New Comment Policy: No Keywords in Comments

I’m getting annoyed.

I don’t like it when people put keywords where their name goes in the comments. Aside from my personal preferences, it’s just not a good idea. Here’s why:

• It makes it difficult for me to respond to you properly–how am I supposed to address you?
• It makes you look like a cheap spammer. Don’t give me any shit about that your comment is well-written and that it contributes to the conversation. Nobody will ever know, because they will skip past your spammy keyword name and ignore your comment. You just wasted your own time. I know all the excuses, because I used to do this myself.
• It makes me look cheap, because my blog is filled with comments that look like they were made by spammers. I don’t appreciate you doing that to me, and I have decided I will no longer allow it.
• It simply isn’t appropriate: the comment name field is so that we can see who left the comment, not your website’s name or keywords in the anchor text of the link. It already links to your blog or site. Isn’t that enough? If your comment is good, people will click on that link. Like I already mentioned, a keyword-stuffed name field causes people to pass you by.

I don’t like doing this, but it’s my blog, and I need to maintain its quality in many different ways (I hear you snickering). Many of you who do this are my friends and people that I like and respect. If you consider yourself my friend, you will use only your name in the comments field here from now on.

Otherwise, I will delete your comment. Unlike Alister Cameron, I will not mark your comment as spam, causing you to be added to Akismet’s spammer list.

I’m not angry at anyone and nobody need apologize. I just will no longer allow it. And I suggest that you adopt a similar comment policy. Maybe we should start a movement, similar to “do-follow” and create our own little badge.

Remember: create content for people, not search engines.