THINK Before You Post a Comment

THINKI saw a great poster in my daughter’s music class a couple weeks ago (they share the space with a martial arts studio), and I thought it was appropriate to share here, as it is relevant to all of us, too. While the vast majority of comments that are posted by visitors on my blog are helpful, there are occasional comments that are neither helpful nor polite. These can be aggravating, annoying, and frustrating to read, and I assume that many of you feel the same way about them.

Before you post a comment on this blog, on other domain blogs, on domain forums or anywhere else you post online, I urge you to THINK:

  • Is it True?
  • Is it  Helpful?
  • Is it  Inspiring?
  • Is it  Necessary?
  • Is it  Kind?

I am sure our opinions differ on a variety of topics. The nature of this business is that there are many ways to make money (or lose money), and just because I am doing one thing successfully and you are doing the complete opposite thing successfully does not mean that one of us is wrong.

When you share feedback or advice, it is appreciated. If I am wrong and you correct me, that is appreciated. If you tell someone else that he or she is doing something wrong, that is also appreciated. We are all learning here.

If you are rude about the way you reply to someone or to something, even if you are well intentioned, it’s likely that your message will be lost. People, myself included, tend to get defensive when they are challenged or criticized. It’s a natural and expected reaction. The way around this is to be respectful in the way you comment. I want to know if I am wrong about something, but I certainly don’t want to be called stupid.

I don’t censor comments on my blog unless a threat is made or something similar which hardly ever happens. However, it is a poor reflection upon the person who is overly rude or disrespectful to other people who are willing to share comments and advice.

I certainly don’t expect everyone to get along with each other, but at the very least, I think we should all be respectful to each other and to THINK before we post comments. I can use that reminder from time to time, and I think we can all benefit from treating each other better.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

18 COMMENTS

  1. Well, you are the ONLY ONE domaining blog that does not have censure (thanks God), so we can see different kinds of comments here. Blog with censure, such as domainholdings.com is nothing else just sales bitch. Be proud what you do and keep it as is, please.

  2. This is so TRUE that I was trying to think of a HELPFUL comment about this post that was INSPIRING but I realized it wasn’t NECESSARY because I’m KIND of an asshole.

    Just kidding Elliot I just felt like posting a useless comment. LOL

  3. The changes in the internet landscape are sure to bring passion on both sides. Passion brings good discussions. Going forward, I appreciate Elliot reminding me to “THINK”. I will do better going forward. Best to you all.

  4. Interesting article today.

    I noticed this morning that my posting from yesterday was removed.
    I felt it met the ‘think’ requirement but I guess not.

    So, there is some censorship.

    LOL

    • I deleted the part of my comment you were replying to, so your subsequent comment made no sense without that context. I felt it wouldn’t be fair to you to keep your comment up but delete my comment. I wasn’t censoring so much as cleaning it up.

      Of course, I would not delete a comment from someone else because of their opinion (unless they didn’t have a valid email address). Your comment was complementary.

      This post was written a couple of weeks ago and scheduled for this morning, but I did think about the irony when I was cleaning it up 🙂

      That said, I restored your comment.

  5. “This post was written a couple of weeks ago and scheduled for this morning”

    So what happens if someone like DShame or DomainGang posted the same content of this “THINK” article?

    All your effort will be wasted.

    Again , the irony is not to “THINK” but just write how you feel at the MOMENT( oh yea there is the song by pit bull)

    • So what happens if someone like DShame or DomainGang posted the same content of this “THINK” article?

      I would assume it was satire 🙂

  6. It can be difficult to have all 5 or even 4 with so many topics of discussion, especially on heated topics such as GTLD’s, but I understand where you coming from and I will certainly try to do better.. And I commend you for not censoring posts like one particular forum does.

    We have agreed and disagreed on many occasions, and where we have our most disagreements I manage to leave the discussion with an increasing respect for you, which is hard not to do when you counter with strong points in a respectful manner.. I do wish you kept better company but I don’t hold that against you, I get the whole “you scratch my back I scratch yours”… Keep doing what your doing and you’ll have the highest ranked blog in the industry, if you don’t already.

    Peace

  7. We don’t cross paths that often I think (unless you’ve suddenly taken up attending ICANNs), but I definitely need to buy you a pint at the next mutually attended conference. TRAFFIC vegas?

  8. How can you call all people that are helping to stop all the absolutely necessary class actions against google and Icann firstly? All censors are helping to stop those class actions with their censorship

  9. Many of your collegues with blogs censor posts speaking about some points that could hurt the interests of the big boys, from google to parking platforms to large domain portfolio etc.

    They censor even very respectful and polite comments if those comments are against the interest of those people/interests

  10. I see its applicability in all aspects of communication. Not just comments, but also, posts and verbal communications. But, they say, Thinking is the hardest discipline.

  11. If you want, this is the classification of “Bloggers of Honor” (within a short time I think a Prize should be created):

    1) Konstantinos Zournas
    2) Elliot Silver
    3) Rick Schwartz
    4) Mark Hershiser

    at a certain distance

    5) Andrew Allemann

    all the others…

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