Story Comments Dos and Donts

DO offer encouragement and support.

If you believe the person would benefit from some sort of professional help, say so in a kind and considerate manner. "Have you considered talking to a counsellor?" will usually garner a much more positive response than outright telling the person "Go talk to a therapist."

DO provide understanding and empathy.

By all means relate to the story submitter, but not at the expense of invalidating what the person has lived through. Remember to make your comments about the other person. If you need to share your own personal story, I welcome you to become a contributor and submit your own story of abuse.

DO address each story based on what the story contributor wrote.

Tailor your comments rather than saying the same thing to every person who submits a story.

DO reply back through the Comments Form.

If some has written you a comment, by all means reply back, but only if it feels comfortable to do so.

DO contact me if you believe someone has posted a comment that you find offensive or in some way inappropriate the Report Inappropriate Comments box.

I read every comment before it goes live on my site. And I do monitor comments for inappropriate content; such comments are then deleted. However, I may miss something that you find offensive.

DON'T take it personally if a story contributor does not reply back to your comments.

Sometimes a story submitter is not in a position, either physically or emotionally, to offer a reply. Be respectful of the privacy wishes of story contributors.

DON'T try to "make it all better" for the story submitter.

Since there is no "making it all better", it's best not to try. Instead, offer supportive and encouraging remarks.

DON'T share personal information in your comments.

I want everyone to stay safe. Since I cannot control who visits this site or the personal agenda of those who visit this site, the inclusion of phone numbers, email and home addresses, etc. is strictly prohibited. They will be removed.

DON'T include website or blog URLs.

As Webmaster, I scrutinize all URLs for appropriateness BEFORE they appear anywhere on my site. And search engines severely punish websites that post links to sites that are either inferior or deemed inappropriate. Since I do not have the time resources to scrutinize other sites that appear in comments pages for appropriateness, the inclusion of URLs in comments is prohibited. Please understand that URLs will be stripped from comments regardless of how appropriate you may believe them to be.