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!

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