Blogspot Tutorial: Add Comment Posting Guidelines in Blogger

This tutorial will explain how you can add some guidelines right above the comment form. These guidelines could be helpful to encourage users to post constructive comments and also stop spamming.

For example, check out this image taken from Smashing Magazine [See Image].

Let's Add Some Guidelines in Blogger

You can also add some text above the comment form in Blogger. To do that, follow these steps:

1- Log in to your Blogger account.

2- Go to Layout then Edit HTML tab.

3- Check Expand Widget Templates, the page will automatically reload.

4- Find the following line of code:

<h4 id='comment-post-message'><data:postCommentMsg/></h4>

5- Place your guidelines right after the above code but make sure you follow some tips given later in this tutorial.

Some Useful Tips!

1- Use polite and kind words in these guidelines.

2- If you've enabled comment moderation (?) then you must mention to users that their comments won't appear immediately.

3- You can also place a warning message to spammers.

4- If you're using more than one line than you must add <br/> tag after every line. This tag will insert a line-break, for example if you've added some lines like:

<h4 id='comment-post-message'><data:postCommentMsg/></h4>

Posting Guidelines:

1- This is the first line.
2- This is the second line.
3- This is the third line.

When you'll view your blog, you'll see this result:

<h4 id='comment-post-message'><data:postCommentMsg/></h4>Posting Guidelines:1- This is the first line.2- This is the second line.3- This is the third line.

So, for correct placement you must add <br/> tags like this:

<h4 id='comment-post-message'><data:postCommentMsg/></h4><br/>

Posting Guidelines:<br/>

1- This is the first line.<br/>
2- This is the second line.<br/>
3- This is the third line.<br/>

I hope that this tutorial would be helpful for you in some way. If you've any suggestion, request or advice, feel free to post a comment, thanks :-)