When you travel in different countries you may want to learn about the local customs and etiquette. Depending on the country and customs you may inadvertently insult people you wish to communicate with, or even get into serious trouble yourself.
For example, in Saudi Arabia a man should not ask a Saudi man about his wife. Instead he may inquire about his family since in general most Saudi wives are never seen by an unrelated Saudi man let alone an expat man.
As a part of cyberspace the Blogworld is like a country of its own too, and has its own rules, politeness’s, and etiquette.
I would like to share some of the peculiar rules when engaging into the world of Blogging, both as a blogger, and as a visitor to other blogs.
I sincerely hope that all my esteemed readers and commentators will abide by these rules:
For visitors to blogs:
- Make sure you know what the blog is all about before you start commenting.
- If you want to ask a question, put it in the right post, if it does not pertain to the post, take it to the ”Dear Bedu” page or the Debate Page.
- When commenting, try not to go off-topic!
- Do not yell! (using caps contuniously is like yelling)
- Be polite both in your comments, and in responding to the blog-owner, or other visitors.
- Don’t be a “blog hog” and make too many comments. Leave some space for other visitors.
- A visitor who is rude, or even abusive is called a ”troll”, the best way of dealing with a troll is to ignore them!
- Do not repeat what other visitors have said before you: if somebody has made the remark you wanted to make, and they were there earlier, leave it. Rather than repeat their words, acknowledge that you agree with them.
- It is the blogowner responsibility to respond and greet visitors. Others may welcome a new visitor but choose the words very carefully, mentioning that you are a regular reader and welcoming them to the blog. It should always be clear as to who is the owner of the blog.
- Do not make your comments too long: try to make your point in a few sentences. Longwinded comments tend to get skimmed over by other readers.
- If you are a blogger yourself, your own blog can be accessed by clicking on your name, there is no need advertise your own blog by adding a link to your comments, this is considered ”spamming” in the blogworld.
- Repeating the same comment multiple times is also considered spamming.
- Some visitors may feel they are ‘invisible’ when posting to the blogosphere. However attacking individuals and or characters will NOT be tolerated. It is okay to disagree with what another visitor has commented upon but do so in a respectful manner.
If you find you really enjoy blogging, and sharing your thoughts and views with many people all over the globe, you may decide to start a blog of your own! Most people enter blogging in this way. Here are some rules you will want to keep to when you are a blogowner:
For the Blogowner:
- You really write for yourself, that is the reason most blogs are interesting
- Don’t keep your visitors waiting, write every day or maybe only once a week, but write regularly. If you want regulars to come to your blog they need to know you are reliable and dependable.
- If your blog has a theme, stick to the theme. Remind your readers in a diplomatic way if they tend to go off theme or off post.
- Welcome each new visitor.
- Respond to your visitors when they comment on your blog; they put in effort by writing, give them the respect they deserve.
- Always be polite to your visitors. Remember; if you really don’t like a visitor, you can always block them from your site!
- Be alert to spam, mark those comments as spam, by doing this you are helping other bloggers as well!
- Research your posts, and make it easier for your readers to look up the information for themselves by adding hyperlinks, and/or list your sources,
- Don’t quote other peoples blogposts, or writings, or link to their sites without their permission
- Send trackbacks when you link to a post
- Don’t be longwinded; try to keep your posts short. the Blogworld is like a newspaper; few people read really long posts.
Filed under: culture, Entertainment, friendship, Saudi Arabia, Saudi blogs, Saudi culture, Saudi customs, Saudi Living, Uncategorized Tagged: | blogging, culture, culture shock, customs, KSA, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, Saudi culture, Saudi customs
These tips are very important. They really should be taken by WordPress or other blogging sites to make them under a category called “etiquettes for blogging”
Thank you
@Commentator – welcome and thank you very much! I have no objection to anyone who would like to copy this post.
Thanks Carol, for putting these pertinent points on the table. Most often than not, I have seen people go overboard in trying to comment about every single point,topic raised on your blog. It speaks volumes about ‘insecurity’ and the need to be ‘seen’,’heard’ and such people do not realise that they are hogging someone else’s blog,webspace.
There has been many a time when I have been tempted to comment but in retrospect, delete the comment, because I realised that I am not bringing anything new to the table and do not want to comment for its own sake.
Gotcha!!! If I have broken one, some or all rules at any point in time…I apologize sincerely.
Brilliant set of rules!
I’m sorry, I have used caps before for emphasis, should I not do that? Thank you for the post. =)
Just one thing about “Don’t quote other peoples blogposts, or writings, or link to their sites without their permission.”
I don’t think you need permission to quote someone or link to them.
@Rasputin – thank you for sharing your view and please…I have missed your comments!
@Daifuku – using caps for emphasis is accepted.
@Ahmed – you are correct that if it is public domain you do not need permission. I suggest it as it is a nice courtesy to do so.
Ahmed, I do think it’s an important point; I consider a persons writings as copyright, even if they are out on the internet. Moreover, some people sometimes put some very personal thoughts or experiences on their blogs, it maybe out on the internet, but we all have dear friends and sometimes share stuff. In that case I would consider quoting or linking without permission very rude and inconsiderate.
And I have some blogposts I put in a lot of time, research and work, I would like it if somebody would ask me if they want to use it, and mention my blog as the origin.
And lastly, a blog like Bedu’s is HUGE (oops, caps…) and you may have been writing for the few people who read your blog and whom you know, but if a huge blog suddenly send 3000 strangewrs to your blog that maybe not so nice…
So it may not be legally required, but as good manners, and decent treatment of others, I think it’s a good rule of behaviour.
I think of it like this: the more personal a blog or website, the more the need for a polite request for linking, a site like a news site is on the other side of the compass, and a completely different matter of course.
@Aafke I don’t think that quoting or linking to someone is an infringement on their copyright. Linking and quoting (within some limits) is fair use. Yes, it’s nice to be nice, and it’s good to consider the effect of your actions on others, but that’s common courtesy, not rules that we are bound to follow. The important thing is to give credit, and the way you do it is by linking to the source.
Yes, the most important is credit, but sometimes I really do feel I cannot quote or link without asking permission. 🙂
Ahmed-I agree that accreditation is the most important aspect, as a question of intellectual honesty, intellectual property rights (laws cover the internet including the blogosphere), and courtesy; and that the best way to do so is by linking to the source (which also confirms your own intellectual honesty, and allows for reliable discussion).
Highly personal posts should be password protected, and highly personal blogs (“this is really meant for grammie and grampie, tata and tonton, and all the little ones” or “for my bar buddies back home”) should be password protected. It can be frustrating as a researcher to have this type of blog come up when doing a general search on a specific topic. More general blogs might want to have a password protected personal section off the mainstream posts.
Post hoc password protection of posts and comments should involve, if possible, extension of the password to substantive commentators, to allow them access to their intellectual property.
PS Where a blog owner has specifically stated that an expectation of a request for permission as a courtesy, that should of course be honoured.