Many indie authors I know maintain blogs like this, and those blogs almost always have comments enabled, where other indie authors (or random passers-by) can put in their two cents on the topic at hand. This is no surprise, right? You've surely seen plenty of them. Blogging is another way to get your writing out there, and to share your views, and to promote things (like books) that you want to promote. Whether you like it or not, though, your blog is another way to affect your reputation, both positively and negatively. It depends on how you write and how you behave. If you write poorly, or behave poorly, your reputation will suffer (especially if you have a solid reading audience for your blog).
Integrity is a value we like to see in others, and hopefully we aspire to demonstrate it in ourselves. Integrity, according to the dictionary, is a firm adherence to a code of values. It does not condone hypocrisy or falsehood; integrity implies honesty, trustworthiness, and so forth. Integrity can be demonstrated in your behavior online as well as offline; certainly, it can be demonstrated in how you behave on your blog or that of others.
This all comes to mind today because, amid a discussion with a blogger who posted in anger about something – a matter where her information was wrong and where she might not have been as angry if she understood the facts – the blogger deleted my comments where I was trying to inform her of the facts. Did she acknowledge any value in my responses, or re-evaluate her position? No, she just deleted my comments, and blamed my commenting for disabling future comments. It's not like my comments were advertising herbal cures or get-rich schemes, nor was I promoting my books or Web projects. They were on-topic comments specifically addressing her post, with the intent of informing her and her readers of some easily-demonstrated facts. But because she didn't agree, she deleted my comments and the valid, easily-proved information in them.
