Organisations are nervous about blogs. Many refuse to allow any commenting on posts because they are scared that a comment might colour their public image, or may lead to legal action because it is libelous.  We have decided to allow moderated comments on this blog. Why? We feel it is important for students to be able to interact but we are also aware that the actions of a few might lead to the blog being withdrawn.  International students asked for this blog, let’s keep it.

Remember:

Comments are public. You may prefer to email us instead.

Libelous comments will not be published but constructive negative comments will.

Personal attacks against other contributors will not be published.

The following is a useful guide:

Leaving a comment on someone’s weblog is like walking into their living room and joining in on a conversation. As in real life, online there are some people who are a pleasure to converse with, and some who are not. Good blog commenters add to the discussion and are known as knowledgeable, informative, friendly and engaged. Build your own online social capital and become a great blog commenter by keeping these simple guidelines in mind before you post.

Stay on topic.

Bloggers enable comments on specific blog posts to hear more about the content of the post. Don’t change the subject. There’s nothing more annoying than seeing a comment on a post about Hurricane Katrina that reads, “By the way, do you know anything about turtles?”

Contribute new information to the discussion.

Twelve people saying the same exact thing in one comment thread is useless and irritating. Before you comment, read the entire thread and make sure your comment offers something new to the conversation. If you don’t have the time or patience to read an entire thread, then don’t comment at all. The longer a comment thread the more likely someone has already said what you’re thinking, and the less likely it is to be read by future visitors anyway.

Don’t comment for the sake of commenting.

Commenters who only say “First!” or “Nice site” on an open thread have no business hitting that “Post” button at all. Further, only spammers comment for the sake of adding their name and URL to a web page. Useless comments will gain you the reputation for being a useless commenter.

Know when to comment and when to e-mail.

A weblog comment is a public one-to-many communication within the context of a blog post. An e-mail is a private interaction. A weblog comment that reads, “Oh yeah, that link is cool. By the way, how’s your sister?” doesn’t contribute to the public conversation and belongs in an e-mail message to the author instead.

Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all.

The best kind of comments come from thoughtful, knowledgeable people who add more information about a topic. However, tongue-lashings from condescending smartypants will go over as well on someone’s blog as they would in that someone’s living room. Expect to get shown the door in the form of the delete button. When fact-checking, pointing out a typo or dead link or asserting a dissenting opinion, do it in a respectful, friendly way.

Make the tone of your message clear.

No one can hear the tone of your voice or see your facial expression online. Sarcasm, in-jokes and exaggerations can easily be taken the wrong way in a public forum. Remember that a simple colon and a parentheses can change the meaning of a sentence entirely. Use emoticons or additional information to communicate the spirit of your message.

Own your comment.

Anonymous commenting, while sometimes necessary, can be seen as cowardly. Build your identity and own your words by placing your name and weblog address on your comments wherever possible.

Be succinct.

Longwinded lectures are for college professors, not blog comments. Stay short and to the point. Everyone appreciates brevity.

Cite your sources with links or inline quoting.

To comment on specific bits of a blog post, copy and paste the lines in question and add your response below each section. If you’re referencing information located elsewhere, provide a short summary and a link to your source so others can click through for more information at their discretion.

Be courteous.

Chances are something someone says in a comment or post is going to irk you. Still, personal attacks are unacceptable, useless and can quickly degrade a discussion to a third grade “Yo Mama” flamefest. Resist the urge, and be respectful and objective at all times.

Don’t post when you’re angry, upset, drunk or emotional.

There’s no taking back a published blog comment – once you post, it’s there for everyone to see and for Google to cache. Remember, you’re not going to show your best face in the heat of an emotional moment. If you find yourself angrily typing a message into someone’s blog comment box – STOP. Get up. Take a breath. Walk around. Give it a day. Revisit the thread when your head is clear. This goes doubly for public blog comments as it does for private e-mail messages.

Do not feed or tease the trolls.

No matter how many articles like this get written, there will always be people who surf around the Internet and inject pointless vindictiveness into any available textarea. Don’t let the terrorists win. Do NOT acknowledge these people with refutations, disagreements or even a mention of their screen name.

Source

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Accessibility Statement

We are attempting to make our website as accessible as possible to all users, including those with visual impairment and those using slower connections. We are doing this in the following ways:

• Minimum use of graphics – We want our site to look nice, but content is our priority
• ALT texts for important graphics – Graphics without ALT text tend to be unimportant fillers
• Avoiding frames and javascript wherever possible – Where these are used, we are working on alternatives
• Sensible use of tables – Although we occasionally use tables for layout, we try to ensure that the information can be read unambiguously when table tags are stripped out
• Use of scalable text – We do not use a fixed font size so that you can increase size of the text using your browser options

If you have any comments on the accessibility of our website or would like to make suggestions about how we can improve it, please email us.

External Links

Throughout this blog there are links to websites whose content is outside our control. The inclusion of links on these pages in no way constitutes a recommendation of the services or information provided. Please use your own judgement and be especially wary of any service which asks you to pay! Be cynical. No responsibility will be taken by, the Unversity of London, or The Careers Group, for loss or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from the use of services or information provided by the maintainers of these links.

Not all websites offering a CV bank guarantee confidentiality of personal details like address and telephone number. Please be cautious.

Every effort is made to maintain the accuracy of the information in these pages. However, things change all the time. If you discover any out of date links or you know of other links which should be included on this website, please let us know.

Copyright Statement

This website, including all content, images, video and other media herein contained, is Copyright The Careers Group, University of London.

No part of this website may be copied without written consent from The Careers Group. Media downloaded from The Careers Group is for personal use and may not be made available by any third party on any other website, or any other media format without written consent from The Careers Group.

Liability and Support

The Careers Group will not support any media that is downloaded from The Careers Group website, and will not be held liable for any damages incurred from downloading or installing said media.

Third party sites and Vacancies disclaimer

The Careers Group, University of London, and all its subscribing college careers services, make every effort to ensure organisations listed in our information websites, emails, noticeboards and publications are bonafide.

However, we are unable to verify details in their entries and cannot guarantee their accuracy. We strongly recommend you check fully before applying in all cases

This site is published by Andrew Falconer, International Student Careers Adviser, Careers Service, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX