Blogging Pet Peeves

I never noticed it until I heard someone (Tim? Valerie?) mention how much it bugged them when a person referred to a blog post as a "blog." Now it bugs me, too.

But what is a bigger pet peeve is when I am following a discussion on a blog, and then the blog owner starts deleting comments that disagree with him. Or simply deletes comments that don't put the blog owner in the most favorable light.

I understand that a blogger has the freedom to control who and what gets discussed on their blog. But it still bugs me when comments are deleted when they have been thoughtful and respectful. (Hey--I'm all for deleting flamers and spammers!)

And then there is another level. . . One at which I simply shake my head. That is when an original post is slightly modified to make the blog owner look better, and any dissenting comments are deleted--as if it never existed. Sure, I understand people changing their minds, but be honest! Post about it!

When people delete respectful comments solely because they hold another view and pretend they haven't done so--I simply lose respect for them as bloggers. It lacks integrity. And there are a couple of people I just will not link to because I've seen happen on more than one occasion.

Pet peeve vent over.

Public Service Announcement: If you're reading this, it's very likely that I'm not talking about you!

PSA, take two: If you've ever had a comment deleted from this blog, I apologize profusely. And believe me--it was inadvertently done while deleting spam. . .

Posted by TulipGirl | 07:39 PM| TrackBack (0) | Words

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OOOOH! YES! This is my PEEVE too! I absolutely did NOT want to moderate posts on my blog either but I had to because some "poker" website kept leaving comments and trackbacks. By the way, my blog is down because I'm having trouble with my upgrade. Hope to be up in a few days!
Posted by: Yellow Rose Mom at July 6, 2005 09:16 PM

Yep. I'm with you. (And, I accidentally deleted your last comment on mine due to an overload of spam... sorry!) I followed someone who commented here to their blog one day (many months ago) and even thought I was agreeing with them, but perhaps they recognized me as someone who holds a different view on other things because though my comment was up for the first day, it was removed the second. It bugged me enough that I never went back.

And I've had a few hostile comments lately (hostile for my weakish blog, anyway) that I really really wanted to delete, but left for the sake of the argument or whatever.

Sometimes, though, I'd like to go ahead and delete them too. :)
Posted by: Megan at July 7, 2005 12:46 AM

I once wrote a review of a church in Honolulu that I visited with my wife. One of the people from another church left comments on what he thought was bad things about that church. I think the comment was not really balance but not really bombastic either. When the church in Hawaii caught wind of someone talking negatively about their church on my blog there was a storm of traffic to my blog. I felt it best to delete the comment since the people in Hawaii really took it personally. I still sort wish I knew the perfect solution to that one.
Posted by: Terry at July 7, 2005 07:14 AM

I never thought that much about it. I don't delete anything. And if someone else does delete comments it is more a reflection on the insecurity/uncertainty of the blogger I think. I think it's okay to change your post but to do it as an update so that people can see you are a real human who is open.

Spunky
Posted by: Spunky at July 7, 2005 08:03 AM

Yea I have from time to time gone back to a commenter, after they have had a chance to cool off, to ask them if they want to edit their comment.

I try to be lenient when it comes to someone being caught up in the heat of an argument. Though, sometimes it is only fair to everyone participating in a conversation to leave the hot headed commenter’s comment. Especially if their comment becomes part of the discussion before I get a chance to ask them if they want to edit it.

One of my pet peeves is when someone leaves a comment but they don’t want to own up to it. So you end up with a nasty comment and a user name and email like:
User Name: I don’t like you
E-Mail: I_don’t_like_you@your_dumb.com

Posted by: gid at July 7, 2005 01:12 PM

I've never deleted a comment! Reason being, I get very few comments anyway--got to keep all I get LOL!
Posted by: Lyn at July 7, 2005 06:08 PM

What has been harder for me is not to do a post over when someone points out one of my grammar errors :)
Posted by: Cindy at July 7, 2005 06:28 PM

Awww, Cindy, grammar and spelling don't count! *L*

gid, that's very gracious.
Posted by: TulipGirl at July 7, 2005 09:17 PM

I try and consistently refer to "blog posts" as "blog entries." A blog, after all, is a web log, and one makes entries into a log, don't you? But I suppose the trend will be toward "blog posts."
Posted by: Gideon Strauss at July 8, 2005 10:21 AM

I confess, I've modified some of my original posts to make myself look better... That is, to remove egregious grammar/spelling errors or to clarify what I was feebly attempting to say.
I have no problem with bloggers modifying an old post if no one has commented on it, but significantly changing a post after someone has spent time creating a comment would be bad blogging etiquette.

I call it a "post", less frequently an "entry", and never a "blog".
Posted by: Sciolist at July 8, 2005 11:02 PM

yeah, I'm with Lyn - I get so few comments that I find it easy to delete the rare spam!
Posted by: robin at May 16, 2006 10:39 PM

Here is when I delete a comment:

-Horrid amounts of cursing
-gossip that is none of my business
-totally WAY off topic... like "LA-LA land, loopy, on-something" off topic
-When I tell someone creepy to stop e-mailing me and they start posting comments
-When I have personally and regretfully written a comment that was way too rude or sarcastic to keep on there

THere have been 2 times that I have deleted only portions of a comment:
1. I deleted the word c*&%^ because I cannot stand that word, but the rest of the comment was so good. So I posted a follow-up comment that said how much I liked the rest of what was said, but to please refrain from future curse words.
2. I deleted a section of gossip out of an otherwise excellent comment. It was WAY too much information that named names. No I did not know these people. But it was still wrong.
Posted by: 4ever4given at May 26, 2006 12:40 PM

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