As a community, being supportive and respectful is the best way to help people overcome any shyness or self-consciousness about publishing something on the internet. However so many comments on posts are more like “This is great” or “this is not great” or “Very interesting.”
To contribute to a supportive and lively digital conversation, here are some guidelines for commenting on someone’s work at this site:
- Everyone loves a really specific compliment. “This resource’s focus on zoning clarifies some of the main issues that De Blasio is dealing with now. For example ….” is not only awesome to receive as a compliment but also reinforces good habits such as using specific examples!
- Don’t nitpick. Your/you’re, their/there — these are most likely typos or simple mistakes! However, if you see “Robert Carro” vs. “Robert Caro,” then an email to the author or even a comment the next time you see them more helpful than even a well-intentioned comment like “It’s spelled Feynman :)”
- Don’t play devil’s advocate. If you disagree with an opinion, remember that you’re disagreeing with a real person that you will see for the rest of the semester. Keep any comments short and to-the-point: “I tend to disagree with the perspective that historical districts raising rents offsets maintains a community’s character but this provides a really smart counter-argument.”
- If you strongly disagree with some aspect of another post and find yourself writing a really long comment, then write your own post. Link back to the post that you disagree with and then write your perspective. Remember to be respectful and that you’re disagreeing with ideas rather than people.
More help here: Grammar Girl, “How to Write a Great Blog Comment: Nine Simple Rules for Writing Great Comments,” March 2009.