the actual original commenter instead of deletion, at my discretion (although we still won’t share any truly personal information like your email address or IP address publicly).
  6. If it is discovered that a line of comments is a result of anyone’s attempt to incite a mob mentality, all comments related to that call to action will be removed, and commenters may be banned from future comments here. For example, visiting a company’s forum to announce an unfavorable mention on the site and to ask members to get together to comment on the post, attack the poster or other commenters, etc., will result in deletion. This applies to any hint of mob mentality on this blog. Comments that remain objective and don’t appear to have any malicious intent may be published regardless, depending on the scope of the situation.
  7. If your comments have little substance, are irrelevant to the conversation, do nothing but try to incite arguments, are libelous in nature, or appear to be commenting solely to get links back to your website, the comments may not be approved. If you repeatedly engage in this behavior, future comments from you may be automatically blocked from appearing on the site. So don’t get off on the wrong foot.
  8. If you use a keyword-rich handle rather than a name, it will be assumed that you're commenting solely for SEO value, and your comment might not be approved. (ex. Posting under a username like "Software for Writers" rather than a name or handle representing you as an individual)
  9. You may not include "signatures" in your comments. This is when you add your name and a website to the end of a comment. The only form of signature allowed is the linked commenter name all users are given. If you try to paste in other URLs, they will automatically be stripped and will not be live links on the site. If you try to add links to anchor text, I might remove them before allowing the rest of your comment to go live. I will remove signatures when I see them in comments.
  10. If you repeatedly violate these rules (or in cases of extreme behavior – such as hate speech), you may be banned from future commenting on AllFreelanceWriting.com.

Simple, right? Be nice to others. Take credit if you want to be an ass to me personally. And read before commenting. Don’t agree? Then don’t comment.

Oh yeah. And don’t spam. Spam really pisses me off.

This comment policy was last updated on April 5, 2014 to clarify the issue of spam handles and spammy comment "signatures."