Commenting is like leaving your calling card at someone’s blog. Many times, it is your chance to make a first impression. And remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

Here are some general things you should and should not do when commenting:

• Do keep your comments thoughtful. If you are going to comment, make sure that you actually read the post first. Don’t leave just a two-word “great post” or similar comment.
• Don’t leave spam comments. A spam comment is when you just troll for people to come visit your blog. Spam comments look something like this. “Love your blog. You should come visit my blog and enter my giveaway or read my newest posts.” However, if you’ve written a similar post that you think the blog’s author would enjoy, do feel free to let them know about it and include a link.
• Do remember that comments are public. Don’t say something in a comment that you wouldn’t want others to read.
• Do act like an adult. Differing opinions are wonderful and most blogs can benefit from a little healthy debate. But be respectful. Don’t attack the writer, use inappropriate language, or insult other commenters.
• Don’t share personal information. If you know the blogger personally and they keep their blog somewhat incognito, don’t mention real names or locations without permission first. Do remember to respect the privacy of the blogger.
• Don’t take it personally if your comment gets deleted. A blogger has a right to do what they want on their own blog. If you really have something important to share or to add to the conversation, do go ahead and try again with a re-written comment.

Do you stick to any certain personal rules when commenting? Have you ever commented just to “get credit” for the comment? How do you feel when you receive comments like that?

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

• Tweet – Another word for a 140-character update.
• Tweeps/Tweeple – Short for “twitter people.” Your friends and followers in the twitter community.
• Hashtag – A hashtag is used to keep track of a topic that many people are talking about. The hashtag is the pound sign (#) followed by the chosen descriptive word of the topic. As an example, during the Blissdom conference, whenever someone wrote something about the conference, they would end their tweet with this – #blissdom09.
• DM – Stands for direct message. You can send a direct message to any of your twitter followers. DMs are private between the sender and receiver.
• RT – Stands for Re-Tweet. A retweet is when you copy and paste something someone else said and tweet it yourself. When you retweet, it is common to put RT followed by the original tweeters name and the tweet.
• Fail Whale – When something goes wrong on the backend of twitter, or when too many people are using it at the same time, you will automatically be redirected to the page shown below. That is called the “Fail Whale.”