Comments Policy

Last updated: September 15, 2026

Comments let readers add experience, questions and corrections to our coverage, and many of the best follow-up stories start there. This policy explains how commenting works on TechEngage® and what we expect from everyone who takes part. It works alongside our Community Guidelines.

1. What makes a good comment

• Adds something: real experience with a product, a thoughtful question, a counterpoint or a useful detail the article missed.
• Stays on topic: it relates to the article it appears under.
• Disagrees with ideas, not people: criticism of our reporting is welcome when it is specific and civil.

If you only want to say thanks, sharing the article on social media is a great way to do it.

2. Comment rules

Comments must:

1. be relevant to the article;
2. be written in English;
3. be respectful, with no personal attacks, harassment, threats, hate speech or slurs;
4. not contain spam, advertising, affiliate links, SEO links or unsolicited promotion of your own products or services;
5. not include malicious links, executable code or attempts to break the site;
6. not share anyone’s personal information, including phone numbers, addresses or email addresses, and not ask for contact details of our staff or other readers;
7. not infringe copyright, for example by pasting whole articles from other publications;
8. not impersonate another person, company or TechEngage staff member; and
9. not be posted repeatedly or copied across multiple articles.

3. How moderation works

• Spam filtering: every comment is checked by Akismet, an automated spam filter. Comments it flags as spam are not published.
• Human review: a first comment from a new name and email address is held until a moderator approves it. Once you have an approved comment, later comments may appear right away, but they can still be removed.
• Timing: we review comments as quickly as we can, but it may take some time, especially on weekends.
• Our decisions: we may edit a comment for length, formatting or to remove personal information, and we may decline or remove comments that break this policy. Repeated or serious violations can lead to a ban on future comments.

Comments may be closed on some articles, for example very old posts or topics that attract abuse.

4. Reporting a comment or error

If you see a comment that breaks these rules, email [email protected] with a link to the article and the commenter’s name. If a comment points out a factual error in our article, we will review it under our Corrections Policy. Story tips are best sent through Tip Us rather than posted publicly.

5. Your name and identity

You may comment under your real name or a consistent display name, but not one that impersonates someone else or contains a link or brand name for promotion. We do not verify the identity of commenters. You are responsible for what you post, and opinions in comments belong to their authors, not to TechEngage.

6. Data we collect from comments

When you comment, we store your comment, the name and email address you enter, the optional website you add, your IP address and your browser user agent. Your email address is never published. We use this information to display and moderate comments and to fight spam, which includes sending it to Akismet for checking. If you have a Gravatar profile linked to your email address, your profile image may appear next to your comment. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.

To have a comment edited or deleted, email [email protected] from the address you used when commenting, with a link to the comment. We may keep limited records where the law requires or to prevent abuse, and we will provide comment data to authorities only when legally required.

7. Contact us

Questions about this policy or a moderation decision can be sent to [email protected].