I'm with Meryl on this one...

<Rant>

An open letter to anyone who wants to use my comment board to troll for traffic, promote an agenda or for any other purpose not even tangentially related to the current treppenwitz entry:

Dear Self-Absorbed Commenter,

Do I know you?  Have you ever visited my site before?  Have you ever commented here before?  Am I even listed on your blogroll?

If the answer to most or all of those questions is a resounding 'no', then what would give you the idea that it would be OK to just show up here without so much as a "Hello, nice blog you have here..." , and start posting external links on my comments board?

Please don't take the fact that I deleted your comment as an indication that your petition, blog post, manifesto or personal prophesy direct-from-G-d-Almighty is unworthy of publicity.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  In fact, I'm certain that whatever you were linking to is far more important than any of the vacuous crap I churn out here very day. 

But manners are important too, and by spamming my comment board you have exhibited a shocking lack of them.

Let's make a deal, mmmkay?  If you have a post that supports or disproves something I have written here and you are a regular part of the discussions here on treppenwitz, by all means feel free to post a link.  Such external references immeasurably enhance the quality and scope of the discussions.  Same goes for something you may have seen on a news or commentary site that directly relates to the topic at hand... please feel free to share.

But I work hard to churn out the vacuous crap that appears here on a semi-regular basis... and dagnabbit, my comment board isn't there to help drive people over to look at your brand of vacuous crap!  It's there so people can discuss my vacuous crap!

Love,

'Treppie'

</Rant>

In a recent post, Meryl Yourish discussed her ire at people who exhibit some or all of the anti-social behavior I've mentioned above.  I couldn't agree with her more!  Smart lady that she is, she's even gone and posted a list of rules for commenters... something I keep meaning to do but never seem to actually get around to.  That and updating my 'about me' page are at the very top of my 'to do' list.  Really.

Anyway, I recently received a polite email from a reader who asked if I could check out a site with which he is involved.  The email was cordial and informative (and addressed only to me!) and described the content of his site quite nicely.  He then went on to say that if I thought it might be of interest to readers of treppenwitz, perhaps I'd post a link.

See, that's how it's done. He said hello... he related to me as both a person and a blogger/journaler... and he left it up to me to decide whether the content of his site might be of interest to my readers.  Pure class!

As a reward for such exemplary behavior and adherence to netiquette, I am pleased to post a link to a fantastic free site that is a goldmine for anyone seeking to increase their vocabulary of fully conjugated Hebrew verbs.

Go learn something new!