When you receive a comment on your blog, and the author makes a typo, should you correct the error?
If the author of the comment, uses improper grammar, should you change it?
If the author of the comment, forgets to capitalize the first letter of a sentence, should you correct it?
I have read many comments on other blogs. Some of the comments contain errors, others look pretty good.
I have left comments on other blogs, and later, noticed I made a type. Some are corrected, some are not.
I get comments on my blogs. Some authors have made typos, or small errors in their grammar.
I edit the comments.
I do it as a courtesy to the authors, of the comments, I receive. I’m very grateful for the time they took to leave a comment. To edit any errors I may find, is my small way of saying thank you, for visiting my site.
What do you do?
Edit the comments you receive?
Leave them, as is?
Thank you for editing my comments! It is very kind of you to edit the English mistakes. Particularly, we have people from so many different linguistic backgrounds on the web, it helps to avoid mis-communications.
Sometimes, I submit my comment, and afterwards, realize “ouch that can be interpreted wrong…!” and it is too late.
Asako,
You are most welcome.
I appreciate your loyal readership. Taking time to correct any typos I may find, is the least I can do.
Hi Natural,
You’re finding all of my old “commenting” posts. 🙂 Hopefully they’re helping and giving you some ideas for your upcoming “comment” post.
What do you do?
Edit the comments you receive?
Leave them, as is?
I leave it as is…if it’s a typo, I MIGHT fix it…grammar problem, I can’t fix it. 🙂
Natural’s last blog post..Mindboggling
Hi Suzanne,
It’s funny you found this post. I need to update it. With the amount of comments I now get, I usually don’t correct the typos anymore.
I like the idea of the plugin you mentioned so will have to look into that and get it (or a similar one) added. I’m seeing it on a lot more sites and it appears to be very beneficial.
Hi Barbara,
I, too, usually edit typos and grammatical errors in my readers’ comments. I also use a the Ajax Edit Comments 2.0 plugin which allows them to edit their own boo-boos if they see them before they surf away.
Suzanne
Ooops…see? Of course, I made a typo…ugh. Should have been ‘I also use the…’ not ‘I also use a the…’ LOL Exactly why I use that plugin and appreciate other blogs that use it, too. I usually always read my own published comment before I go elsewhere, so I’d have fixed this typo myself if I could have. 🙂
Suzanne Bird-Harris | vAssistant Servicess last blog post..50+ WordPress Plugins and Hacks
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
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.
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