Scott of Dangerously Irrelevant has come up with an idea for publicly recognizing excellent commenters - awarding them the Fantastic Commenter badge:

Of course, you can always just do what *I* do and make blogkids out of them, but that's a personal decision you'll have to make for yourself.

Posted by: Harvey at 06:44 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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FIAR of Radioactive Liberty made me giggle with his post "12 Simple Rules Guaranteed to Improve Your Blogging", wherein he briefly yet passionately argues on both sides of six issues about which people commonly dispense blogging advice. It's only about a 2 minute read, so go read it now, because I'm about to spoil the effect by offering a serious weighing-in on the topics.

[2 minute pause]

1) Do/Don't proofread meticulously - if you're a strictly "for fun" blogger, just run it through a spell-checker once & toss it up there. Your family & friends won't care, and they probably won't even notice as long as the first and last letters are right. If you need a spell-checker, here's a nice little standalone program (very short download - 555k).

If you're a "practicing writer blogger" or just obsessive-compulsive, then go through your posts with a fine tooth comb. Personally, I find it helpful to read through them in a couple of different fonts. Another trick is to read it backwords - that way you're looking at the words instead of reading phrases. More proofreading tricks here.

2) Do/Don't have open comments - I vote open, of course. You can't feel the love without comments. The only good reason to not have comments is if you're getting hundreds of them on every post, and a good chunk of them are abusive. So basically everyone except Michelle Malkin should have comments enabled. And even Michelle is bringing them back, so what does THAT tell you?

3) Do/Don't respond to comments - In a perfect world, everyone would be like Ogre of Ogre's Politics & Views. He consistently responds to every comment he gets, and does so in the comments section of his posts. Very encouraging to his readers.

Other bloggers (like SarahK of Mountaineer Musings) regularly respond to comments via e-mail. Some people do varying degrees of either or both. Personally, I believe that acknowledging your commenters is a GOOD thing, and you should do it whenever possible, time permitting.

4) Do/Don't have a life - Do. Unless you have a contractual obligation to provide a certain number of posts by a particular deadline, and failure to do so will cost you money, don't hesitate to turn off the computer and even completely forego posting for days on end. Your readers will survive, and the people who actually LIVE with you will appreciate the attention. Besides, if you have open comments, your readers may even keep your blog entertaining for you.

NOTE: The fact that I personally haven't had a postless day in months does NOT invalidate the preceding advice. It just means I'm an addict who is currently dodging his 12-step meetings.

5) Do/Don't talk about yourself - Who cares? Just POST, dammit!

Truth is, it doesn't matter WHAT you write about. The people who enjoy reading THAT topic, in YOUR style WILL find you. The rest... don't really matter.

Small caveat - if you're a "topical" rather than a "personal" blogger, it's still a good idea to have an "about me" category to store posts of a personal nature so that newcomers can get a feel for your experiences & motivations. Having some background on a writer adds depth and richness to your readers' experience of your topical posts. If nothing else, at least have one post of basic biographical information that's linked in your sidebar.

6) Do/Don't use profanity - As a general rule, I say no. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my 4-letter Anglo-Saxonisms as much as the next former Sailor, and I have great admiration for those who raise swearing to an art form. However, I find that avoiding curse words has two advantages:

First, it forces you to come up with clever metaphors to replace the obscenities, which makes you a better writer.

Second, you get more site traffic, because more people feel comfortable surfing to your site while they're at work.

Still, there are situations that DO call for judicious f-bombing, and I make no apologies for that, since I know my readers are adult enough to deal with it, and they understand.

Besides, it's not the swearing that keeps decent people away from my site, it's the smutty innuendo & dirty pictures.

No, wait... that's what keeps them coming back.

Nevermind.

Anyway, the important thing is consistency. If you're gonna swear, then swear. If you're not, then don't. But don't suddenly start posting Eddie Murphy routines on your Christian Mommy blog. It's a gross discourtesy to those readers you've lulled into believing that they can safely surf your site with their pre-teen kids watching over their shoulders.

In conclusion, I want to leave you with this:

It's your blog, so it's your rules. Do what you want, when you want, and have as much fun as possible while you do it. Don't let anyone tell you how you "should" blog.

Except me ;-)

Posted by: Harvey at 08:14 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Shamus of Twenty Sided, and Steven of Chizumatic are both discussing how miserably annoying it is to get nitpicky comments about a post. The kind of off-topic one-upsmanship remarks that have nothing to do with what a post is about, but rather make hay from an irrelevant point. As Robert of Creative Destruction describes it:

Example of useful nitpickery: if the actual author of the linked post was Frank Johnson [and not Shamus Young], correcting my error would be material; non-useful nitpickery would be pointing out that nitpickery isnÂ’t a word.

I've never been popular enough at Bad Example to get nitpickers in annoying quanitities.

However, I've gotten them on occasion at IMAO.

Mostly I just ignore it. I've got other things to do. And when that happens, I discover that other commenters tend to jump in and browbeat the nitpickers for me. I just sit back & watch the fun.

Nevertheless, I try not to take nitpickers personally. Part of the reason for nitpicking is that when you're reading a blog, there's an urge to make some sort of contact with the author. To let them know that you've read the post and are thinking about it. A nitpick is the quickest, easiest response outside of :-D or LOL!

Also, as a commenter - especially on a post that already has a lot of other comments - you want to say something that no one else already has. Nitpicks have this characteristic.

So what I'm saying is that - a lot of times - nitpickers are just trying to be friendly.

However, I'm NOT saying that Shamus & Steven are wrong for feeling annoyed. I mean, a big slobbery dog is also "just trying to be friendly" when he licks you, but that doesn't mean you have to pretend that you LIKE getting a faceful of warm dogspit just because he "means well". Bopping him with a rolled up newspaper (or deleting his comment, to apply the analogy) is a perfectly good response, too.

Then again, it's easy for me to be laid back about it. I mostly write goofy posts & try to make people laugh. You kind of expect a hefty dose of smart-assery in reply. If I were trying to write something thoughtful or serious every day, I'd probably get sick of people who leave 10 paragraph comments that miss the point, too.

Meanwhile, until that time comes, feel free to nitpick all you want on my posts. I won't delete you.

Although I *do* reserve the right to mock, demean, belittle, or impugn you, your ancestors, or your primary and/or secondary sexual characteristics at my discretion.

Posted by: Harvey at 08:49 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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