Interacting with This Blog

[collingwest]

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I’ve mentioned the idea of building community in several of my last posts. Today, I’m going to focus on how readers can do just that, right here at this blog. There are several options for readers who want to take the next step: commenting, sending messages, reposting the content elsewhere, and interacting with me on social media.

The first, and perhaps most important, aspect of this blog’s community features is the fact that I welcome comments of nearly all types: supportive, skeptical and even silly. The only exception to this rule is that I’m not interested in either “spam” comments (as of this writing I’ve already had to delete a handful) or comments whose sole purpose is self-promotion. For this reason, in my Comments & Contacts terms I request that comments remain on-topic. I should clarify, though, that my definition of “on topic” is pretty broad; as a general rule, if a commenter is behaving themselves, chances are good that I’ll approve the comment. The definition of “good behavior” is also fairly broad, but to be clear, I don’t tolerate verbal attacks, defamation or harassment. Further, in most cases, I will report illegal content to the appropriate authorities.

For those who are not comfortable participating in comments — or who would like to request that I write about something specific — I also have a Contact Form which readers may use to send an email. All contacts will get a response within three or four days. Please note that there’s a question on the form asking permission to quote the email in a blog post. Make sure you answer it, because I assume that emails and messages about the blog, or its content, can be quoted on the blog. I’ll need to know if that’s not the case for your message. There’s also an option where I’ll quote you, but without attribution.

Another way to interact is to repost my content elsewhere. As a general rule, if you aren’t doing it for profit and if you attribute the material (preferably with a link back to the site), I do not have any problem with that; in fact, I consider it a compliment so let me say “thank you” in advance! This said, I have no patience for plagiarism and content theft; both will result in repercussions to the full extent of what I am allowed to do. Further, if I catch someone “hotlinking,” I may change the link in question in order to corrupt the intent. For any of these behaviors, I may also contact the violator’s site host to alert them about my objections.

I do not mind links to the blog so long as it is understood that (a) I will only reciprocate with a link back if I find your content compelling and (b) I’m not endorsing anything by linking to it. I also don’t consider your link to me to be an endorsement, and don’t expect a link back if I link to you. If you discover I’m linking to you and would prefer I don’t, just let me know and I’ll take the link down.

Another common method of interaction on blogs is guest posts. As of right now, since I’m working on building my own content, I am not soliciting these. This may change in the future, however, so if you think your idea is absolutely spot-on or if you’re interested in something collaborative, drop me a line anyway. The worst that will happen is a polite “no, thank you.”

For those who are interested in interacting with me on social media, I’m most frequently found on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; all of my profiles on these sites link back here and I can be found at those sites several times a week. To a lesser extent, I also participate on a few other social media sites, but as of right now, between this blog, my full-time job and the myriad other aspects of my life, my time is pretty well taken. As a result I don’t anticipate an increase in social media participation, beyond my current levels, anytime in the near future. I should also mention that Twitter is where I expect to do the majority of my interactions.

The bottom line is this: if you’d like to interact, please feel free to reach out. If you’d prefer to just read for right now, that’s fine too. I plan to start linking to and promoting this blog’s posts beginning November 1, and I’m excited to see what contacts and community may result!

Originally posted at https://collingwest.blog/2021/interacting-with-this-blog/.