What A Comment Policy Should Cover

Comment policies should cover at least 5 things:

1. What the user can do
2. Copyright/licensing info
3. Whether or not paid commenting should be allowed
4. How you handle bad comments
5. How users will be informed of policy changes

Of course there will be more things that you may have to include depending upon your niche and such, but that list covers the basics. Here is a more detailed look at each topic.

What The User Can Do

One general rule that a lot of programmers use is that you should always assume the user of your product is malicious and will try to do all sorts of nasty stuff. The same is true with legal matters like terms of use and policies, always assume the user is out to get you in trouble.

Three of the main things you should not allow are defamation, spamming, and copyright infringement. If you are not savvy with legal matters usually something along the lines of “Defamation, spamming, and copyright infringement are not allowed. All comments with any of those elements will be removed with or without notice.” will suffice.

Don’t forget that if you remove a comment that is infringing someone’s copyright because of a DMCA notice, you have to notify the commentator as well, that is why it is very important to collect their name, their e-mail, and their URL. If they give you fake info then oh well, you can’t notify them. Also, unless you are registered with the govt. as an ISP and have filed all the proper documentation, you could be held liable because you aren’t covered by the safe harbor provisions that sites like Digg, Google, and your ISP have protecting their butts.

Copyright/License Info

In addition to not allowing copyright infringement, you should also set a basic guideline as to how the licensing with the comment author will work. Some people go all out and use Creative Commons and stuff, but personally I take the simple route and put in “You retain full copyrights of your posted content, however, by posting said content you are licensing out the use of the content to this site for public display.”

Very simple, and when you think about it that would stand should a conflict arise. If they argue that you didn’t tell them the content was licensed, just point them to the policy. The public display bit is important, as they can’t argue “hey, you never told me my copyrighted content was actually going to be visible to the public!”

Whether or not you take the Creative Commons or the custom license route is totally up to you. I’m a simple person, so I always try taking the simple (not necessarily the easiest) route.

Whether Or Not Paid Commenting Should Be Allowed

Paid commenting is a fairly new trend that has become much more common in recent years. Basically a company will pay someone to comment on a popular blog, not spam them, only comment. The comments will usually sound a bit like a TV commercial.

I hate the things, so I don’t allow them here. I will even go as far as banning users forever who I suspect or who I know are getting paid to comment. Luckily I haven’t really had to do that… yet.

How You Handle Bad Comments

Do you want to go all out and remove bad comments, or do you want to simply e-mail the author and tell them to change it or else? The choice is totally up to you.

Simply removing a comment is the easiest route, and if the user bitches at you just let them know why you did it, and end it at that. If you want to you can also define other parts of your policy a bit more at the end of it (like what defamation is… etc), seeing as how common sense is a rarity these days.

And finally, you should always include…

How Users Will Be Informed Of Policy Changes

Usually when I do any major changes to my policies I will do a quick news post to let everyone know, but for smaller things (like defining something a bit more) I just change it and leave it at that. I allow myself to do that by including a clause at the end of my policy that reads, “This policy is subject to change at any time, with or without notice.”

That basically means exactly what it looks like. I can change the policy however I want at any time (even at midnight), and I may or may not tell you.

Note: In a recent decision the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said “No” to changing ToS without notice, and said that you must inform the users of all changes. Please take note that this decision was done by one of the most liberal courts in the entire US, so I suspect it won’t be around for very long. In the meantime, perhaps it would be a good idea to inform people when it changes?

Don’t Forget To Link To Your Policy!

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to inform your readers and visitors about your policy. I include mine on the Terms Of Use page, and I include a link to that page on the comment form (and on the bottom of every page), just so that way some idiot can’t say I didn’t inform them of the policy .

Please subscribe, or else I will cry. Do you really want to make a programmer cry?