I recently wrote some comment guidelines for the primary site I manage, and was surprised by the paucity of information on this topic. Of course you’ll pull up thousands of entries if you do a Google search. But I wanted authoritative, meaty stuff.
In fact, what I most wanted was a book covering the topic. However, neither of the blogging books I own did. One is even on corporate blogging.
The implication is that guidelines don’t matter that much — that things like search engine optimization are what’s really important. For many blogs, I expect that’s true, but not all.
I’ve used to manage a dicey blog (now history) where guidelines were a lifesaver. Early in that blog’s life, I opened my email one day and discovered about ten comments submitted the previous evening by one person. The first four were flames, but then came the fifth. It began, “I just read your guidelines….” and proceeded to be quite rational, even calm, after that, suggesting that I not post his earlier comments.
For others looking for meta guidelines, I did happen across one helpful summary. It’s several years old, but cuts to the chase with four rules used by all of the corporate blogging guidelines they reviewed:
- You’re personally responsible
- Abide by existing rules
- Keep secrets
- Be nice
If your gut is telling you write guidelines, pay attention. Even though I couldn’t easily find a subject authority, there are plenty of good examples found with a quick search. Just add a dollop of common sense, and you should come up with something that will help you sleep better at night.