Thanks for checking out the Corporette Commenting Policy!
As a reminder: WordPress will automatically approve most comments, particularly if you've posted before, but it may be held for moderation if:
- your post includes hyperlinks (spammers use 'em)
- your post (or any information in it — e-mail address, domain name, etc.) involves bad words (we've got a little list of language that we'd rather know about before it goes on the blog — so everyone keep your hate speech and sexually-charged commentary to a minimum, s'alright, ladies?)
- other comments that WordPress decides for inexplicable reasons to hold for moderation — do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
- or, you've violated this Commenting Policy and have been moved to the “manually moderate” list (see below).
In general we approve all comments unless they are a) spam or b) an empty shill for someone else's product or blog (without any legitimate comment on the post or discussion at hand).
If your comment does not appear within 24 hours, please send us an e-mail — it may have been marked as spam, which goes into a different filter that we almost never check except to do a mass delete once a month. COMMENTING DOES NOT COUNT AS CONTACTING US — we will only respond to a real person in a private conversation, not an anonymous IP address.
The Moderation Queue
Please note that commenting is a privilege, not a right, and repeatedly uncivil commenters will find themselves in the moderation queue or possibly even the blacklist (where your comments go automatically to trash). You're welcome contact us by sending us an email if you feel you've been a perfect model of civil internet commenting — but keep in mind that once you're on the moderation queue list it is almost impossible to convince me that you need to be taken out.
A non-exhaustive list that constitutes uncivil commenting: swearing at people, telling people to die in a fire, stalking commenters. In general, if you don't have anything nice to say, ask yourself if you would say it in real life at someone else's cocktail party — if the answer is NO, then please be quiet.
We also discourage commenting under different names, particularly in the same thread (usually done in order to create the appearance of consensus/agreement with yourself). Users who do this may find themselves moved to our “manually moderate” list, and uncivil, disrespectful commenters (either to the editors or to other commenters) may also find themselves in permanent moderation. People who type every comment in all caps may find themselves in the moderation queue because yo, that's annoying. Please note that there is no appeal process if you find yourself moved to the “manually moderate” list, but note that almost all civil comments are eventually approved the same day. You will only get a message that your comment is in moderation if you've entered an email address in the appropriate commenting field. Abusive commenters may be blacklisted; on this rare occasion your comment will not ever be seen by an editor and thus will never be approved.
Please note that your comment may be stuck in the moderation queue for anywhere from 1 minute to 24 hours — if this proves onerous for you, we completely understand if you'd like to find a different blog to comment on with a different moderation policy.
A note on trolls: we do our best to moderate trolls, but a few comments here and there may get through. These comments may be deleted at some point later, whether it's five minutes or seven years. Please ignore them, or contact us if there's something truly egregious.
Regarding product links in the comments: We reserve the right to convert any recommended link in the comments into an affiliate link, if one exists (either manually or through software like Skimlinks). (Translation: If you recommend product X and store Y, we won't change X or Y at all, but the actual link to X or Y may change.)
Note that your comments are searchable by Google, and are considered public. From time to time we may use a comment on this site for use in an article on topic (e.g., advice from readers) or for a testimonial for PR purposes — note that your comments will always remain anonymous. Should you be displeased to see a former comment of yours repurposed, please email us from the email you listed in the original comment in order to remove the comment.
In general, though, please play nicely. We want this to be a nice place.
(Originally pictured: silence, originally uploaded to Flickr by CRASH:candy. 2024 update: speech bubble icon via Stencil.)