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Blogging Etiquette
© According to
RSBlain aka LittleEgypt
I
have been blogging for 18 months at this writing, August 04, 2004.
I have made a lot of mistakes while blogging and I try not to make the
same mistakes more than once. As I try to be open and honest as well as a helpful blogger, I
know no matter what I do, say or write; will bring everyone knocking on my blogging door nor will
all of them who do find my site
find what I do, say, or write helpful nor entertaining.
Find below, my blogging etiquette list, thought out over the past 18 months
and hopefully my list will help you in your blogging journeys.
Welcome to the blogging arena.
#1 My number one concern: Don't
plagiarize the works of the bloggers. If you want to use something
someone wrote or photographed, ask permission. Always give a link
back to the person who's work impressed you and put their name to it. Look carefully at
things you put on your pages taken from other sites. If you
read the fine print on a news site, you will find there are fees,
expensive fees for the use of their written articles. Plagiarism, the act of claiming
something as your own and assigning your name to that piece is illegal
and can be costly in the court systems. Be aware of the fine print
of what you borrow for use on your pages.
#2 My number two concern in my blogging etiquette
list is the importance of including in any comment I make on a site
something that concerns that bloggers creativity.
If it was important enough
for the blogger to have written the blog entry, he would love some
feedback on his efforts. If he wrote an editorial, a poem or a
story or an article of what his daily life is or if his priorities are
his photography or his art work, I make that my top priority in
commenting.
Many
bloggers try to be
"helpful or
there" for other
bloggers and, their time and
efforts are done out of the goodness of their hearts. A thank you
for their help would be nice and don't show up at their blogs just to
ask for more help. They aren't your mother or your teacher but
your blogging peer. If you have no intent of reading his blog,
ever, but intend to continue to ask for his help, you are what I term, a "Selfish Blogger". No one wants to
see you with your hand out at every turn. No one wants to see you
at their blogging site never to say a word about their efforts.
Bloggers all have lives and they want to blog on their site as well as
help you. Read what they took time and effort to write as they would like to think
their efforts are not wasted but important, no different than you
feel about yours.
Have a
heart, be
friendly and read the bloggers work and converse some on his efforts,
his creativity and his concerns especially if you want him to do the
same for you.
#3
If the blogger has not specifically asked for you to offer editing
corrections, don't.
#4 If the blogger has not specifically asked you to offer spelling
corrections, don't.
(
I offered in a comment, a word correction
but as I got no comment back, I assume what I did was not welcome.
)
#5 Positive feedback is better than negative feedback. If you hate a
blog, don't comment at all.
#6 From the voice of experience, blogging banter back and forth between
bloggers can become out of hand if you strike a nerve of the other
blogger. Be prepared for possible upset if you intend to chat back
and forth regularly with a particular blogger. They don't always
say what they mean or mean what they say. I always offer apology
if I feel I was wrong. It never hurts to make a heartfelt apology.
#7 Political discussion, Religious discussion and Diet
discussion can get ugly. Don't try to force
your views on other bloggers or, be prepared, the
worst can and does happen.
#8 Bloggers blog for
different reasons. Some blog for the pleasure of seeing their own
work on the site. Others blog to share with family members.
Still others blog to make new friends. If you visit a blog and
comment but never get a comment back from that blogger, my take on it is
my comments are not particularly welcome. Now, some bloggers have
hundreds of fans and so it is impossible for them to keep up with return
comments. If you read a site you truly enjoy that has that many
readers, don't expect a return comment and treat it as a plus if you do
receive one. Read and enjoy but expect nothing as that may be what
you get from an overloaded blogger.
#9 Don't feel guilty
about canceling subscriptions. Reading bloggers who entertain and
interest you and reading as your time allows and commenting as your time
allows are what you should expect from yourself. It is impossible
to read every blog in any blogging site and all will not be of interest
to you. Read for a while and add to and subtract from your reads
as you feel a need. Blogging is a give and take effort that can
leave you exhausted. Be realistic considering the facts. Treat bloggers as equals and know
"all
will not comment back to you nor read your blog". Everyone in the
blogging arena "will not become your best buddy", you have to expect it.
Keep smiling, comment where you are comfortable commenting and read as
your concerns take you to read. Blogging is meant to be an
entertainment as well as informative and it is up to you to know your
personal boundaries.
All pages have been
designed, thought out and compiled as helps for use by Seniors and persons
new to computing by: RSBlain aka
LittleEgypt of Cincinnati's own
Flying Pig Web Design:
http://www.flyingpigwebdesign.com
*Scripts used are from: Dynamic Drive
