All entries for Thursday 17 June 2004

Blog commenting etiquette

Here's some suggestions for etiquette appropriate to commenting on other people's blogs:

• Let the blogger set the agenda and scope, don‘t try to hijack their blog;
• If you think that something else is relevant and should be considered, politely suggest that it might be of interest;
• If you want to develop an idea or argument related to the entry that is outside of the scope and agenda set by the blogger, then create an entry in your own blog that is connected to it by trackback.

Robert O'Toole : 17 Jun 2004 11:38 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Academic etiquette for commenting on other people's blogs

I recently wrote an entry that attracted a series of comments that were, as far as I am concerned, not helpful. That's bad, as the purpose of comments on blog entries is to be helpful to the blogger. The entry was posted on a team blog of which I am co-owner. The blog itself has a definite purpose, to report on the activities and findings of the team, and to gather feedback on those activities. The entry itself was clearly flagged as having a definite purpose within that context: to get feedback on a draft design that has been created by the team to meet the requirements of one of our projects. So why was I so annoyed by the comments?

It's all to do with blog ownership, the fact that the agenda of the blog belongs to its owner[s]. When a blog owner writes an entry, they define the agenda and scope that it deals with. For example, in this case I was interested in the draft design and how it serves the project. I obviously was not interested in the justifications and wider implications of the project. Part of the skill of blogging is to make the limitations of the agenda clear, although to expect bloggers to be over concerned with that is wrong. The emphaisis should be on the commentor to ensure that they are not infringing upon that ownership when they comment. And most people are sensitive to that. This is the ettiquete of blog commenting:

• Let the blogger set the agenda and scope, don't try to hijack their blog;
• If you think that something else is relevant and should be considered, politely suggest that it might be of interest;
• If you want to develop an idea or argument related to the entry that is outside of the scope and agenda set by the blogger, then create an entry in your own blog that is connected to it by trackback.

Obviously when a sequence of comments gets going there is a chance that it may stray from the original entry. This should be guarded against, and commentors should have the good-sense to know when they should move to a new entry. We should consider if moving to a threaded comments structure would make straying away from the original agenda more likely and annoying to the blogger.

It should be apparent by now that this ettiquete is nothing other than the ettiquete appropriate to all academic interactions. It is one of the core academic skills that we expect students to acquire. It is not specific to this new kind of technology, although we may find that as a result of the technology people forget their manners. It should be recognized that it is the ettiquete at the heart of such practices as the seminar presentation. If I were to present a paper at a seminar I would expect that the participants would deal with my paper, not their own. I would expect them to listen to my objectives and provide feedback on whether I am meeting the objectives. Of course it is good to indicate that you think that my objectives may in some way be misdirected, or that I should also consider a different set of objectives. But if you want to develop that further, write your own seminar paper. Many times I have seen undergraduates fail to engage with the paper that is presented, both through a lack of ettiquete and through a lack of understanding. That is simply missing the point of the seminar as a form of academic practice.

There are of course different rules of ettiquete appropriate to the various types of academic interaction. Identifying the appropriate ettiquete is itself a key skill. A good aspect of blogging is that the ettiquete is very much obvious, the clear ownership of the blog defines it. However, we may need to give an even stronger definition of that ownership and ettiquete. Aggregation also presents a challenge, as it can undermine this sense of ownership and context. Other technologies present greater difficulties, and perhaps need to be re-thought with better means of defining ownership, agenda and ettiquete. The effects of this on the success of discussion forums is well documented.

Robert O'Toole : 17 Jun 2004 11:36 |  Comments (24) |  Close comments |  Report a problem