How to Write a Comment Policy Your Audience Respects

A comment policy is a short list of rules you can point to when you remove something. Written well, it turns moderation from a personal grudge into a house rule everyone can see.

Write it once, pin it, and link it in your descriptions. The goal is not to control people. The goal is to make the boundaries obvious so most people never cross them.

Keep it to a handful of rules

• Be decent to each other. No slurs, threats, or harassment.
• Argue about ideas, not about people.
• No spam, self promotion dumps, or link drops.
• Stay on topic. Off topic threads get moved or removed.
• Repeated rule breaking leads to a block, not a debate.

Say what happens when a rule breaks

People respect a policy that is honest about consequences. Say plainly that some comments get removed, some get held for review, and some accounts get blocked. No vague warnings about good behavior.

A tiered approach works best. First a removal, then a warning, then a block. This gives honest people room to correct course and gives bad actors no room to pretend they were surprised.

A policy you never enforce is just decoration. A policy you enforce inconsistently is worse than none at all.

Enforce it the same way every time

The fastest way to lose a community is to delete a comment from someone you dislike and leave the same comment from a friend. People notice. They remember.

Write your rules broad enough to cover the obvious cases and concrete enough to apply without a long debate. When a new edge case shows up, update the policy and note the change.

You do not need a legal team. You need three clear lines and the will to hold them.

Key takeaways

• A policy makes moderation a rule, not a mood.
• Keep it to five short lines and pin it.
• State the consequence for each kind of rule break.
• Apply the same standard to friends and strangers.