AC Etiquette: Commenting on Other Articles

There are three major points today that I'd like to bring up.  The first I've already written about in this blog post.  I don't think it bears repeating.

The second is inspired by three, huge paragraph-type comments that I received on an article a couple of months ago from another contributor.

AC Commenting Etiquette: Don't Leave Disrespectful Comments on Other Articles

Disagreeing with a subject matter in a respectful manner is a completely different thing than openly trashing someone's work on a comment section.  I give the person who did this to me gut points for not hiding behind a "Guest" name, though.  This guy started off stating how his opinion differed from mine, which was fine.  Then the second comment escalated into a "Do you even know what you are talking about?" and the third comment completely demeaned me into a "You're the reason AC has such a bad name," type of comment as if he was getting angrier with each comment.  I left the first comment on my article but deleted the last two and sent him a message that in the future if he wanted to comment on my articles, he needed to do so in a respectful manner or next time I'd report him.

I just finished telling someone that the premise is different when dealing with anonymous comments (which we now have a way to block, yay!) than dealing with comments that come from fellow contributors; our working peers.

You get the gist.

AC Commenting Etiquette: Commenting Just to Put Your Name on Someone Else's Article

I'm completely aware that not everyone will agree with this so take it however you wish.  It is not my intention to "call out" or "scold" anyone for doing this.  This is just my personal opinion and not something I would consider doing.

I don't think that commenting just to comment or just to leave your clickable name on an article is very good etiquette.  I can't tell you how many times I see a " :) " or a "Thanks!" or a "Good job!" on my articles.  It's not that I don't appreciate the page views but I've always been of the mindset that if you don't have anything relevant to add or really feel moved to say a meaningful thank you to the author, then move on.

I read a lot more articles than what I comment on.  I enjoy a great deal of them, but I'm not gonna put a generic comment on something just to leave a comment.  And I also wouldn't want anyone to feel obligated to click on my articles if they weren't interested in reading them in the first place.  I'm not into the whole "follow just to be followed thing" although I understand that's the way some people like to do it.

Whichever way you like to do it is completely okay.  But just don't make me feel like just because you left ten " :) s" on my articles that I should feel obligated to do the same for you.  And don't think that just because I don't comment that I'm not reading.