Comments on: Should You Edit Your Reader’s Comments?

By: Shirley

Shirley — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:11:37 +0000

I rarely edit comments. I usually only edit if there is an obvious mistake... Or sometimes I trim some shameless promotion. (ie. when someone leaves a 'signature' in a blog comment.) Shirley´s last blog post..5 Things We Hate About Google

By: DIY SEO: Commenting - Step By Step Instructions on SEO You Can Do Yourself Today | vAssistant Services

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:09:28 +0000

[...] the comments they leave. Awhile back, I left a comment at Barbara Swafford’s blog on her post Should You Edit Your Reader’s Comments? and promptly made a typo I couldn’t fix myself. Ugh. So, I left a second comment correcting [...]

By: Barbara Swafford

Barbara Swafford — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:08:33 +0000

Hi David,

Welcome to the BWAB community!

If you visit my current post, It’s Not Your Fault I Can’t Spell, you’ll read that I only rarely edit comments anymore (sometimes a transposition of letters in a comment from one of my loyal commenters/cyberfriends).

For one, it would be too time consuming, and secondly, as I began to get comments from people all over the world, I was sometimes uncertain of what they were trying to say.

The only comments I would delete are those that are filled with profanity or if I felt a commenter was “spamming” for SEO purposes. My spam filter takes care of the rest.

For the convenience of correcting comments, I have now installed a plugin which allows my commenters to correct any errors if they so desire.

Thanks for dropping by and sharing your $.02. It’s always great to hear another point of view.

By: David

David — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:03:28 +0000

I really think that you should not edit the comments.

I understand the motivation, truly I do. It’s quite a courtesy, to be sure; however, you also run the risk of changing the meaning of the comment.

Now, if you wanted to be very uptight, you could simply delete any comments that are not up to your specifications regarding grammar and spelling. I don’t think many would argue about this.

But given the interactive nature of online conversation between blogs and comments, I don’t believe that anyone should edit or correct anything for which they are not the original author.

The internet is a wild place, my friend, and you’d be better served to let it be spontaneous and free.

Just my two cents.

Davids last blog post..Hillary is taking things gracefully…sort of

By: It’s Not Your Fault I Can’t Spell | Blogging Without A Blog

It’s Not Your Fault I Can’t Spell | Blogging Without A Blog — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:03:56 +0000

[...] Suzanne, of vAssistant Services landed on an old post of mine. It reminded me of the time when I was correcting typos in comments. As you may have guessed, I wasn’t getting a lot of [...]