Freelance Writing Jobs Comment Policy Update

I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone in the Freelance Writing Jobs community better through the comments left on the posts here, but as usual, there are always some people who like to hide behind their computers and leave mean comments on blogs.  In my two weeks working on this blog, I’ve actually been amazed at the number of nasty comments that people submit.

As part of Splashpress Media, the comment policy will change a bit on Freelance Writing Jobs in an effort to protect the writers who work very hard to create new, useful content on this site everyday and to protect the readers who are looking for that useful information without the fear of being attacked or insulted in the comments.

With that said, here is the comment policy:

Comments are welcomed and encouraged on this site, but there are some instances where comments will be edited or deleted as follows:

1. Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam will be deleted. Including a link to relevant content is permitted, but comments should be relevant to the post topic.
2. Comments including profanity will be edited or deleted.
3. Comments containing language or concepts that could be deemed offensive will be deleted.
4. Comments that attack a person individually will be deleted.

The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at anytime.

So that’s all there is to it.  If you wouldn’t say something to another person’s face or to your mother or to your boss, then it shouldn’t be published in a blog comment either.  Freelance Writing Jobs is a site for professionals owned by a well-established company and conversations should remain in the realm of professionalism.

And remember, when you publish rude, snarky, or just plain nasty comments, they’re linked to your IP address, name, etc., which means they negatively affect your online brand reputation just as much as they affect the subject of your complaint.  Do you really want your brand image associated with unprofessional social media conversations?  Think before you hit the submit button.  Your comments have far-reaching repercussions across the social web, and once they’re out there, you can’t take them back — forever.

Of course, this post is intended only for a very small portion of the visitors to this blog.  Most of you know your manners don’t stop just because you’re hiding behind your computer and an Internet connection.  Thank you for that!  It makes my job and the Splashpress Media team’s job easier when we don’t have to spend more time editing and deleting comments than we do creating useful content.

And of course, we understand if you don’t agree with this policy and prefer to find information elsewhere.  That’s why the social web is so great — there’s a place for everyone, and if there isn’t, you can create it!

Image: stock.xchng


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11 responses
  1. franky Avatar

    Do you really want your brand image associated with unprofessional social media conversations? Think before you hit the submit button. Your comments have far-reaching repercussions across the social web, and once they’re out there, you can’t take them back — forever.

    That is an element every freelancing professional should keep in mind when commenting. Sites with high authority can rank very high in Google for names of individuals and no one should risk their own brand and reputation due to a snarky or derogatory comment.

    We welcome all kind of comments and every constructive discussion. Even negative comments can be constructive criticism if formulated in a respectful way.

  2. Laura Avatar
    Laura

    Excellent comment policy!

    Also, will you continue to update the Writing Jobs Leads section? The last post I see is dated July 2.

    1. franky Avatar

      Laura, it seems that many users are experiencing issues updates for the several blog homepages. We are trying to find the issue causing this but have been updating the leads on a daily basis: https://freelancewritinggigs.com/webandprint/category/writing-gigs/

  3. Jodee Avatar

    “That is an element every freelancing professional should keep in mind when commenting. Sites with high authority can rank very high in Google for names of individuals and no one should risk their own brand and reputation due to a snarky or derogatory comment.”

    I would hope that true freelance professionals would not stoop to using keyboard courage to make nasty remarks, but unfortunately that is not the case. I have often wondered why someone would actually take time out of their day to try to be hurtful to someone else when the grown-up thing to do is either disagree respectfully if they don’t like the content they are reading or move on to something that is more their cup of tea. There is no excuse for bad manners, either online or off.

    1. franky Avatar

      Jodee, I’m all for snarky comments and criticism. It keeps us on our toes and makes sure we continue to up our game. But if people behave as morons and show no respect, especially on a site such as FWJ which is aimed at helping the readers and community, I reserve the right to highlight all these ‘oh so brilliant’ comments in a special post with some link juice focused on scoring for the names of these freelancers.

      Of course this should only happen in the worst of cases but some people really do go too far and certain sites often make me think ‘Why do I bother with blogs’ and with that I mean blog comments. Sometimes one or two comments really have the power to kill a great conversation and alienate readers.

      1. Jodee Avatar

        @ Franky: There is a big difference between someone disagreeing with what you wrote, even in the snarkiest way, and making it personal. I don’t mind if someone disagrees with something I’ve written; they may have a different take that I hadn’t considered and I welcome their thoughts. When the only thing someone has to say is something personal and nasty, that is a different thing entirely.

        @ Jeremy, I’m very familiar with the kinds of nasty comments that some people left here. They have gone way beyond the scope of disagreeing or even being in any way respectful. Having said that, the majority of people who leave comments are polite and respectful and seem to like what we do. 🙂

  4. Jeremy Powers Avatar

    Perhaps I missed it, but I do not recall ever seeing aggressive comments on this site. I spend a fair amount of time on political and economic blogs, however, and the comments on those are rough. Maybe I have over-developed the ability skim over the jerks to find the helpful nuggets.

    I am sure the adminstrators for this site catch a lot. There is, so far, only one published comment on my blog, but there are over 100 unpublished comments that various tools have determined come from spammers. I have not published a comments policy, should I?

    1. franky Avatar

      Perhaps I missed it, but I do not recall ever seeing aggressive comments on this site.

      Jeremy, they do not see the light of day as they usually are deleted by us. The attitude of many a commenter on a site like FWJ, which is totally aimed at helping others, is surprising though. Just read Deb’s more recent entries at Kommein and you’ll notice how much Deb hints at irrespectful comments and the attitude of readers. It is saddening but we stay positive and just delete the comments when needed.

      Personally I am considering not to allow any comment without author link and Gravatar anymore on our network. Another option I am exploring is to only display the author URL when the comment has been manually ‘featured’ by the team of the site (or the comment author has left many a positive comment already).

      1. Jeremy Powers Avatar

        Susan – Thanks for the link. I will add this to my list of updates for this weekend.

        Franky – The team must do a really good job of catching the bad comments. I can’t recall ever seeing one. Kudos for that. I do know of at least two sites where trolls and nasty commenters are warned their IP addresses will be published. Thanks for keeping the boards clear, and good luck with the continued fight. (In my case, I am sometimes tempted to publish the spam just so readers will see there are other people visiting my site. 😉 )

  5. Shai Avatar

    I’m with you! Rude comments (trolling) is irritating, a waste of time, and even damaging if you’re new to the business. Plus these comments are immature and usually grammatically incorrect and full of spelling errors.
    It makes me wonder who bothers with them!
    Thank you for this post. Now I’m going to follow your blog ^^

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