Commenting on other forums: Things to avoid

I have been hammered right from when I started blogging that putting comments on like minded forums will result in getting a higher traffic for your forum. This is of course true, but even in this there are some rules to follow and some things to avoid. Remember the forum users are also individuals like yourself and your conduct in any forum should be similar to your conduct during meeting any other person - you should never forget etiquette.

• Username in a forum: Your username in a forum should be human like only. You should avoid using names like moneymaker, moneyspinner etc., that give impression that you are not a serious contributer but an opportunist. As far as possible use your real name or at least use a human name, if you are uncomfortable disclosing your true identity.

• Terse comments: While in a community don't give terse one word comments like Good, Bad, etc., just to add to your number of comments. This also puts a question mark on your seriousness. You should always participate fully in the discussions and any half hearted participation gives a feeling of alienation to the other users and moderators can even ban your id from further participation.

• Your Blog URL: You should only add a link to your blog in the post only if its relevant to the subject matter or you want people to read a particular post that has similar subject. Do not put in the link even of the topic being discussed has no relation to the subject matter of your blog.

• Make comments only after reading the other posts: This has been seen that some people will make comments just by reading the topic and without bothering to read other comments. This leads to a situation when the same comment is being repeated over and over again by different users and this adds no value to the discussion. Some forums have been very strict on this and have banned people just because of this.

• Consistency: Some people are known to put in their comments diligently in the beginning but lose interest once their names start figuring in the top contributors. This smacks of egoistic nature and should be avoided. Remember that you are dealing with humans here and you should follow the normal behavior which you will do when dealing with actual people.

• Impersonation: This almost borders on criminal behavior when you put in your comments in a blog but use the name of a rival blog or website. This is to be discourages at all costs and if you find someone doing it please report this to the forum moderators.

Therfore, Think before you post anything...

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