Hello everyone, this post will be about commenting guidelines for my page. I will include the guidelines, what they really mean so we don’t have any confusion, why each guideline was chosen, and some examples. Now that I’ve explained what I will be doing, let’s get into it!

1. No abrasive or discriminatory language

Basically, no cussing, bullying, harassment or homophobic, transphobic, racist, misogynistic etc. language. I want to keep my page a) A respectful and happy place, and b) A school environment so these types of comments will not be tolerated.

2. Corrections and criticism must be polite and respectful

This one is a bit more difficult to explain, but let’s start with corrections. I will occasionally make mistakes like any other human being, so when I do, if you wish to correct me, be respectful, don’t be rude or abrasive and tell me where I made the mistake so I can fix it.

Do say: ‘Just letting you know, you missed a capital letter at the beginning of your name in the second paragraph.’

Do not say: ‘Wow you really missed a capital letter on your name of all things.’

See how one of these helps me and the other is just plain rude?

Now, let’s move on to criticism. You do have the right to criticise my work, I won’t stop that unless you are being rude and/or unhelpful. Your criticism must be constructive and be able to help me improve.

For example:

‘This post sucks’

• Rude
• Not constructive

‘I think you could improve this post by adding a picture next time’

• Polite
• Constructive

This is again, to keep my site a safe and respectful environment.

3. No sharing personal information

Personal information includes but is not limited to phone numbers, addresses, personal emails and where you’re going to meet up with your friends this weekend. This is for your safety. This is a public platform, that means a lot of people can see this, not just you and your friends. If you are going to share personal information, do it in a safe and private way, like doing it in person or through a private connection.

4. Keep your comments related to my posts

Exactly what it says on the tin, if my post is about halloween don’t talk about horses in my comments please. This is to keep my posts professional and organised by keeping related subjects together, and also to discourage people having conversations in my comments sections which could lead to personal information being shared. If you want to have a conversation with someone please use your emails, this is not the place to be talking to your friends, it is a place to be learning.

So, now that you’ve heard my guidelines, let’s get into some examples.

Good comments include:

• I really like this post!
• You missed a comma in your second paragraph.
• I love ducks too! (only if the post is about ducks)

Bad comments include:

• This post sucks
• We still meeting at Glenayre tomorrow?
• Any form of harassment, bullying or discrimination

That’s all for today, thank you all for reading all of my guidelines! Please respect and follow them to help keep this blog a respectful and kind learning environment.