Read the Roolz!

March 18, 2014 • 9:30 am

I don’t know how often I have to tell new commenters (or remind the old commenters) to read the rules for posting on this website (“Da Roolz!” posted on the sidebar, or here).

See where they are?

Screen shot 2014-03-18 at 11.27.41 AM

I will try to make this more obvious, perhaps changing the name to “Rules for commenting on this site”. But at any rate, every reader, new or old, should know these. I am continuing to get violations, ranging from people complaining about being censored when I haven’t yet approved their first comment, to people who are asking me to publicize their causes, or telling me that one of their suggestions “would make a good post.” Hey, guys, don’t do that!

Back to business as usual. . .

23 thoughts on “Read the Roolz!”

  1. I see it’s not linked from anywhere very near the comment box itself. Do you think that would help? (Or is the problem that the people who need to read it don’t read?)

  2. OK, question. I have been sending you things, mostly cat related. Personally, I’m just sharing for your amusement. If you want to post a photo or a cat-related link, well, you know the other readers better than I do.

    Are we not supposed to send things to you unless they are wildlife photos?

    1. No, no. Readers are welcome to send me anything that might interest me or other readers. It dooesn’t have to be wildlife photos. All I ask is that people refrain from applying pressure when they do so, like saying, “This would make a good post for your site.”

  3. Not even going to lie, I clicked the red text “Read the Rules” underneath Twitter Updates at least three times before I clicked “Da Roolz”.

    I think I need a cup of tea.

  4. Maybe Jerry should send this to naught rule violators (what Neo’s boss told him):

    You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson. You believe you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously, you are mistaken.

    😀

  5. Don’t change the name to “Rules for commenting on this site”.

    “Da Roolz!” is much cooler. Plus, no other website has it! 🙂

  7. Ah no I sent Dr. Coyne something for the first time a few days ago. I don’t think I said anything like “this would make a good post,” but now I am second guessing myself. I’ll have to check my outbox now (sorry if I did use that phrase). More proofreading necessary!

    1. He does read a lot of these things. I send him a couple of things a week (I guess) which I think he may find interesting, or even post-worthy, say why I think they’re relevant to the site (well …) and leave it to him. I get around an email back each month, showing that he does read these things, though I don’t get a submission in that often.
      I preface the subjects with “[WEIT]” so that he can ignore them until lunch/ coffee/ whenever. Or even auto-filter them into the bit-bucket.

  8. I love the discipline on this site. But I can see how a new poster would not even notice the Roolz link on the sidebar.

    I wonder if adding a “NEW HERE? READ THIS” above or below it would help?

    (I would still expect a lot of newcomers to ignore it; in general, sidebars are not mandatory reading for anyone…)

    1. I think davidgerard (#1 above) has a good suggestion; a remark next to “Post a Comment” would help. However, I suspect that WordPress may not permit a change in that area.

      1. Totally agree. But had also already arrived at the conclusion in your last sentence.

        Jerry’s such a big draw, though, I wonder if he can throw his weight around with the good people at WP? 😀

        (Something like an automatically issued return email to a first-time poster would be cool, too. It could explain the wait for moderation and suggest a look at Da Roolz. I should think that would come in handy for a lot of WP bl*g authors.)

        1. Yep, email idea is good. I love the cool smiley – I can never remember which way to do them here, so I’ll try a few tests 🙂 🙂 😀 😀

          Cheers,

          Colin.

          2. Banal as it is, I hated the old WP smilies. Love the new ones. My prayers have been answered. 😉 <–test

  9. Too many cats and boots!! But I am not complaining. Sometimes I love the food entries. But if the food entry makes me start to salivate and get hunger pains, that can be painful. Especially Chinese and BBQ. Fortunately, there is a good BBQ place not far from me so that solves part of the problem.
    http://www.elginbbqpit.com/
    Unfortunately, no good Chinese. Just the standard stir fry lathered in brown sauce. Have to head into Chinatown to take care of that craving.

    Seriously, thank you for the html lesson in 14. I have been guilty of violating that rule – and it bothers me. I was too lazy to figure out how to get just a link and not an embedded video. Of course this means that there is a reward to sloth – just wait long enough and someone else will take care of the problem.

    1. Rule 14 – I keep a copy of the HTML formulation in a notepad which lives on my desktop so any time I want to include a link, I can just copy and paste the HTML and change the appropriate bits. Note that I find in WordPress that I have to delete the quotation marks around “URL” each time and replace them with the ones above “2” on my keyboard – d*g knows why!

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