Blog Etiquette

[daisydaisy]

Hi All,  I co-run a beauty blog and am having a difference of opinion with my blog partner so wanted to get an outside opinion on what you think is correct behaviour.  On the blog of course we write posts and there is an option for the readers to make comments.  Mostly we get comments related to the post which is great but on occasion people use it as a means to advertise their own blog.  Now I think there is a right and wrong way to do this.  The right way would be to have a link to your blog in your signature (as I have done here) or possibly even make a comment relevant to the post and then mention your link.  Wrong way is to make no mention of the post at all and basically just shill your site - an example that happened "I wrote a post about this very subject come see it here ____" 

Am I just being picky or was this really rude?  At the very least I would have made some mention of the original post first before advertising my own.  Such as I totally agree with what you are saying about parsnips and if you would like to see what I wrote about parsnips come see my post.  I guess my issue is that I don't think she was commenting for my sake - the author - but to anyone else who might be reading and might be potential traffic for her.  KWIM?   

What's the verdict - rude or not?

[Bob Ducca]

I usually delete those comments from my own blog.  Unless someone has actually left a relevant comment, I consider it spamming.  Not sure if it is "rude," but I don't like it.

[Harriet Jones]

I'd consider it spamming, too

[Hushabye]

I agree with Deb.  Usually if you check out the links posted, they're not even on the same topic, and I suspect some of the ones I've seen but not followed to host malware.  I think you'd be doing your actual readers a favor by deleting the comments in case there is any malicious code on the spammers' sites.

[Ender]

Yep, delete. Usually, these types of posts are just spammers who are trying to get readers to their own blog. If it makes you feel better, you can put a small disclaimer at the top or bottom of the comment box that says something like, "Comments may be deleted if they only contain self-promotion and do not relate to the blog post. Thank you."

*ETA* I should add, I don't know what platform you use, but Wordpress (.org, not .com, so the self-hosted WP) allows you to choose to not accept comments with links. Maybe that's an option?

[Queenie]

It's seems smarmy and opportunistic to me.  I would delete spamming posts, relevant comments or not.

[Nurvingiel]

I'd consider it spamming, too

Some of them might be bots, some might be spamming people. But I'd delete all the comments that are nothing but ad.

[jimithing]

I agree with the PPs. I almost NEVER leave a comment with a link to my blog on it, unless it's completely pertinent to the post. There are a lot of people who blog hop and try to drum up business. If it's clearly spam, then I delete. If it's not, I will just leave it but ignore it.

[kherbert05]

Spam delete it.

[katycoo]

Agree with the others, but make it a forum rule.

No advertising in posts.
Sig links permitted.
Web links permitted only when directly pertinent to thread topic.

[Evil Duckie]

As others have said it is spam and delete it.

I have had people try to leave comments on my photobucket account that had nothing to do with the photo so I just delete them and would do the same on my blog.

[Lisbeth]

I have a blog and have had to delete hundreds of spam posts from it.

These posts are like spams too.

[kherbert05]

One of the blogs I read for teaching is discussing this and has some good advice.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/01/avoiding-comment-spam-scams.html

[artk2002]

Most of the big-name bloggers that I follow will delete posts that are only ads, whether for someone else's blog or for a product.  I would put it in your formal comment policy -- you do have one, don't you?