Comment Policy

Thank you for taking an interest in my blog. In an effort to keep the discussion thoughtful and respectful, I’ve created the following comment policy by which I moderate all comments.

Policy

The Golden Standard – the top criteria for an approved comment is one that adds value. There are several ways to add value to a conversation: asking a relevant question, answering a question, providing expanded insight, or explaining a thoughtful counter-point in a respectful way—to name just a few.

Civility is not optional – my blog and social channels are meant to be places of empowerment, thoughtful discussion, encouragement, and learning.

You are welcome to disagree with me or other commenters, but the tone of those discussions will remain civil or those comments will be deleted.

I will not tolerate personal attacks, hate speech, rude language or anything I consider detrimental to the dignity of others.

All rights reserved – I reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any comment I choose. I also reserve the right to block any IP address that violates this comment policy from commenting, subscribing, or accessing my blog or social content.

Liability – When posting a comment on my blog or social channels you take full responsibility for it. You agree to hold other commenters and myself harmless.

Name Use – All comments must be posted under your real name or nick name. If you use a company name, brand name, obvious alias, or keyword stuffed phrase your comment will be deleted and marked as spam.

Valid Email Required – The email address you use to submit your comment must be valid. I respect your privacy and will not share this information with third parties or publish your email address. Any email address I deem to look like a spam account or fake will result in your comment being deleted and flagged as spam.

Proper Linking Practices – You are welcome to put a non-trackable, un-masked link to your website’s home page in the “website” field of the comments section.

Any link in the “website” field that appears to be shortened for tracking, masked, pointing to a product/services page or otherwise suspicious will be deleted.

Links to products, resources, or other sites are not permitted in the comment body. Do not sign off with a link to your website.

In all of these instances you run the risk of your whole comment being deleted and marked as spam. Repeat offenders will be blocked.

Sharing resources the right way – Occasionally, the best way to add value to a conversation is to share a tool or resource with the community that they may not know about.

To assure that the motivations for sharing these tools and resources are for the benefit of the community and not self promotional, I strongly discourage linking to them.

Instead, name the tool or resource (as well as who created it) so that it is easy for others to search for. If you are the creator of a tool or resource you’d like to recommend, make sure that connection is understood by providing full disclosure upfront.

What is and is not considered self promotional or “spammy” is entirely up to my discretion.

Gravatar – If you would like your photo to appear next to your comment, you’ll need to create a Gravatar account and use that email address when leaving comments on the blog. This process is simple and takes 1-2 minutes.

Language – I create and publish content in English. I’m thrilled if you are a non-English communicator who can understand and gain value from my content. However, I am not equipped for comment moderation in multiple languages so please leave your comments in English. Any comment I am unable to understand will be deleted. This includes comments written in English with especially poor spelling and grammar.

Spam – Don’t do it. If you do do it, your comments will be deleted, marked as spam, and you will be blocked.

Frequently Asked Questions