Most people probably don’t realize this but there was a time when I was studying to be a teacher and I only had a semester to complete to get my degree before I gave it all away. There were many reasons for this but the main reason was I discovered near the end that I didn’t have a passion for it and so I decided I would be doing all those kids a disservice were I to continue on.

Now seeing as how I have all that experience I wondered if I could use it to teach people the proper way to comment on a blog. I know there are a whole lot of posts out there that have tried to educate people the proper way to leave a comment, I even wrote one myself called Commenting 101 Important Rules For 2009, yet even with this wealth of information I find there’s a lot of people out there who just don’t get it.

Perhaps they think they understand the proper technique but for some reason they’ve missed some vital point, and so they continue to leave comments that can be so bad some people interpret it as spam and send them to Akismet Hell.

I’m hoping this post will solve that problem and the way I’m hoping to do that is by grading every comment out of 10. That means that I will allow all comments, even the spam ones, and with each grade I will give a reason as to why they got that score.

A warning though, even though I will leave comments that I would normally delete or spam I will remove the url. So, what are some of the things that will cause points to be deducted?

1. Comments that do not follow the Comment Policy!
2. Poor grammar, which includes being too slack to use capitals and punctuation. I will make special consideration for those to whom English is a second language.
3. If I feel your comment has nothing to do with the post, by which I mean you probably didn’t read it.
4. If I feel you didn’t put any effort or thought into your comment.
5. All spam comments will obviously receive a score of ZERO

OK, I may add to that list if anything else comes to mind. I reckon it will be very interesting to see what sort of comments this post will solicit. Be warned that I will not hold back because I’m not one who believes being soft on students is a good tactic, and certainly doesn’t teach them anything.

You may want to tweet this post so it will get maximum exposure.

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It’s unfortunate, but every now and again we, as bloggers, will have some moron visit our blog that may take exception to what we wrote and then think that he has the right to abuse the crap out of us. There are some bloggers who may retaliate in kind but I think that this is the wrong approach as it merely brings us down to their level.

Take for example this particular post, that I did on one of my other blogs. It was obvious that this bloke was a racist pig and that I could have easily have retaliated, but if I did I would have merely added fuel to the fire. There was no way I was going to sway his opinions and it would have been a wast of time trying. If anything I reckon that being diplomatic about it actually infuriated him even more.

So, how do we treat these poor misbegotten slime balls that choose to flame our posts?

1. Analyze the comment.  Does it deserve to see the light of day? You may decide that it doesn’t add anything to your post and that it is so obnoxious your only recourse is to delete it. I actually deleted a whole heap of that particular commentator’s comments.
2. Do not respond in kind. That is one advantage of being a blogger, you can actually take the time to take a few breaths and calm down before responding to their comment.
3. Be polite, civil and respectful. They may not deserve it, but it shows that you are bigger than they are. Perhaps they will calm down and put their argument, although I doubt it, in a more reasonable manner in which case you’ve shown that your course of action was the right one.
4. Get Support. See if you can drum up some bloggers who support your view. Their comments may show the obnoxious commentator that he is actually in a minority causing them to rethink their views.
5. Ban The Ass Hole. If all else fails and they continue to be a virtual pain in the ass, ban his IP address.

I reckon that some of you guys may have come up with some pretty cool ways of dealing with flaming jerks, and if this is so I would really appreciate some comments as others may find them very helpful.

I’ve decided that it was time to give the newly named F Group a little plug. This is the name given to a group of bloggers who are striving to increase the amount of quality comments on their blogs. To be part of the movement you have to make a commitment to yourself, that you will endeavor to  follow the commentator to their blog and to reciprocate with a comment of your own.

To deter form comment spam I urge you to set up a Comment Policy that will stipulate what sort of comments will be accepted as worthy of reciprocation. To be part of the group you will need to let others know that you belong by displaying a badge such as the one displayed in this post. That and letting them know that you are a ‘do follow’ blog should encourage them to leave a comment. The badge should link to a post within your own blog that explains to the reader the benefits of leaving a comment on your blog.

I would also like to reward those who take this important step to increase their blog interaction by submitting their link to the F Group page, thereby getting one of those all important one way links. I will also enter those participating bloggers to my WassupBlog’s link directory, thereby getting another all important one way link.

So far, Peter of Work At Home Ideas, is the only one that I know of who is displaying the badge and following the rules and so I have taken the liberty of entering him in the F Group Hall Of Fame, so to speak. Peter, if you email me with your details for the Link Directory at blogster@blogsire.com I will enter your blog for you, ensuring you get that one way link.

If anyone else wants to take advantage of being part of the F Group, leave a comment with a link to your blog displaying the badge and upon approval, and once you have emailed me with your details, I will place your link in the link directory and the F Group page. Before you go, just remember that the most important reason for doing this is to encourage people to leave a comment before they leave your blog.

When I first started this blog I spent a long time trying to find a great WordPress Theme because I wanted it to be just right, and truth be told I love the theme that I finally settled on. I later found out that Andy Baily’s CommentLuv Plugin wouldn’t work, and I really wanted to reward my readers for leaving a comment. For those of you who don’t know, Andy’s plugin rewards you by displaying a link to your blog’s last post and I know how bloggers like to promote their blogs.

Anyway, no matter what I tried I couldn’t get it to work. Then I remembered that Brian’s Threaded Comments plugin used its own comments.php and viola it worked a charm. So now, not only can you get a little link love, you can also reply to a particular comment as this blog now supports nested comments. Also don’t forget that I use the dofollow plugin so comments will be picked up by the search engines.

I think after all that I deserve a martini or something.