The Art of Blogging
I will never forget the wise words a blogger once told me: “Unique, people who comment on your blog should know it is a privilege, not a right.” Funnily enough, some people are ignorant of this, thinking that a blog is a country and with it comes freedom of speech.
But this is completely false. A blog is like a home. You would not expect me to come into your home and say hurtful, inappropriate words. You’d kick me out because it is your home and no one should treat you like that in your own home! You would expect me to knock on your door and wait for you to invite me into your home. You would expect me to respect you and your property in the duration of my visit.
It’s the same with a blog. It’s a person’s online home. The blog owner decides who can come inside and comment. If the blogger doesn’t want a comment to appear on their blog and if they choose not to respond to a certain comment, then it’s their choice, they haven’t done anything wrong. It’s their property and some people shouldn’t be trespassing.
Why some people choose to write hurtful, unsympathetic, inappropriate comments and expect them to be published, is beyond me. And why they get angry because their comment hasn’t appeared and then threaten the blog owner to publish their comment otherwise write nasty things about them on the internet is quite bizarre.
There are unwritten rules to posting a comment on a person’s blog. One should be courteous. One should not write inappropriate comments that are off topic. One should not attack the blog owner or their intelligence. And if one wrote something that offended the blog owner, then one should have the decency to apologise. A person should think before they comment, otherwise face the consquences of having their comment ignored.
Ultimately, having comments on a blog promotes healthy dialogue between different people. But one must understand that blog owners have to preserve their blog’s quality. They will not publish every single comment, just like a newspaper will not publish every single letter received. Because some comments are regarded as spam, those ridiculous comments that don’t deserve to be published. It will amount to blog chaos if such a thing happened, and an unhealthy atmosphere will infest the blog and even cause it to self-destruct.
Like trolls, a term for people who like to cause trouble on blogs. They are little invaders who like to ruin the success of a blog, probably because they are envious that another blog is more successful than their own. Other trolls write strange comments, trying to provoke the blog owner, so that they are noticed and in turn attract readers to their own blog.
In some cases a blog owner is so scared to be called a suppressor of freedom of speech, that they will, out of ignorance, publish a troll’s comment, which causes more harm than good. Blog owners should know that they actually have the choice, the right, to throw it in the spam folder and not even have to explain why they chose to do so. They can ignore it completly and not even have to read it.
If a person’s comment hasn’t appeared on a blog, before criticising the blog owner and ranting on about how unfair they are, think about the fact that it is their blog. They have the right to keep it a safe, peaceful haven, free from verbal diarrhea. And sometimes the comments are caught in the spam folder without the blogger’s knowledge, so it is unfair for the commentator to jump to conclusions.
There are many instances where a blogger must make decisions whether or not to publish a comment if they are serious about preserving their blog and promoting healthy dialogue. At the end of the day it’s not to be taken personally- those who do take it personally and go on a vendetta against the blogger are not only childish and narrowminded, but also seem to have a lot of free time on their hands.
So while visiting blogs, it’s good to remember that we are in someone’s “online home”, we should treat it with respect. Because it’s their blog- their choice. They decide.
Unique Muslimah Reporting
Absolutely, I could help but agreeing with you.
How much i wish everyone could understand that. I had a visitor on my blog few days back, and left some filthy comments which i dint think were good enough to approve,hence i dint. The next thing i know to my horror, that Mr, wrote something bad about me on his blog and even wrote the comment which i dint approve, stating how rude and insecure i am, I was shocked and totally pissed off …. !!!!!
Its my property, If i dont wanna your stupid comments, then take it, I just dont.
I hope your post bring such people to sense ………
Maryam
January 27, 2008 at 1:34 am
Well said!
Safia
January 27, 2008 at 4:14 am
i agree with you.
zahra
January 27, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Good post. Your right. I think people forget that it isn’t a public forum and expect that whatever they want to post is going to show up. I sometimes get those spam comments which are so annoying, but rudeness…that’s beyond annoying. I say if someone doesn’t like a blog, well then stop visiting it.
Mona
January 27, 2008 at 1:52 pm
This is great, thanks Unique! Next time I get one of those troll-like comments I’m going to refer them here and hopefully they learn something.
'liya
January 27, 2008 at 3:49 pm
This article is very well thought of !
One must realize that commenting a certain way on other websites can do more damage to the commentator’s reputation than writing a bad article on a blog !
Sometimes, moderating a comment can not only be a favour to the blogger but it also protects the commentator from their own stupidity.
A good Muslim will always protect their brother and sister.
Unfortunately the commentator in Maryam’s case has defined a new level of stupidity !
Jaffer
January 27, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I don’t know why commentators who don’t agree just leave! They hang around day after day and read what you write and then try to make sure you know they disagree (and what they should realize is that the blogger doesn’t care!).
Haleem
January 27, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Dear Maryam,
I can’t believe that has happened to you. I’m so sorry you had to go through that! You are absoultely right to not want his comments on your blog! It’s a shame some people dont’ understand this…
Safia, thank you! You are new to your blog, have you had any unplesant surprises?
Zahra, thanks for your comment!
Mona, thank you! You’ve hit it there- it isn’t a forum or a country!
‘liya, you’re welcome! And then they’ll start trolling on my blog
haha, kidding.
Jaffer, thank you! You’re right! If only they realised it’s their reputation on the line, not the blogger’s!
Haleem, I want to know that too! Why don’t they just hit the exit button? Sounds like you’ve had quite a few experiences!
Unique Muslimah
January 27, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Hey there, just wanted to drop in iand say I liked reading your blog today. I liked the honesty and agree with alot of what you talk about – particular whether to allow certain comments lol.
Jeff Adams
January 27, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Unique, you provide excellent rules on the etiquette of blog commenting, guidelines that should be common sense. Unfortunately the use of harmful language, and the negative practice of gossip, predate blogging by centuries, even millenia, and probably most of human history.
But consider the other side of the issue. A blogger should have something to say that is intelligent, useful, and helpful. A blogger should ask him or heself: Does my writing improve upon the silence? Modern technology is very much a two-edged sword.
MadSilence
http://madsilence.wordpress.com/
madsilence
January 27, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Jeff, hello! Thanks for dropping by and sending me a note. I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
Come again soon.
MS, thank you! You are right, the blogger should have something good to say! Thank you for giving us that perspective.
Unique Muslimah
January 27, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Hello Unique Muslimah,
Firstly can I say that I myself agree with all your sentiments, well thought through is your posting.
BUT alas a blog does not hold the same privileges as a newspaper, bloggers are not the same as news reporters. The law is not on our side YET, unless a bill has passed recently that has made it so. So whilst we own our blogs we have no rights to enforce people be nice in our homes (so to speak).
This is the underlying problem, until the profile of blogers in general is lifted to the status of professionals then there is no hope in convincing the majority of visitors to play nice and be diplomatic.
A blog is a natural conversation between the blog owner and the outside world. It is there personal view on topics they find interesting in the format of a conversation. And because of this they open themselves up for attacks in any shape or form (be it diplomatic disagreements to verocious attacks)
I would love to live in a world where people thought before speaking, but that world does not exists and will never exist
.
Reality is :
1) A blog is our home
2) But a blog isn’t protected by law
3) A blog isn’t a newspaper that has built a reputation of profesionalism and process
4) A large percentage of internet users (our potential visitors) are not educated to the level of understanding diplomacy and come from far and varied backgrounds (some so harsh that I would not expect any nice words to come from there mouths).
I would like to end this comment with a smiley face
advertboy
January 27, 2008 at 11:49 pm
advertboy, fantastic comment! We have a lot against us! That is why the moderating comments is such a nice feature on wordpress (I’m not sure about other platforms). If someone doesn’t have something nice to say, then they will not have the priviledge of having their comment published on our blogs. I’m smiling right back atcha
Unique Muslimah
January 27, 2008 at 11:53 pm
I think its a complete waste of time for someone to spend all their time reading someones blog then commenting and the comment might not be approved or published. Why waste your time saying mean things when you can be doing something else with your time
BlessedMuslimah
January 28, 2008 at 12:21 am
Now, what is your opinion on editing a comment? Someone sent a comment to me in which most of it I feel was appropriate to publish — the person obviously did not agree with my POV, but there were also some lines in there that I felt to be a personal attack, which in my opinion violated my comment policy. So, besides correcting the grammar, I edited out the personal attacks and indeed did allow the rest of the comment to be published.
In short, I think the blog owner not only has the right to choose to what can be published or not, but also has the right to edit the comment as necessary if there is still some worthy stuff to be published.
Jersey
January 28, 2008 at 12:43 am
You Said This Very Well, Completely True.
Vulgar And Rude Posts Are Unnessacary.
I Completely Agree With You.
Thanks For This Post!
:]
-Mimi
mimixmassacre
January 28, 2008 at 12:50 am
BlessedMuslimah, I agree! They do waste their time, that’s if they have nothing better to do . . .
Jersey, excellent question! Thinking about it now, I think the blog owner does have the right to edit comments too! And there should be a “comment policy” on every blog- but should it be a written rule or an unwritten rule? Excellent points Jersey!
Mimi, thank you for commenting!
Unique Muslimah
January 28, 2008 at 12:58 am
You have to tread carefully if you decide to edit comments. Because copyrights to comments are actually held by commentators and not the blog owner.
Why do Lawyers make things so complicated ?
In this case you must explicitly state on your blog – and especially near the comment form something similar to:
“Your comment will need to be approved before it is added and not all comments will be published. We reserve the right to edit comments that contain vulgar or offensive language”
Jaffer
January 28, 2008 at 4:52 am
Well said!! Thank you for writing about this. I’ve gotten a couple of “rude” comments along with some profanity for 1) not having a recipe using matcha green tea (I only wrote about how much I like Peet’s Matcha Green Tea and the other was “attacking” me that I should not have gotten a puppy for its fluffiness . . . did that person even know that I went to several animals shelters and rescues? Anyhoo, like you said . . . . . why do they even bother commenting such things . . . don’t they know their comments aren’t going to be published! BTW . . . . love your flower pictures! Have a good one!
tulipfleurs
January 28, 2008 at 5:12 am
I appreciate all the comments above–just one more–if someone complains that you edit or don’t post their comments and they yell “free speech!” remind them that the U.S. constitutional right of free speech applies to the government censoring or limiting speech-there is no automatic protection for free speech in the workplace, for example–if you call your boss a jerk, you’ll get fired. A blog, even a public one is still private property–you own the written material and control the content under the terms of your particular blog host–if you own your own server, it’s all yours to do with as you desire!
Chris
January 28, 2008 at 5:53 am
wow..this is a good opinion. i really agree with u. people must respect other people and treat other people like they want other people to treat them.
truly, blog is an online home…
anizyn
January 28, 2008 at 5:54 am
Excellent and true
Most trolls, I have found, are very young and full of themselves, and I never publish offensive comments. They can say what they like on their own blogs. Allah knows the truth. With every right comes a responsibility, and that includes blogging. Courtesy, honesty, thoughtfulness and adab are just part of the responsibility you owe to those who read your blog, the blog you comment on, and to yourself.
Ya Haqq!
darvish
January 28, 2008 at 6:59 am
I agree with you , Unique! It was nice reading your blog..
laila
January 28, 2008 at 11:56 am
You’ve been threatened for not publishing people’s comments? Thats warped
People need to get out more.
Sumera
January 28, 2008 at 11:57 pm
True…….that is warped! I have been emailed for not posting comments on my blog as well. But you know, It’s my blog and I’ll do what I want! hehehe
Umm Yusuf
January 29, 2008 at 2:59 am
This really made me laugh because it is something I say all the time. My blog is MY blog! I can write whatever I like, take liberty with grammar and punctuation to whatever degree I like and delete any comments I don’t like.
If someone thinks I am stomping on their freedom of speech they can bite me and write their own blog.
agadir_girl
January 29, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Salaam!
I’ve been absent lately, forgive me, sister!
I totally agree with you. That’s why we moderate our comments!
Fatemeh
January 30, 2008 at 8:14 am
Haha, That’s why i made a hell of a trash page for those dear commentators who just leave insults or NONSENSE..
http://shahrzaad.wordpress.com/trash/
Shahrzad
January 31, 2008 at 9:26 pm
http://jerseyspeaks.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/i-do-not-tolerate-personal-attacks/
Unique Muslimah
February 3, 2008 at 6:48 pm
[...] Muslimah offers what I believe to be unique, but also ultimately, good views on the censorship of blog comments, and why we should have it: “Unique, people who comment on your blog should know it is a [...]
I do not tolerate personal attacks. « Our Freedom of Espresso
February 5, 2008 at 6:28 am
Jaffer, I added (a modified version of) your comment quote about reserving the right to edit comments as needed. Hope you do not mind!!
Jersey
February 13, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Yes, my blog is my online home. A bestfriend-alike.
Baikong Mamid
March 21, 2008 at 2:30 pm