I
douubted if I would actually use this page before I uploaded it as a
few of my friends
I'd shown it to thought it was a bit harsh. Unfortunately since then a
number of people
have done exactly what I think you shouldn't do when signing a
guestbook
so I have decided now is the time to make my feelings on the subject
known.
If you are someone who uses GB's in the proper manner (bless you) there
is no need for you to read any further.
You can
just go on to my guestbooks:
I think guestbooks are great I really
do. One
thing that I really like is that they provide a wonderful platform for
surfing around the web going from one good site to another through
links
left in the guestbooks. The way I do this is I surf through a guestbook
seeking out the good messages as a starting point to visiting another
site.
What do I mean by "good" messages? Simple really ... I mean messages
which
are positive and show an interest in the site, these are the kind of
messages
that entice me to visit the site of the person who has signed the book.
The main function of a guestbook is
for you to
leave comments about the site in general or particular pages to the
creator
of the site, unfortunately too often this wonderful feature is abused.
People wrongfully using guestbooks usually do it in one of two ways ...
they verbally attack the owner of the site or they leave a one line
message
similar to this: "great site, visit mine k"
which should read "I have absolutely no interest
in your site and didn't take the time to look at anything here but I
still
want you to come and look at my site and make wonderful comments in my
guestbook". NOBODY likes this kind of
message
in their guestbook if you didn't care enough to be interested in me why
should I give a hoot about you or your site?
Having
said all that here are some tips on signing my book:
1.Any
posts which are overly critical in a non-constructive manner will be
deleted.
I think criticism can be really useful, I also think it can be done in
a reasonably constructive manner but if your criticism is something to
the tune of "your site sucks"
that
is not helpful. Constructive criticism should be accompanied by
reasons
for why you think my site sucks and maybe some reasonable suggestions
for
improvements. Any overly critical non constructive posts WILL be
deleted.
2.Multiple
identical posts (except for the first one) will be deleted. Filling up
peoples guestbooks with the same post over and over again is a form of
Guestbook abuse and will not be tolerated. I do realise that more often
than not multiple posts are an accident and if this is the case with
you
please don't take the deletion personally, it's simply a matter of
saving
space in the guestbook (and keeping it tidy ...yeah I'm anally
retentive,
so what..., lol). On a side note unique multiple posts by the
same
visitor are fine (providing they abide by the other guidelines). I have
only now realised that the yahoo guestbook only allows a very small
comments
space so I have recently added a bravenet guestbook for people wishing
to leave longer messages. The Bravenet book also allows HTML and images.
3.Nasty
abusive messages, and those with excessive "colourful language" will be
deleted. My guestbook is here for you to tell me what you think of my
site,
not for you to make personal criticisms of me, how I am living my life,
or what I think.
4.I
am the last person qualified to judge what makes a good website,
accordingly
I have not to date made a critical comment in anyone's guestbook. If
however
one day I do make a constructive criticism or someone for some
unexplained
reason, takes offence to something I write in their guestbook and
decides
to use my guestbook to "get back at me" I will delete their post. As
per
#3 my guestbook is here for you to tell me what you think of my site,
be
that with compliments or with constructive, non-abusive criticism. It's
not a place for you to wage a personal war on me.
.
5.
I try to keep this site relatively family friendly therefore my
Guestbook is not the place for you to advertise your P.O.R.N site or
anything else of a questionable nature. Any posts with references to
the above topic or any posts containing the names of genetalia
(scientific or slang) will be removed immediately. I think most people
know what is and isn't appropriate, if you don't perhaps you need to be
removed from the gene pool.
6.
Like I said in the intro my guestbook is not here for the sole purpose
of advertising your site. I love the fact that guestbooks do get
exposure
for peoples sites but that is not the only thing they're here
for.
I too hope that by signing guestbooks people will see my URL &
visit
me but I don't sign the guestbook on every site I visit purely to draw
visitors to my site, I sign the books of sites that I like and that I
want
to compliment the owner on. Signing every book you find with a one
liner
is not a good method of advertising, visitors who see one liners in
other
guestbooks are unlikely to say "wow I
want
to visit their site" . Any post that
consists
of anything along the lines of the following: "cool,
visit my site" and a URL or banner is not
what people like to see in their guestbooks. If you post that in my
book
I will:
a) NOT
visit
your site and
b) delete
your
post.
Finally:
Leave
a nice comment and if you're lucky
you
just
might get a visit and a nice comment back!
Click the
next arrow for My Guestbooks: